Press Release

The World's First Mobile Augmented Reality Special Edition by Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine and metaio

Munich, August 19th, 2010 - The entire issue No 33 of the Süddeutsche Zeitung's supplement magazine (hitting the news stands on August 20th) is dedicated to present its readers with a print media experience never before seen anywhere in this form. In cooperation with Augmented Reality (AR) specialist metaio the entire magazine has been enriched with multimedia content that can be enjoyed by anyone using a smartphone. This makes the SZ magazine the first publication to enhance print media with the attractions and capabilities the digital world has to offer.

The video "AR Special by Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin" can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRceOYbrVzc

The SZ Magazine is renowned for creativity and innovation. Week after week this award winning publication covers stories about unusual opinions and perspectives. Tomorrow's issue, being delivered to over 550,000 households, represents a completely new media experience by combining print with augmented reality overlays as can be seen through a smartphone. With the help of AR technology by metaio, iPhone and Android users can enjoy additional multimedia content simply by pointing their smartphone camera at certain magazine articles.

The cover of the magazine shows Sandra Maischberger, the well-known TV personality, hiding behind her raised hands. When viewed through the smartphone's camera, however, the popular TV host appears smiling cheerfully at the viewer. Inside is a photo "interview without words" with Lena Meyer-Landrut, who recently won the European Song Contest. When looked at through the smartphone little speech bubbles appear with jibes and comments she couldn't help making during the shooting. The famous column of Axel Hacke triggers a fantastic 3D animation by the illustrator Dirk Schmidt. Finally the editors and journalists of the SZ Magazine reveal their favorite spots in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg in a virtual city guide. Readers in those cities, who hold up their smartphone will see the camera view augmented with indicators pointing out restaurants, bars, clubs, shops and hotels around them, courtesy of SZ Magazine.

To enjoy the additional AR content in the SZ Magazine, a smartphone user simply needs to get the free of charge junaio AR browser at the iTunes store or the Android market. junaio contains all the new technologies needed to enjoy this augmented reality experience. Selecting the "SZ-Magazin" channel activates the animation triggered by the magazine content, while the "SZ-Magazin Lieblingsorte" lets you discover the editors' recommendations in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich.

Dr. Dominik Wichmann, editor in chief of the SZ Magazine, comments about the AR special issue: "The SZ Magazine always tries to extend journalistic frontiers. We don't just write about new cultural or technical developments, we practice them. Instead of just reporting on Augmented Reality (AR), we have developed with the help of metaio a magazine issue which for the first time allows our readers to actually experience this new technology within a journalistic format."

Jan Schlink of metaio adds: "Our technology leads to new opportunities for combining and displaying information from different sources. With imagination and creative applications Augmented Reality can not only be fun, but become a real opportunity for news organizations to present interesting content in unusual ways."

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The Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine:

As the magazine supplement of Germany's top quality newspaper, the SZ Magazine delights readers every Friday with creative journalism of the finest order. It fascinates with unequalled graphical representations and tells stories to be remembered. What's more, the magazine manages to present topics from fields that are seldom presented together: life style and quality journalism. Intelligent content side by side with beauty. The SZ Magazine feels at home in both disciplines and combines them with elegance in writing and thought.

About junaio

junaio is metaio's mobile Augmented Reality platform that allows users and developers the ability to create content channels in the real world. Users can flip through channels like entertainment, nightlife, travel and many others and see information digitally displayed around by simply pointing their phone. With junaio's open API, developers can create state of the art Augmented Reality applications. junaio is available as a version for the iPhone and for Android. The Android version includes natural feature tracking which allows image recognition and thus totally new fields of applications, especially in the consumer market.  For more information, please visit: http://www.junaio.com.

About metaio

As the world-wide leader in Augmented Reality technology, metaio develops software products for visual interactive solutions between the real and the virtual world. Based on the software platform Unifeye, 3D-animations can be integrated seamlessly into live-video streams respectively into pictures of the user's real environment. Founded in February 2003, metaio currently employs 70+ people at two different locations. The company is headquartered in Munich with the subsidiary metaio Inc. located in San Francisco USA. metaio has been working with more than 450 renowned customers from different industries and geographical locations. Among them: BMW, Daimler, Siemens, Toyota, Peugeot, EADS, Bertelsmann, KUKA, LEGO, MINI, Popular Science, Focus Features and Volkswagen.