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Skidattl wants to make use of augmented reality to get people to interact with the true world. It’s a story we’ve heard before from AR corporations, particularly as they pit themselves against the possibly isolating effects of virtual reality. But relatively than chasing metaversal Pokémon creatures on the road, Skidattl goals to make use of AR “beacons” to indicate people what’s happening around them.
Randy Marsden, Skidattl co-founder, said they can be like “a Bat-Signal for fun” once the app launches.
Anyone could make a beacon and anyone can see them. Businesses might arrange beacons, which have a one-hour life span, to advertise two-for-one coffee sales, movie times or open bowling lanes. People might shoot up a beacon at a music festival to assist their friends find them in the group. All a user would need to do is scan the horizon with their phone, or eventually with AR glasses, to see an array of beacons at as much as 100 yards of distance, said Marsden.
When Skidattl exhibited as a part of the Battlefield 200 at TC Disrupt last week, the corporate had an AR beacon over its booth to reveal what it’d appear like.
“Of course, you may have a look at a map and say, ‘What’s near me?’ but this pulls you back into the true world,” Marsden told TechCrunch, noting that he’s an Apple alum and a two-time TechCrunch Battlefield finalist for previous corporations — Swype (technically TC50) and Dryft (Disrupt SF 2013).
Skidattl’s AR beacons can be anchored by GPS coordinates in the true world. To locate where a user is in relation to that beacon, Skidattl uses Apple’s AR Geo API, which relies on Street View data. Eventually, Skidattl hopes to also incorporate Google’s ARCore Geospatial API.
“When you launch the app, it’ll inform you to scan the buildings across the road, and inside a number of seconds, it is going to know where you’re,” said Marsden. “And then those beacons are anchored; they don’t move around.”
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When people need to arrange beacons indoors, Skidattl will even use Wi-Fi signals to assist position users against the situation of those beacons.
Skidattl continues to be in its angel funding stage and alpha tech stage, however the startup hopes to go to market with a freemium business model — meaning it is going to be free to make use of but Skidattl can monetize through premium subscriptions, in-app purchases and affiliate commissions.
Like any latest social media app, Skidattl may have to battle the chicken-and-egg problem — nobody will need to use it if there’s not loads of beacons already lit up, but there can’t be any lit-up beacons without people on the app.
“I feel we will kickstart the business side pretty easily by giving them a free beacon,” said Marsden. “On the shopper side, getting YouTube and TikTok influencers to discuss it, place ads with TechCrunch and that kind of thing. And then once we now have someone within the app, we can provide them incentives for sharing with their contacts.” (It goes without saying, but TechCrunch ad sales are totally separate from editorial.)
Skidattl is currently trying to lift $500,000 to complete the minimum viable product and get the cash it must officially launch its app at South by Southwest in March, Marsden said.
Correction: Skidattl uses Apple’s AR Geo product currently and intends to make use of Google’s similar product in the longer term to assist geolocate users in relation to beacons.
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