{"id":56271,"date":"2014-08-13T02:11:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T06:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=56271"},"modified":"2014-08-13T02:11:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T06:11:33","slug":"why-this-augmented-reality-tech-is-worth-supporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2014\/08\/why-this-augmented-reality-tech-is-worth-supporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Why This Augmented Reality Tech Is Worth Supporting"},"content":{"rendered":"
August 13, 2014<\/div>
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By MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

If you follow the calls that Kris Sayce<\/a> and I make in Australian Small-Cap Investigator<\/em>, you’ll know that we like to see a government keep its nose out of a company’s business.<\/p>\n

Governments and the public servants who steer them tend to act in their own best interests. Those interests rarely align with those of the taxpayers who foot the bill.<\/p>\n

Some industries are certainly worthy of public support. High technology<\/a> is one of them.<\/p>\n

Some high tech companies’ ideas are so far-fetched that private investors refuse to touch them with a barge pole. But if these firms can access early-stage public funding, they get a shot at growing into the small-cap stars <\/strong>of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Kris and I love to pick these stocks before everyone else. In fact, at least two of the small-cap stocks<\/a> on our buy list grew out of government labs.<\/p>

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Even when government backs a good idea, you can generally rely on it to find a way to stuff things up.<\/p>\n

But here’s the good news…a public servant’s losses can be a private investor’s gains.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, Campbell Newman’s treatment of Brisbane-based tech start-up Imagus Technology.<\/p>\n

My mate Shae Smith told you about Imagus last week<\/a>. I love it.<\/p>\n

If you missed Shae’s eletter, Imagus has developed a facial recognition app. Imagus can wire this app into Google Glass-style spectacles. It lets you match faces you see through the specs in real time with faces in a database.<\/p>\n

This Aussie tech is the cutting edge of augmented reality<\/strong><\/a> (AR). The app is smarter and the output more useful than what you get with Google Glass. Imagus can link this tech into glasses — pictured below — that don’t get in the way of your ability to actually<\/em> see.<\/p>\n

\"augmented
Source: SMH<\/em><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

By the way, that’s not Sam in the photo…just a close lookalike!<\/p>\n

The American army’s top brass are keen to get their hands on Imagus’ product.<\/p>\n

It would be a perfect fit for the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA). The DIA wants to equip its agents with smarter spy glasses.<\/p>\n

Last year the worldwide group developing ‘X6’, the last word in high-tech spy glasses, handpicked Imagus to plug in their tech.<\/p>\n

X6 won’t release these spy specs to the public…but the DIA has just bought 500 sets.<\/p>\n

X6 looks like a massive coup for spooks and secret agents in the field.<\/p>\n

You could even see soldiers armed with these gadgets down the track. It will help them make smarter decisions in high-pressure combat settings.<\/p>\n

This is a massive win for a tiny Aussie company that has only existed since last year.<\/p>\n

But Queenslanders might feel a few sour grapes.<\/p>\n

You see, the Queensland government tipped several million dollars into hidden surveillance and counter-terrorism tech<\/a> after the London 2005 tube bombings.<\/p>\n

One of those technologies was the facial detection software that re-emerged through Imagus.<\/p>\n

The Newman government pulled that funding in 2012. But Dr Brian Lovell, the driving force behind the tech, was determined to push on through the private sector.<\/p>\n

Dr Lovell couldn’t keep the rights to his idea. But he backed himself and re-wrote the source code from scratch. Now his private vehicle, Imagus, is hitting the big time.<\/p>\n

I suspect Dr Lovell will earn a much bigger share of the profits this way than if his idea had taken off while it was still under the government’s wing.<\/p>\n

And so he should. Dr Lovell’s attitude should serve as a beacon to Aussie company founders and speculators. It goes to show that if an idea is worth funding, it’s generally worth funding with private money.<\/p>\n

The DIA contract is a great win, but Imagus is still very early-stage. I’d love to see the company grow and list on the Australian Securities Exchange<\/a> (ASX). You could back both Imagus and yourself…and get a piece of the action.<\/p>\n

That day won’t come for a while. But heavyweight tech companies have already shown a clear path to market for AR gadgets.<\/p>\n

Apple Inc [NASDAQ:AAPL]<\/strong> and Google Inc [NASDAQ:GOOGL]<\/strong> will both watch Imagus closely as it develops.<\/p>\n

Each tech titan folds cutting-edge ideas into its hardware and software to attract customers to its ‘ecosystem’.<\/p>\n

Apple and Google spend millions, if not billions of dollars, finding ways to mesh their products ever more closely with the user.<\/p>\n

Google Glass is the clearest example of what can come out of these programs.<\/p>\n

You might scoff at the idea that the average Aussie could one day comfortably wear a computer on his or her face. But you can bet that Apple and Google are testing ways to expand our reality through less obvious means.<\/p>\n

Think about the scope for apps that give tourists real time advice about their surrounds. These apps could overlay comments from other visitors and translate foreign signs and menus.<\/p>\n

Surgeons could even use this tech to see inside patients’ bodies like never before. AR could combine medical imagery<\/a> with videos and ultrasounds to let doctors save more lives. The company that gets that idea off the ground will make a mint.<\/p>\n

These kinds of ideas, much like Imagus’ facial detection tech, are worth supporting.<\/p>\n

The private sector knows that. Sometimes government gets it too…but it just seems to drop the ball at crucial points of the game.<\/p>\n

That’s a waste for taxpayers, but an opportunity for private investors.<\/p>\n

Cheers, <\/p>\n

Tim Dohrmann+<\/a><\/strong>
\n Small-Cap Analyst, Australian Small-Cap Investigator<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ed note:<\/strong> The above article was originally published in Tech Insider<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nJoin Money Morning on Google+ <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Why This Augmented Reality Tech Is Worth Supporting<\/a> appeared first on Stock Market News, Finance and Investments | Money Morning Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n


\nBy MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au If you follow the calls that Kris Sayce and I make in Australian Small-Cap Investigator, you’ll know that we like to see a government keep its nose out of a company’s business. Governments and the public servants who steer them tend to act in their own best interests. Those interests rarely align with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}