Baidu banks on augmented reality to bolster revenue, expand reach
Online search giant strengthens efforts to make interactive technology available to millions of smartphones users in China
Chinese online search giant Baidu on Monday set up an Augmented Reality Lab as part of its efforts to make the technology available to China’s hundreds of millions of smartphone users.
The lab, which is a spin-off of the Baidu Institute of Deep Learning, is dedicated to developing state of the art technologies and building augmented reality applications for various industries.
Augmented reality has been in the news recently, particularly after the tremendous popularity of Pokemon Go. However, it has not made big strides like virtual reality, as location-based augmented reality games are still banned on the mainland.
Andrew Ng, chief scientist of Baidu, however, see great potential for the technology, especially in areas like education, medical care and tourism, as the technology helps “people use a more interactive way to explore the world”.
“China is a mobile-first country. Many of the mobile phone-based innovation starts in China. That is why we expect the mobile phone to be the best way to popularise augmented reality in China, rather than persuade people to buy expensive headsets for enjoying the technology,”said Ng, who heads Baidu Research, the research arm that includes the augmented reality laboratory.
The lab is the Beijing-based Baidu’s latest effort to leverage the company’s technology and its massive customer base to develop applications powered by fundamental augmented reality technologies like image recognition, 3D computation and human-machine interaction after launching an AR platform for smartphones in August 2016.