Update: The company has informed that on the launch day (December 16, 2012), the app was downloaded 250,000 times, leading to 300,000 augmentation views on a single day. This significantly surpassed internal estimates of about 15,000 downloads on day one.
Earlier: Alive for TOI is launched as an AR (Augmented Reality) application for iOS devices that combined newspaper content with the internet. As pointed out by Beast of Traal, the Times of India newspaper has already started carrying news stories that are aligned with the App. News items on the newspaper having orange corners, when seen from the Alive-TOI, will take users to news content, videos, picture gallery, polls etc.
Users need to download the app, open and point their device at a newspaper item with orange corners, watch the augmentation of multimedia content on camera background. Augmented Reality is the concept of superimposing virtual content (such as rich 3D graphics) on top of a view of the real world as seen through the phone's camera.
According to the company, main features of the app include videos to connect with actual news items coming in the newspaper, Picture gallery of the news items, make the newspaper more interactive; share the newspaper news item and also save the multimedia content for future viewing.
Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet, said, "We love bringing new technology solutions that add value to our users. Alive is exciting because it is a new dimension to a medium people are used to and comfortable with. We've thought hard about where AR actually adds value and where it's just a gimmick, and we're working to ensure that each augmentation brings something new to our readers."
Vineet Jain, Managing Director, BCCL, said, "Times of India believes in innovating constantly and out of the box thinking. This technology has existed for years as QR code readers, but no newspaper in the world has used it editorially to delight its readers. We are excited to bring a new level of interactivity to the newspaper every day, and there is more to come in the coming weeks. Times of India and Alive is just a small peak into how the future newspaper will look in the era of convergence."
