WorldCloud
A Decentralized Infrastructure For Pervasive,
Omnipresent Augmented Reality, the next universal computing platform
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#Please see the end of this post for Airdrop information#
Introduction
WorldCloud is the decentralized infrastructure for the AR industry. Its aim is to use the power of incentivized crowdsourcing to build a worldwide AR cloud to enable pervasive, omnipresent AR, which will become the single most valuable computing infrastructure in the world in the next few years.
The WorldCloud core team consists of multiple graduates of Stanford University, and other industry experts with previous experience at Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Avanade, Xerox, etc., many of whom each over 10 years of experience working on AR, AI, computer vision, database and cloud computing technologies, as well as experts in blockchain technology.
The project is incubated by Multiverse, a leading provider of AR/VR technology solutions which has raised a $10M+ USD series A from distinguished venture capital funds in late 2017.
Why does the world need WorldCloud?
People have been looking toward AR to replace smartphones as the next computing platform. However, today's AR apps are disappointing and far from the killer apps envisioned in tech media and works of sci-fi, such as:
• A search engine of the real world. Look at any building, landmark, lake, mountain range, shop, item, etc., and instantly get information about this object.
• MMO AR social networking. When you see a person, an AR label shows you public information that he/she willingly shares, such as their socialization preferences and contact information.
• Multi-user AR games that understand the real world; for example, virtual personalities who can sit on furniture or climb trees.
• Ubiquitous smart shopping, where you can instantly get detailed information about any product, shelf or store, such as product descriptions, prices, user reviews, etc.
• The most complete three-dimensional map, much more useful and accurate than two-dimensional maps provided by Google and other providers. It will allow for accurate navigation to any physical location, including indoor locations; this is a prerequisite for perfected self-driving vehicles, letting vehicles understand the shape of the world, and will also allow automated drone navigation to become a reality.
• . . . And many, many uses that we haven't thought of yet.
We can't build any of these apps right now, because we don't have a way to persist virtual objects at arbitrary fixed real-world locations. This may sound simple but is in fact impossible to achieve without a global AR cloud. ARKit and ARCore can't do this and will never be able to.
To persist a virtual object in a fixed location, there needs to be a cloud service that stores a "global point cloud". When a user runs an AR app, what the device’s camera sees is a "local point cloud", which is compared to the global point cloud to find the device's exact position and orientation in the real world. This is called device localization.
Once we have device localization on a worldwide scale, we can persist virtual objects at fixed real-world locations anywhere in the world. Then, we can place any data or virtual object anywhere we want, enabling pervasive, omnipresent AR.
We already have the technology to build such a cloud infrastructure, but it takes a massive amount of manual, tedious work to create this global point cloud (mostly involving scanning the world with a smartphone). This is why we are solving this problem using incentivized crowdsourcing, which is a problem best solved using blockchain technology.
The WRLD token
The purpose of the WRLD token is to provide incentive for global users to collect data for WorldCloud. At the same time, WRLD tokens also motivate users to share their unused PC storage, computation and bandwidth resources as buffer nodes to provide real-time data and device localization computation services for nearby AR users. This will provide an immediate and reliable supply of AR data, and enable excellent user experience in AR applications.
Furthermore, WRLD tokens are used as a store of value and driver of the global app ecosystem, which can be used to purchase ad space, in-app purchases, physical goods and many other items in AR-enabled applications (soon to be all applications).
Media and Downloads
Development is underway on multiple pieces of software that are essential to the WorldCloud ecosystem. The materials below demonstrate our current progress:
Quick Intro to WorldCloud:
https://youtu.be/L8aduPPzfD0Demonstration of visual search engine prototype:
https://youtu.be/dSULj9-KrisData collection tool in action (point cloud scanner):
https://youtu.be/A0KfJBBtgH0Cloud Data Visualizer:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pu8ejikknxka1vk/WorldCloudVisualizer%20v1.0.2.zip?dl=0Whitepaper:
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/world-cloud/whiterpapers/WorldCloudWhitepaper_EN_V1.0.pdfAR is the next universal computing platform;
WorldCloud is the data backend for all AR applications (eventually, all applications)
In 2018, there will be 1.83 billion AR-enabled smartphone devices worldwide. Apple's AR headset will also be available in 2020 .
Market research indicates that the global AR market will reach US $133.78 billion in 2021 and grow at an annual rate of 85.2% .
We can see that people are very optimistic about AR's potential,
with experts expecting AR to replace smartphones and become the next universal computing platform.
We expect that the frequency of data invocation and number of users of AR will soon exceed that of smartphones.
Unlocking the True Potential of AR
With the advent of ARKit and ARCore, media and consumers worldwide are very excited about AR.
However, they soon realized that current AR technology only enables monotonous experiences such as placing furniture or running simple games.
The full potential of AR can only be realized through WorldCloud,
which allows applications to understand the shape and structure of the real world,
and place virtual objects at fixed real world locations.
Without WorldCloud, it is impossible to create truly useful AR applications.
The WorldCloud Ecosystem
WorldCloud’s ecosystem is completely open and jointly managed by global participants, which already includes excellent early partners.
Whether they are data collection partners, AR technology providers or application developers, everyone can earn great rewards by participating in WorldCloud.
-The foundation layer of WorldCloud solves the problems of AR data collection, verification, storage and usage.
-The application layer is completely open to any developer who would like to build an advanced AR application. These applications also help realize the circulation of WRLD tokens.
-Unlike all other blockchain projects, end users don’t need any knowledge of blockchains or cryptocurrency, allowing rapid adoption.-WorldCloud introduces the Distributed AR Data Network (DARDN). Data collectors submit valid AR data to nodes in the DARDN that provide storage and device localization computation (SLAM) services.
-WorldCloud adopts an open governance model. Token holders vote to participate in the verification committee, which verifies the data submitted by data collectors.
WorldCloud’s Unique Strengths
WorldCloud is project that can be effectively launched, has incredibly strong market demand and immense growth and scaling potential,
and features strong blockchain characteristics.
The project has a strong founding team,
whose members have proven themselves in engineering and entrepreneurship,
as well as strong business partners.
WorldCloud has a strong network effect. Once built, it will have a huge barrier to entry.WorldCloud’s expert team and partners
Team members hail from reputable universities and well-known companies
such as Stanford University, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, Xerox, and Disney.
Team members are leaders in blockchain technology, augmented reality, and growth.
WorldCloud is bootstrapped by
Multiverse, a global leader in AR/VR technology.
Multiverse closed a $10+ million series A round in late 2017, backed by early investors in Binance and other top-tier venture capital funds.
released multiple highly rated products and built up a team with advanced technical capability.
To guarantee its rapid and stable growth, the project has a large number of partners and collaborative organizations,
including: Mapbox, HERE, Netease, Meta, etc.
The WorldCloud Team
Freeman FanSerial Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO, Multiverse (premier provider of AR/VR technology solutions and games); Founder of Simple Thrill, built games with 30M+ players as an indie developer; M.S. Stanford University.
Robert LiangExpert blockchain architect; previously IBM Blockchain Foundation Developer, blockchain technology consultant; implemented multiple blockchain solutions for IBM's clients using Hyperledger and Ethereum technologies; Avanade principle solutions engineer; 15 years of experience in enterprise IoT, cloud computing and database development; MS in Computer Science from the Utah State University
Elie AhadExpert in computer vision and image processing; previously senior engineer of the Hololens project at Microsoft, responsible for core technologies including computer vision, rendering pipeline, real-time 3D visualization; previous experience include senior engineering positions at Microsoft Research (Surface project), OmniVision, Micron Technologies, Xerox and Disney; 25 years of experience in augmented reality technology, computer vision, image processing and human-computer interaction research and development
Yi DingSenior Computer Vision engineer, worked on point cloud registration, feature and object identification and tracking, SLAM, multiple computer vision algorithms and AR SDKs; 5 years of experience in AR technology development; M.S. in ICME, Stanford University.
Yohan DuvalComputer Science Ph.D., INSA Toulouse; Expert in augmented reality, SLAM and localization technology; expert in training automation using AR and VR technology
Zekun LiSoftware Engineer, Facebook; expert blockchain engineer; Creator of the blockchain game Decentraverse; M.S. in Computer Science, USC
Arnold Zhang Blockchain technology fanatic; Creator of the blockchain game Decentraverse; full-stack web engineer; B.S. in Computer Science
Alexis TononSenior Software Architect in 3D Graphics and AI; M.S. in Computer Science, INSA
Veronica GeSeasoned product and project manager; M.S. in Management Science, Stanford University
Junior FerreiraGlobal marketing manager; Founder of Knova eSports; Marketing manager at Nordstrom
+6 more (please see worldcloud.io)
Advisors
Mike Fischer
VP of Marketing at Amazon;
VP of Marketing at Microsoft Game Studios;
CEO, Square Enix Inc;
Professor at USC
Zachary Fitzner
Expert blockchain architect and token economics consultant;
Advised projects such as 4New, ResiBids, Project Districts, Vantage Token, Gizer, High Vibe Network, etc.
More advisors will be revealed soon.
Roadmap
-2017 Point cloud collection, splicing, loop closure, matching and storage features completed.
-March 2018 Completion of WorldCloud ecosystem design.
-July 2018 WRLD Token private sale.
-September WRLD Token public sale.
-End of 2018 Completion of data collection and verification features, available on smartphone devices.
-Early 2019 Completion of device localization powered by DARDN nodes.
-Mid 2019 All features of the DARDN completed; network launch.
Airdrop
Rules for rewards
The first 100 people who complete the registration and subscription process will be awarded 100 tokens per person.
The following 400 people will receive 50 tokens per person
The following 500 people will receive 30 tokens per person
The following 1000 people will receive 20 tokens per person
The following 2000 people will receive 10 token per person
Please submit your WorldCloud account name to our telegram group manager.
The rewards will be delivered through the user center at
http://www.worldcloud.io/ at a later time (soon).
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