Augmented reality wearable technology has been a tough market to break into. Pokemon Go demonstrated widespread appeal is possible on a mobile device, but nobody has cracked the code for AR on smartglasses.
Following a lackluster response to Google Glass, Magic Leap and Snap Spectacles, AR wearables, thus far, have eluded any meaningful traction towards a product-market fit.
However, ARtGlass, a technology startup headquartered in Richmond, has served nearly 1 million paying customers by taking a market-first approach, starting with an unlikely use case for its futuristic tech: history.
“Each year there are 1.4 billion visits to U.S. cultural and historic sites,” said Greg Werkheiser, CEO of ARtGlass. “That’s more than two times attendance at all pro sports events and theme parks combined.”
Founded in 2017, ARtGlass developed a proprietary software platform to bring wearable AR storytelling experiences to cultural and historic venues, including museums, battlefields and archeological sites. Its U.S. experiences can be found in Virginia, at James Monroe’s Highland in Charlottesville and at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate.
Five of Central Virginia’s largest angel and seed groups invested $1.3 million in ARtGlass at the end of 2018. Those involved in the deal included Cavalier Angels, Central Virginia Angels, Charlottesville Angel Network, the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and Richmond’s Trolley Venture Partners. ARtGlass was the recipient of Trolley Venture’s inaugural investment only weeks after the group was formed.
Husband-and-wife co-founders Greg and Marion (COO) Werkheiser straddle two stereotypically-opposed worlds: history and technology. As founding partners since 2008 of the global law and policy firm Cultural Heritage Partners, the Werkheisers and their team tackle challenges in the preservation of art, antiquities, landscapes and living culture.
Yet, they are also futurists, obsessed with the exponential growth of technology. Greg spoke about this paradoxical intersection at Maryland’s statewide preservation conference in 2017 in a keynote entitled “The Future of History.”
The idea for ARtGlass came gradually. Alongside a legal career, Greg Werkheiser developed courses for emerging leaders at academic hubs including University of Virginia, George Mason University and Presidio Institute, exploring technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, satellite-assisted archaeology and drones.
“AR held the most appeal because it is the one where we can close the gap between history and the future for the most amount of people,” Werkheiser said. “We aim to be the first to take wearable AR to scale in the cultural heritage sector, one we know well and where we are already known.”
ARtGlass has deployed most of their tours on Moverio products manufactured by electronics giant Seiko Epson. The transparent headset is tethered to a handheld controller the size of a flip phone that hosts a self-contained Android operating system. ARtGlass is one of only 14 “Solutions Providers” partnering with Epson to explore the uses of their Moverio smartglasses.
Whereas other devices rely on an internet connection to operate, ARtGlass designed its product so that the storytelling content is loaded directly onto the controller — no need for remote connectivity (i.e., Wi-Fi, bluetooth, Z-wave) to run. This means a user can walk to a distant outdoor landscape and watch a 3-D hologram of George Washington tromp the property grounds with them without losing their signal.
“Part of our magic is that we’ve hacked facial recognition and applied it to art, objects and landscapes,” said Werkheiser. A camera embedded in the glasses recognizes environmental triggers and display AR content. “It’s hands-free and heads-up. Just listen to the audio and visual cues for where to go and what to look at.”
The Werkheisers found their CTO, Luigi Percuoco, in Italy where ARtGlass first launched, home to the most UNESCO world heritage sites, including the Pisa Tower Square and the Royal Villa. More than 800,000 visitors have paid for ARtGlass-enabled tours at more than 25 deployments in Europe.
“It was our proving ground,"said Werkheiser. "If we could make the Italians and the Swiss happy, we knew we’d be ready to scale in the U.S. where folks expect Disney-level production.”
“We’re selling one of the most ancient things that humans have done — storytelling — in the newest package.”
ARtGlass gave Richmond Inno a tour demo in its local office. The binocular content and 360-degree video resolution felt like a 3-D game of Age of Empires, but with scholarship-backed history. From exploring an ancient church, to hearing from a village blacksmith, to learning from a famous French painter in his chambers, ARtGlass delivered an immersive experience.
We were also given a sneak preview of an unreleased beta version of a choose-your-own-adventure story experience in which the user navigates deeper into augmented landscapes and backstories according to their interest.
“We’re selling one of the most ancient things that humans have done — storytelling — in the newest package,” said Werkheiser. “It’s a virtual time machine.”
Werkheiser said he’s been approached by people in the sports, music concert, logistics, and military spaces about possible uses of ARtGlass technology. However, the co-founders and their team of seven are “staying in our lane” and mastering the capabilities for the market they know best, while remaining aware that the value of the company has uses in other industries.
