Snerb AR

Post On The Wall (The Past)
A geo-based photo-sharing app developed by Facet Digital co-founder, Scott W. Bradley, when he was the CTO and lead developer at a small startup, called Be Labs, back in 2011. This experience (success, failures, and innovations) paves the way for the technical and go-to-market know-how for Snerb.

More info and screenshots from Post On The Wall.

Snerb TV (The Present)
Snerb started with similar concepts to Post On The Wall, and lessons therein about what users really wanted. But it was a clean-room implementation using entirely different technologies and techniques – and didn’t rely on GPS or social network sharing. When Apple first announced the App Store for Apple TV and the tvOS SDK, Facet Digital was accepted into Apple’s Early Developer access program based on the ideas for Snerb, and was awarded beta access to both the new Apple TV hardware and tvOS SDKs. Snerb TV was made up of:

• A highly-scalable backend RESTful API, hosted in Heroku, with high-speed, secure image storage and delivery.
• A native iOS app for creating and managing a “Party Board”, and for party guests to submit photos to it using only for the duration of the party, using a secret code displayed on the board.
• A tvOS app for Apple TV, that visualized the “Party Board” on the a party-host’s television set as it unfolded in realtime.

Snerb AR (The Future)
Snerb AR brings the concepts of its predecessor to life in Augmented Reality. Facet Digital is actively seeking investment/grant funding to build this out, and has the right technical background and team to pull it off.

The Elevator Pitch (in < 2048 bytes)
Snerb AR replaces the corkboard wall of Polaroid photos you see at events like the finish line of the San Francisco Marathon and neighborhood restaurants like Chotchkies, with a virtual dimension in the same space, that can only be seen by users of Snerb AR.

Venues can claim their space in the Snerb portal by 3D polygon-mapping their space using a mobile photo with sufficient hardware/software capabilities (E.g., iOS ARKit). Patrons and staff use the Snerb mobile app, photo-booth kiosks, or public Twitter/Instagram hashtags to submit photos to be texture mapped as Polaroid-like photos to 2D surfaces (e.g., walls, tables, windows, counter-tops) allocated by the venue owner. Of course, these photos can only be viewed through Augmented Reality devices – an iOS app using ARkit or a Magic Leap One headset.

Posted images are technically public, but give a measure of privacy and anonymity by the fact that the viewer has to physically be close enough to the photo in real life in order to see it. Just like a Polaroid on the wall at Chotchkies — it’s public, but you have to be there to see it. The photos on the wall of your home can been seen by anyone who enters the room.

Facet Digital has the prior experience and ongoing work to develop the large-scale backend systems needed to store 3D models, photos, and geolocations, and tie them all together into a high-speed platform that enables Snerb AR users to see this virtual dimension whereever they are. Building, scaling, and securing this platform is part and parcel of the Snerb app – including the inevitable necessity for content filtering.

Snerb AR opens the door for many monetization strategies, such as selling virtual real-estate, advertising, subscription models, pay-to-post (a model that has worked well in the past at charity events), time-based payment (e.g., just for the time of the event), and others.

Success of Snerb AR may lead to Snerb VR and the possibility of allowing remote visitors controlled access to these 3D mapped spaces and their photos.