Nokia teams with USC on mobile user experiences

Nokia announced a research collaboration framework agreement with the University of Southern California in an effort to advance the mobile user experience. Per terms of the partnership, the handset giant's Nokia Research Center Hollywood unit will team with USC on multiple projects in a variety of areas, beginning their work by looking at Augmented Reality--i.e., supplementing a user's view of the real world via three-dimensional computer graphic objects to provide a real-time, interactive and intuitive means of accessing and displaying spatial information (for example, information about a pub in the user's immediate vicinity, or a list of what's on sale at the store across the street). Nokia and USC will focus on adapting vision-based AR tracking and content recognition techniques for use on mobile platforms.

Nokia first announced plans to open a research laboratory in Hollywood in November 2008, indicating its plans to nurture ties with the media and entertainment industry, including new technology companies and creative talent as well as Los Angeles-area universities.

For more on the Nokia/USC partnership:
- read this release

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