Geosync Global seeks out emerging technologies for local businesses

Earlier this summer, Shayne Huston and Nabeel Meghji sat down with me to discuss their Des Moines-based startup Geosync Global. Huston, the company’s CEO, describes Geosync as an “innovation group-for-hire.” They fill the void of identifying, researching, and vetting emerging technologies that can be beneficial to companies who may not have…

Earlier this summer, Shayne Huston and Nabeel Meghji sat down with me to discuss their Des Moines-based startup Geosync Global. Huston, the company’s CEO, describes Geosync as an “innovation group-for-hire.” They fill the void of identifying, researching, and vetting emerging technologies that can be beneficial to companies who may not have the resources to do so on their own.

“The biggest thing [we want people to] understand is that there is this company out there that’s looking out for emerging technology and the leading edge,” said Meghji, the company’s chief technology officer. “It’s kind of hard to keep up with everything that’s going on in the world, not only just in the U.S. but also abroad. Technology can come from anywhere, and the world has become so small right now that something that developed in Japan or even Switzerland is hitting the US market. If you want to have that knowledge, there is a company out here in Des Moines who has that expertise.”

One such technology is Kooaba, an augmented reality technology developed at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. The company secured an exclusive North American license to the technology which first recognizes an object from a picture taken on a mobile device then completes an action based on that particular object, similar to the computer vision technology being developed by Pongr (see our July interview with Pongr’s Zach Cox).

“You’re able to take pictures of something. It could be posters, it could be three dimensional objects, it could be a lot of different things…and get additional information, but get it in a multimedia fashion,” said Huston in demonstrating a use for the technology.

“Say we have a poster up of the Avatar movie…you take a picture of that [poster] and it can bring back a trailer of the movie, you see that then we redirect you to Fandango if you want to order tickets. We allow the customer, and ultimately the consumer, to go where they want to go and set up the options that they want to do.”

A second focus is on immersive reality and that was shown recently at Technology Association of Iowa‘s (TAI) Heartland Greenup in May. Geosync assisted TAI in presenting the entire event in the Second Life virtual world. Those who could not be in onsite that day had the option to participate in each session through the virtual world. One presenter gave his talk from United Kingdom while others watched the presentation from as far as South Africa and as close as the hallway.

“[The Exhibitors] were watching the conference through Second Life because they had to sit at their [booths]. it doesn’t have to be remote, you know someone from South Africa attending this event in Des Moines, you had people just outside attending the event via [immersive technology]”, said Meghji.

In the interview below, Huston and Meghji talk more in depth about Geosync’s geographically disparate workforce, their experiences with immersive and augmented reality projects and new technologies they are developing.



Author's note: This interview took in place in July but, unfortunately, has been delayed for several weeks. Also, please excuse the background noise from nearby construction early in the video.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN's origin »

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