Joint Testbed Program

The Open AR Cloud Association's Testbed Program is a joint program run by OARC together with its VPS Service Provider partners, Augmented City and MultiSet, and its content publishing partner, MyGeoVerse. It aims to promote the development and testing of interoperable AR Cloud technologies across different platforms and applications.

OARC is inviting universities, schools, cities, innovation centers, research organizations, technology communities, and other organizations interested in the future of the Spatial Web to join the program as Testbed Partners. Testbed Partners provide real-world environments where open and interoperable spatial technologies can be deployed, tested, demonstrated, and explored.

The program is supported by a growing ecosystem of VPS Service Providers, spatial content platforms, spatial browsers, and mobile applications. OARC also welcomes additional technology providers interested in contributing interoperable services and applications to this ecosystem.

The program is built around the open standards and protocols that make interoperable spatial computing possible:

Testbed participants learn about these standards and protocols, implement and experiment with them, and use them to understand interoperability across the Open Spatial Computing Platform (OSCP) ecosystem.

The Joint Testbed Program is not simply about providing access to individual AR or VPS products. It provides a real-world environment for experimenting with how different content publishers, spatial browsers, localization and VPS providers, and spatial content services can work together through open standards and protocols.

The program enables Testbed Partners to deploy and test AR Cloud and Spatial Web technologies in real-world locations, collaborate with OARC and participating technology partners, and explore technical challenges and opportunities around interoperability.

Testbed activities can address different aspects of the AR Cloud and Spatial Web, including localization, spatial content publishing and discovery, data interoperability, privacy and security, and real-world spatial mapping. The program provides a common framework and testing environment where participating organizations can validate technologies, experiment with different combinations of services and applications, and contribute what they learn back to the broader ecosystem.

The Testbed Program is a key part of OARC's mission to accelerate the development and adoption of an open and interoperable Spatial Web and to foster collaboration and innovation across the ecosystem.

What Testbeds Receive

Each accepted testbed receives:

VPS tester accounts from OARC's VPS Service Provider partners, Augmented City and MultiSet, which give the users the ability to digitally map locations with AC Scanner by Augmented City and the MultiSet mobile app by MultiSet.
- Augmented City and MultiSet both provide VPS services for the Joint Testbed Program.
MyGeoVerse Mobile App and MyGeoVerse Creator Suite Tester Accounts.
- MyGeoVerse is OARC's content publishing partner: a spatial content publisher and mobile spatial browser app provider supporting the OGC GeoPose Data Exchange Standard 1.0, the OGC Points of Interest (POI) Conceptual Model Standard, the OSCP GeoPose Protocol and OSCP Spatial Content Discovery.
Training and onboarding into the open Spatial Web ecosystem, as described below.

In addition, OARC, in partnership with MyGeoVerse Academy, provides training and onboarding sessions for new Testbed partners on:

OARC and general information about how the AR Cloud and Spatial Web work.
How to digitally map a physical location using the technologies provided by OARC's VPS Service Provider partners, including AC Scanner and the MultiSet mobile apps.
How to upload and publish spatial content and Points of Interest through MyGeoVerse, OARC's content publishing partner supporting the relevant OGC standards and OSCP protocols.
How to place digital content into the real world using the MyGeoVerse iOS or Android mobile app.
How to localize using different VPS services.
How to use both the spARcl WebXR spatial browser and the MyGeoVerse mobile spatial browser to discover, view, and interact with spatial content at its real-world location.

The sessions take Testbed partners through the open Spatial Web step by step:

Understand

Learn about OARC, the AR Cloud and Spatial Web, and the four standards and protocols: OGC GeoPose, OGC POI, OSCP GeoPose Protocol, and OSCP Spatial Content Discovery.

Map

Digitally map a real-world location using VPS Service Provider technologies such as AC Scanner by Augmented City and the MultiSet mobile app.

Publish

Upload and publish spatial content and Points of Interest through MyGeoVerse.

Place

Place spatial content at real-world locations using the MyGeoVerse iOS or Android mobile app.

Localize

Localize using different VPS services through the interoperable Testbed environment.

Discover & Experience

Use spARcl WebXR and the MyGeoVerse mobile spatial browser to discover, view, and interact with spatial content at its intended real-world location.

Testbed Requirements

Once your application is accepted:

Your organization must become an OARC member.
Your organization must specify a testbed contact person to coordinate training and onboarding sessions with your users, students, and faculty members.

To get started quickly with your testbed, please fill out the form below and if you have any questions please send us email at testbed@openarcloud.org

Your application will be evaluated in the order it was received and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Testbeds & AR Cloud Activations by Partners

W3C Immersive Web Event — Mountain View (2025)

OARC members XR Masters and Augmented City along with the spARcl team at Open AR Cloud demonstrated a historical spatial web demo.

TTG Travel Experience — Rimini, Italy (2024)

Augmented.City transformed the Next Startup pavilion with immersive AR content at TTG Travel Experience 2024. International operators viewed 3D graphics in augmented reality, placed using AC VPS next to the main stage and exhibitor stands.

5G Techritory — Riga, Latvia (2024)

XR Masters, in collaboration with the University of Patras, p-NET, and Kuldiga Tourism Centre, showcased immersive XR experiences at the 5G Techritory event in Riga. Powered by Augmented City's VPS, the experience featured 3D artwork created by Riga Technical University students. Latvia's Minister for Smart Administration also experienced the technology firsthand.

Festival of Regions — Bari, Italy (2022)

Augmented.City transformed Piazza Ferrarese in Bari's historic center with AI-generated AR scenes of birds, animals, and historical content. The president of the Apulian region personally experienced the application.

First High School Testbed — Işık Schools, Turkey (2022)

FMV Işık Schools became the first "High School Testbed Partner" of Open AR Cloud. Students learned to scan environments for Augmented City's VPS and placed 3D artwork via XR Masters' platform for a hybrid art exhibit.

MIT Reality Hack — Boston, USA (2022)

Areas of the MIT campus were visually mapped. 3D AR artworks by Novaby were placed inside MIT's Stratton Student Center through the XR Masters app, powered by Augmented City's VPS.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (2021)

Stephen Black, with another pioneering project: using GeoPose-based AR to add digital objects to a large public event: the 2021 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This project was made possible with technical support from: Augmented City, XR Masters, Mad Marker and Vincent Trastour/Flamingo Filters. Bubiko and her blimp created by Novaby based on a concept by Stephen Black and Sayuri Okayama.

Apply to Become an OARC Testbed

You can apply for becoming an OARC Testbed by filling out the application form below:

Become A Member → Get Started on GitHub →