Nokia and Intel announced that they’ll be joining forces in a research venture based in Oulu, Finland.
According to a conference call hosted by the two companies, the joint venture will focus on creating new user experiences on mobile, specifically concentrated around the areas of 3-D and virtual reality.
The Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center at Oulu will be located in the Center for Internet Excellence (CIE) at the University of Oulu. The initial framework brings about two dozen researchers sourced from the local research community to work at the co-laboratory for three years. The lab’s research activities have started gradually during August.
Emphasis was put on developing for MeeGo, the open mobile platform spearheaded by Nokia and Intel. The two companies reiterated their belief in the potential for 3-D Internet to become the next major breakthrough in mobile user experience.
The Oulu region is already host to a 3-D Internet development community, and technologies such as the open-source virtual reality platform realXtend have been created as a result of 3-D Internet research in Oulu.
While details on the project were limited, both Intel and Nokia stressed their commitment to open source any of the resulting intellectual property or technology.