Posts tagged augmented reality
Taking an Augmented Reality check
Aug 19th
Bruce Townsend of ecommerce software specialist, Actinic.
While on holiday in Dorset recently, my family and I visited the Fleet Air Arm Museum and went round its ‘Aircraft Carrier Experience’. This uses tricks with sound, light, video and robotics to try to reproduce the feeling of being on an aircraft carrier, in what’s basically a large hangar. It was good fun and quite interesting – certainly worth the visit.
But was it actually anything like the real thing? I sincerely doubt it.
It reminded me somewhat of a sexy new medium that’s attracting a lot of attention at the moment – ‘Augmented Reality’. The term describes the use of technology to add digital information to a real-life experience. Perhaps the most familiar example is the heads-up display used in aircraft and some higher-end cars.
What’s more interesting is the recent introduction of more down-to-earth uses. When you see adverts overlaid on a pitch during a soccer match broadcast, for example, that’s Augmented Reality. Other uses are beginning to appear on mobile phones. For example, install the Layar app and point your phone camera at a location or venue, and the image will be overlaid with information about it. Or install Shazam and point your phone at any music broadcast, and the software will tell you what track is playing and who it’s by.
It all sounds very promising from a marketing point of view, but maybe we need an Augmented Reality Check here. The technology is still quite limited, and the user experience on everyday hardware is pretty poor. Do you really want to view the world through a 4” mobile screen?
The camera app is a clever gimmick, but it doesn’t really offer any advantage over Google Maps in terms of the information it provides. The level of adoption is dramatically lower, and likely to remain so.
Five years ago, the prediction was that every business would be able to advertise on the red button within five years. That great hope hasn’t materialised yet. So we probably shouldn’t get too excited about this new one, either. Marketing efforts are best targeted towards widely used media, without being distracted into new avenues that may turn out to be blind alleys.
UTALK’S WEBSURF: Augmented reality recontextualizes consumerism
Apr 26th
Keiichi Matsuda is currently finishing up his architecture master’s degree at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture. He created this intriguing, beautiful and somewhat unnerving vision of everyday life in the future, as embellished by augmented reality.
He writes, “may recontextualize the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change the way in which we operate within it.”
Augmented reality, they say, is the next big thin in marketing. Check it out…
Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.
Can’t afford a TAG Heuer watch? Try it on online in real time.
Mar 17th
Got a spare grand in the bank? Thought not. But you still fancy some stylish wrist action? TAG Heuer is providing the answer by jumping on the augmented reality bandwagon.
A new pioneering app on its website, live “from the end of the month” will allow poverty-stricken consumers to try on a selection of virtual watches in full 3D in real-time.
Consumers will be able to access the tool from their own computers or laptops but a number of store consoles are also being rolled out to enhance the in-store virtual experience.
Consumers visiting the TAG Heuer website will be able to download software, print out a Tag Heuer wrist-band and experience, through a web-cam, a selection of this seasons watches in full 3D as if they were actually wearing them in front of their computer.
The benefits to retailers? Well, the technology platform offers significant additional business benefits by enabling brands to support test marketing, just-in-time capacity, present extended ranges and build a virtual sales assistant to expand staff availability, in addition to supporting displays at exhibitions and in store.
Developed by Holition, the programme allows users to change products, colours and styles at the touch of a button. Augmented Reality 3D viewing is possible when the user wears a symbol and stands in front of a web cam.
On screen the technology merges the 3D object into real-time video of the person so that the product can be viewed from all angles as the user moves their body.
Intrigued? Well we have a sneak preview video showing the tool in action.
“As part of TAG Heuer’s avant-garde heritage, we always strive to be the brand leader in design, precision and cutting edge technology,” said Antoine Pin, CEO LVMH Watch & Jewellery UK. “We are very proud to be pioneers in this new field.”
With luxury brands becoming more savvy as they attempt to claw their way out of the recession it’s an innovative step forward.
It’s one very assured step on from those luxury retailers such as Prada and Louis Vuitton who have just realised that you can actually sell goods online rather than people having to stumble into your Bond Street or Sloane Street stores. Amazing.
But with luxury brands having the financial clout to embrace AG, its perhaps interesting to see them following rather than leading in some ways.
So, for example, on UTalkMarketing recently we talked about an independent clothing company for children championing the tech, on the back of a collaboration with ad agency Brothers and Sisters.
But without question the tech is there for all to harness. All that’s required now is a little imagination.
Head of digital strategy at marketing communications agency, KLP, Stephen Beasley, provides some inspiration on how brands can move beyond the Augmented Reality hype and turn it into practice.
Augmented Reality is no longer science fiction, it’s your new digital strategy
Feb 2nd
Augmented Reality holds potential for a wide range of industrial and consumer uses, but marketing projects are one of the few areas where augmented reality tech companies are doing steady business today.
The market for Augmented Reality (AR) services is expected to reach $732 million by 2014, with revenues derived from a combination of paid-for app downloads, subscription based services and advertising, according to research from Juniper.
Marketers are increasingly trying out the new technology in an effort to make deeper connections with consumers, but is augmented reality really the next big thing?
AR may still not be at the forefront of the digital strategy, however, with the upcoming launch of the iPad this new medium could become more commonplace sooner rather than later.
Although initial service adoption will be driven by AR location-based search, Juniper Research expects the first substantial revenues to be derived from AR-enabled games, bolstered by revenues from mobile solutions from 2012-3 onwards.
AR is expected to be increasingly attractive to advertisers and brands as AR ad networks will be able to charge higher CPC and CPM rates because of location relevance.
But what will make AR so attractive to consumers?
According to Niall Cook of Hill and Knowlton getting people to think about a physical object (reality) and data about it (or data about that data) that could exist online are the two core components of AR.
He says that the technology will do a number of things:
– Provide the user with a way of capturing the object
– Recognise the object
– Search for the relevant data about the object
– Display the data in a way that augments the physical representation
Visuals are an important part of advertising, so it’s not surprising that so many companies have jumped on the AR bandwagon, offering tools that visualise their products in a magical and memorable way.
AR is already a reality in the US with consumer brands such as Kia Motors, Nestlé, and Frito-Lay all experimenting with campaigns.
The hope for marketers now is that it will engage an audience more deeply than other forms of social media, such as viral videos, fan pages on Facebook, or Twitter followings.
Is AR part of your digital strategy? We can’t wait to see what brands come up with.
Recent Comments