Spotlight on Augmented Reality

Beyond the buzz

Spotlight on Augmented Reality

March 24, 2010 - Russell Barnes

Work at Play loves anything that’s fun, innovative and pretty darn smart.

Augmented Reality (AR) ticks those off pretty well, so we've put together this snack-sized piece on one of the buzzy acronyms that’s been grabbing the attention of consumers and marketers alike.

Back to basics

AR can be defined as having the following 3 main characteristics:

  • A combination of real and virtual environments.
  • Interactive in real-time.
  • Registered in 3D.

You've likely seen it in action - without necessarily knowing it's AR - in various sports events on TV such as Athletics (world-record pace line), Football (first-down line), Ice hockey (red 'tail' on the puck) and NASCAR (clean vs. dirty air).

Sectors as varied as military, architecture, navigation, entertainment and marketing have all embraced use of AR in a wide variety of applications... so it certainly seems to be more than just a passing fad.

Google trends data seems to agree, with an upward curve and numerous spikes of interest appearing throughout 2009:

Source: Google trends

Enough already, show me some cool stuff!

Here’s some great examples of AR use in marketing for a variety of brands:

Taking things one step further than the traditional 'print paper marker > place in front of webcam' approach, Zugara’s online shopping app coupled AR with Motion Capture, allowing users to change the colour and style of the clothes they are trying on (in the virtual sense at least!).

Playtime with AR

The Entertainment sector seems one of the most obvious places to use AR, considering the technology lends itself well to playful experiences and experimentation.

Sure enough, a few toy manufacturers, film studios and games developers have stepped into the fray, and the following examples show a nice range of AR applications (from POS to game-playing, right back to good old-fashioned goofing around with robot heads):

Wander and wonder

All the above examples represent a small fraction of what's being done in the AR space online, but using AR with mobile technology is potentially where the future lies.
Back in mid-2009, Layar, the ‘World’s first mobile Augmented Reality browser’ came to the fore, and the proliferation of mobile applications of AR doesn’t look set to tail-off any time soon.
Just recently in fact, an announcement was made regarding the development of a mobile AR app to aid those with visual impairment... some 345 million people worldwide.

Otherwise, a few mobile AR examples worthy of note are:

One word: Wow.

Just in case any of our readers didn’t catch it, this amazing talk at TED by Blaise Aguera y Arcas shows what happens when you put AR in the hands of people with more grey-matter than most (the 'no way!' is from about 4 mins onwards).
And here's an AR gaming demo that puts the audience right in the thick of the action...

So why isn't everyone using it?

Probably the biggest limitations for AR, are that users generally need to print out a physical 'marker', and download a small piece of software to interpret that marker and present the augmented view to them. That said, marker-less AR is in the process of being perfected, and if the popularity of AR continues to increase I wouldn't expect software to be much of a barrier in the long-run.

For mobile AR applications, it's potentially the user-experience that could be limiting - current apps can sometimes be better in concept than execution on the small screen.
That said, the possibilities of AR glasses and AR contact lenses that are controlled via voice commands are both being worked upon. These are both exciting and a little scary in equal measure, but clearly show where the technology could head...

In summary

Augmented Reality is a great way to enhance consumer engagement in a way that appeals to innate human characteristics - curiosity and playfulness.

If there's to be a future for AR in marketing, it seems likely it will need to provide some sort of utility, rather than simply offering entertainment; Consumers are notoriously short of attention-span, so creating something that's fun AND useful should stop AR being left out in the cold in the real world.

At Work at Play, we're really looking forward to working with our clients to help them discover how to get the best from AR.

Get in touch with us to find out what we can offer you.

On User Engagement, Digital Experience and the Intersection of Marketing & Technology.

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