Last year Augmented Reality (AR) was in its infancy, but this year is proving to push the boundaries producing creative and engaging features. AR spans across various mediums, iPhones, maps, games, websites and even tattoos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XSB70J6a98).
This blog is a continuation from @JocelynKirby article, “The Future of Mobile – apps, AR and more”, concentrating on creative and intuitive AR virals. Virals need to be engaging and unique to spread the word of a brand. AR is an exciting technology and can create a great buzz.
Here is a collection of my personal favourite creative and fun viral augmented reality pieces (in no particular order):
Adidas Augmented Reality Sneaker – http://www.arvertising.com/news/2010/02/adidas-originals-arvertising/
Adidas turn their Sneakers into an Augmented Reality device. Adidas are introducing AR into their products, by embedding the AR barcode into the tongue of the sneaker. The user can then use the AR to play games and share their winnings with their friends.
Cadburys Creme Egg - http://www.cremeegg.co.uk/
Cadburys, (despite now being part of the American plastic cheese empire, known as Kraft), are well renowned for their campaigns and are utilising AR to promote Creme Egg specifically for the Easter period. Not yet live, the AR piece encourages the user to launch the Creme Egg into Newtons Cradle. The user can then enter a competition. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.
Doritos Sweetchilli - http://www.doritos.com.br/sweetchili/site/
To promote Doritos new flavour, an AR symbol is printed onto the back of the packet. When activated on the site, a 3D monster is born. The user can interact with the character and share with friends. A great example encouraging consumers to visit their website.
Eminem - http://www.therelapse.co.uk/3dartcomp/#/elapse
To promote Eminem’s new album, an AR based competition was created. Competitors use AR to graffiti a giant E, and the best artwork wins a prize. This is unique as the user can customise the object by drawing onto its surfaces.
Burger King $1 Campaign - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSc9TlCDBI
Who says AR has to remain in websites? AR is starting to emerge in banner adverts. Burger King $1 campaign is the first in its kind, not only because it is integrated into a banner but the AR device to activate the banner is a $1 note. Impressive stuff!
Esquire Magazine - http://www.esquire.com/the-side/augmented-reality
Augmented Reality magazine. Impressive use of combining both AR and video.
BMW Z4 - http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/augmented_reality/homepage?bcsource=vanity
This viral supports the vibrant Z4 TV advert, allowing the user to control the car leaving colourful wheel markings. Who knew driving a 3D Z4 leaving paint trails would be so much fun!
So there you have it! This is no means a definitive list, but shows what is currently out there and provides food for thought for future possibilities. Augmented Reality is a powerful tool to increase awareness of a brand.
Richard Fenn
@rfenn
Designer/Motion Graphics
Showing posts with label Augmented Reality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Augmented Reality. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
The Future of Mobile - apps, AR and more!
The future of mobile – can anyone really accurately predict it? It’s a tough one as mobile usage trends throughout the world vary considerably. However, with the exciting technological advancements of recent years, the once, seemingly unachievable and futuristic predictions of mobile experts, are now one by one, fulfilling their prophecy.
So what are the most notable mobile trends for 2010 and beyond?
Mobile Apps
It had to come first in the list right? Still a huge growth area, the flexibility and uses for mobile apps never cease to amaze. With over 100,000 applications in existence and in excess of 1bn downloads, iPhone applications are very much leading the pack in terms of sophistication and popularity. With diverse uses; from the Sleep Cycle app, which monitors your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in a lighter sleep stage, ShapeUp, which helps you track and plan daily calorie intake, through to HootSuite, for managing your social network updates, such as Twitter, LinkedIn etc; iPhone applications really are penetrating every aspect of our professional and private lives. How long before we have an app which tracks our children’s whereabouts or allows us to scan the barcodes of empty cartons to reorder our groceries?
Augmented Reality
It’s still early days in terms of the practical application of many augmented reality applications, but the potential when mobile meets AR is pretty exciting! A few recent apps have started to show more than just a novelty appeal and are actually beginning to be useful too. Some of the best include:
TwittARound – the application takes your view of your surrounding via your iPhone camera and overlays nearby tweets over the image – not sure how useful it is right now, but very cool!
Nearest Tube – it does just what it says on the tin! It helps you find your nearest tube station and identifies your location based on what the application sees through your iPhone camera.
TAT Augmented ID – almost scary in its capabilities, TAT Augmented ID uses facial recognition technology from Flickr to identify a person’s face and then display information such as their contact information and online profiles from various social networks – possibly more novelty than useful at this stage but the potential with this type of technology is huge!
Mobile Commerce
Mobile ecommerce is an area which has received a lot of air time recently, with many discussing the merits and potential that it holds for retailers. With mobile ecommerce a largely untapped market, retailers that take note of the growing power of mobile will gain huge competitive advantage over their rivals. Waitrose / Ocado was the first grocery store to launch an iPhone application (July 09) that allows you to do your grocery shopping on the move, regardless of whether you have an internet connection, and I suspect others won’t be too far behind – this is definitely a case of ‘watch this space’.
So there you have it, a quick summary of what I see to be the most exciting areas of the future of mobile for the year ahead – I am certain we are going to see many great things appearing on our mobiles, and I for one, can’t wait to give them a go! Anything that makes my life easier, saves me time or money, or just gives a bit of entertainment is a hit in my eyes!
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
So what are the most notable mobile trends for 2010 and beyond?
Mobile Apps
It had to come first in the list right? Still a huge growth area, the flexibility and uses for mobile apps never cease to amaze. With over 100,000 applications in existence and in excess of 1bn downloads, iPhone applications are very much leading the pack in terms of sophistication and popularity. With diverse uses; from the Sleep Cycle app, which monitors your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in a lighter sleep stage, ShapeUp, which helps you track and plan daily calorie intake, through to HootSuite, for managing your social network updates, such as Twitter, LinkedIn etc; iPhone applications really are penetrating every aspect of our professional and private lives. How long before we have an app which tracks our children’s whereabouts or allows us to scan the barcodes of empty cartons to reorder our groceries?
Augmented Reality
It’s still early days in terms of the practical application of many augmented reality applications, but the potential when mobile meets AR is pretty exciting! A few recent apps have started to show more than just a novelty appeal and are actually beginning to be useful too. Some of the best include:
TwittARound – the application takes your view of your surrounding via your iPhone camera and overlays nearby tweets over the image – not sure how useful it is right now, but very cool!
Nearest Tube – it does just what it says on the tin! It helps you find your nearest tube station and identifies your location based on what the application sees through your iPhone camera.
TAT Augmented ID – almost scary in its capabilities, TAT Augmented ID uses facial recognition technology from Flickr to identify a person’s face and then display information such as their contact information and online profiles from various social networks – possibly more novelty than useful at this stage but the potential with this type of technology is huge!
Mobile Commerce
Mobile ecommerce is an area which has received a lot of air time recently, with many discussing the merits and potential that it holds for retailers. With mobile ecommerce a largely untapped market, retailers that take note of the growing power of mobile will gain huge competitive advantage over their rivals. Waitrose / Ocado was the first grocery store to launch an iPhone application (July 09) that allows you to do your grocery shopping on the move, regardless of whether you have an internet connection, and I suspect others won’t be too far behind – this is definitely a case of ‘watch this space’.
So there you have it, a quick summary of what I see to be the most exciting areas of the future of mobile for the year ahead – I am certain we are going to see many great things appearing on our mobiles, and I for one, can’t wait to give them a go! Anything that makes my life easier, saves me time or money, or just gives a bit of entertainment is a hit in my eyes!
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Visit Bluhalo; Augmented Reality Style!
For my own interest, a little while ago I began creating a simple internal Augmented Reality (AR) app, (this development wound up being the inspiration for my blog entry about Augmented Reality a couple of weeks ago). We often invite potential clients down to meet us and see where we work. With this in mind, it seemed appropriate to me to use a plan of the office and to pop it up on the blog.
While the ‘final product’ is very rough (tinkering during lunch breaks isn’t really conducive to terrific results!), it is a reasonable proof of concept and has left me in a substantially better position to approach this kind of work for client projects. More importantly, it means I have to write a lot less to supply a blog entry :-)
It goes without saying that you need a webcam for this to work (a reasonable quality one will give more reliable results too), and you will need flash installed as well. As with most AR apps doing the rounds online at the moment, you need to print out the pattern (http://www.bluhalo.com/swf/Data/marker.pdf) and show it to your webcam.
You will need to keep it flat, and if possible out of harsh light sources or the recognition suffers. Other than that, be aware that it might be slow to download on poorer connections and that performance of this rough version is very dependant on your computer.
So, welcome to Bluhalo's office! (If you don't have a web cam, you can get a sneak preview below!)
While the ‘final product’ is very rough (tinkering during lunch breaks isn’t really conducive to terrific results!), it is a reasonable proof of concept and has left me in a substantially better position to approach this kind of work for client projects. More importantly, it means I have to write a lot less to supply a blog entry :-)
It goes without saying that you need a webcam for this to work (a reasonable quality one will give more reliable results too), and you will need flash installed as well. As with most AR apps doing the rounds online at the moment, you need to print out the pattern (http://www.bluhalo.com/swf/Data/marker.pdf) and show it to your webcam.
You will need to keep it flat, and if possible out of harsh light sources or the recognition suffers. Other than that, be aware that it might be slow to download on poorer connections and that performance of this rough version is very dependant on your computer.
So, welcome to Bluhalo's office! (If you don't have a web cam, you can get a sneak preview below!)
Here's a screen shot of the AR app in action...
Nick Nawrattel
Lead Multimedia Developer
Lead Multimedia Developer
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
2009 Roundup and 2010 Predictions
The 2009 roundup and 2010 predictions from EConsultancy makes for great reading!
I particularly like the mentions of real-time and augmented reality, and will watch with great interest for advancements in the analysis and measurement tools out there. With budgets being more carefully spent and the demand for payment by results and quantifiable ROI on the increase, it will cetainly be interesting to see the progression made in this area in 2010.
You can view the full article by clicking here.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @jocelynkirby
I particularly like the mentions of real-time and augmented reality, and will watch with great interest for advancements in the analysis and measurement tools out there. With budgets being more carefully spent and the demand for payment by results and quantifiable ROI on the increase, it will cetainly be interesting to see the progression made in this area in 2010.
You can view the full article by clicking here.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @jocelynkirby
Monday, 9 November 2009
Augmented Reality - a marketer's dream?
Augmented Reality! You can practically feel the air buzzing at the words! As a self confessed geek, I think it is pretty cool – it’s one of those things that seems to say “the future is almost here”.
As big an advocate of Augmented Reality (AR) as I am, would I call it a mature technology? Well, the answer to that very much depends on what exactly you want to achieve with it. We have seen the iphone apps, for example, in which someone is looking at a street with useful little notes indicating the location of things we cannot live without (mmm, McDonalds…) such as http://www.metroparisiphone.com/index_en.html.
However, in such a case, what exactly are we seeing? When people look at AR, they often think along the lines of “well, it’s recognising what it’s looking at. Obviously.” Unfortunately that isn’t always the case. In the case of the above app (as well as the majority of similar apps), this would not work on earlier models of the iPhone, since it uses the hardware to determine your location and the angle of the phone as opposed to actually 'recognising' the location based on visual features.
This is still an impressive achievement, and useful, since it does exactly what it says on the tin. However, it’s not doing it in the manner in which many people expect. This distinction is beginning to artificially raise expectations of what the technology is capable of; to unintentially misrepresent the current state of image recognition technology.
Image recognition basically works by using a database (dictating shapes and appearance from various angles etc) in conjunction with algorithms to isolate visual objects that correspond with the stored elements. This combination allows the application to recognise a “familiar” feature and determine its’ position, angle and distance; this is then used to determine matrix which can be applied to whatever virtual elements are to be added.
For this implementation of the technology, the quality of the recognition can be hampered as much by the breadth of the database as the algorithms themselves. The target also plays a large part. For example, if we wish to recognise an arm, we could suddenly find ourselves with positive matches on (relatively angled) lamp posts. Context would mitigate this (the need for an app to differentiate between lamp posts and arms is unsurprisingly quite low), and tweaks to the algorithms and database could overcome this.
The point I am trying to make is that to accurately pick out and track non specialised or relatively featureless objects is tough. There are ways to cheat this. In as much as the mapping applications make use of additional information to enhance their reliability, we can use markers or patterns in image recognition applications. This is becoming quite common already. For example, many of the proof of concept application that have been developed (most based on the same open source code) rely on a small square containing an arbitrary pattern.
These two approaches to augmented reality are quite different, and I have read of several people suggesting that different phrases / names be coined to differentiate between the different types of the technology in order to manage expectations (http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/09/resetting-expectations-some-augmented-reality-links.html discusses this and more). This is unlikely to happen; instead as the technology improves, it will likely get rebranded or tweaked (as with HD television).
It certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be successfully used now to great effect. A nice commercial example would be Lego, who recognise their packaging and use it to apply a rendered image of the built product (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGu0N3eL2D0). A similar example is the Bluray release of Transformers 2 – it includes an AR element using the disc packaging.
The key then is to carefully consider what you are trying to achieve, beyond simply looking cool (gimmick for the sake of it tends to create fairly short term buzz and appeal to a limited demographic). For best results, you need to determine a way to augment your Augmented Reality – as much as it may seem limiting, you risk doing more harm than good marketing an unreliable demonstration. Some projects will lend themselves to this more than others for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=628ruDBA6Jg&feature=player_embedded – facial features themselves can act as markers. This obviously won’t be appropriate everywhere (context again).
Other recognition based projects may necessitate markers (such as the card). But if the benefit is sufficient, the user will be more likely to accept the additional inconvenience. For example, on an ecommerce site it is common to include pictures of the products. We could perhaps supply a printable pattern which is then used to display high resolution 3D models of each item – this allows the user to examine the product from a much wider range of angles than the standard 3d “click-to-rotate” style wrap around. If done properly, the user can better gauge, for example whether the dress they are about to buy will make their bum look big. Hooray!
It would then be easy to suggest expanding on this – for example why not have it wrap the clothes on the person themselves? Here we start pushing the boundary of the image recognition / inconvenience trade-off. If a person has to wear certain colours while shopping online, and only in front of a certain colour wall-paper in order to use the feature reliably, they are likely to deem it too much hassle.
That’s not to say it is unworkable – some US shops have introduced “virtual mirrors” that allow just that – however it is in a “controlled” environment (the benefit of context again). This may get people into the store for novelty, but provides a tangible benefit that might induce sales (no waiting in line for changing rooms, etc).
Leaping back to location aware applications, there are a number of smart phones out there that would allow such applications. The iPhones “app store” allows for easy deployment, and tends to appeal to the same demographic that would be most impressed by such technologies, hence the proliferation of augmented maps and sky charts.
To leverage this technology then isn’t a massive departure from current marketing thinking – you just need to carefully consider who you are aiming your campaign at and exactly what requirements it will place on the target user, versus what gains you are hoping to achieve.
While the location aware aspect of the technology is definitely the more mature, with real world 'useful' applications already out there, the image recognition element definitely has much further to go. However, there is tremendous potential in the technology as a whole and it is only a question of time…
Nick Nawrattel
Lead Multimedia Developer
As big an advocate of Augmented Reality (AR) as I am, would I call it a mature technology? Well, the answer to that very much depends on what exactly you want to achieve with it. We have seen the iphone apps, for example, in which someone is looking at a street with useful little notes indicating the location of things we cannot live without (mmm, McDonalds…) such as http://www.metroparisiphone.com/index_en.html.
However, in such a case, what exactly are we seeing? When people look at AR, they often think along the lines of “well, it’s recognising what it’s looking at. Obviously.” Unfortunately that isn’t always the case. In the case of the above app (as well as the majority of similar apps), this would not work on earlier models of the iPhone, since it uses the hardware to determine your location and the angle of the phone as opposed to actually 'recognising' the location based on visual features.
This is still an impressive achievement, and useful, since it does exactly what it says on the tin. However, it’s not doing it in the manner in which many people expect. This distinction is beginning to artificially raise expectations of what the technology is capable of; to unintentially misrepresent the current state of image recognition technology.
Image recognition basically works by using a database (dictating shapes and appearance from various angles etc) in conjunction with algorithms to isolate visual objects that correspond with the stored elements. This combination allows the application to recognise a “familiar” feature and determine its’ position, angle and distance; this is then used to determine matrix which can be applied to whatever virtual elements are to be added.
For this implementation of the technology, the quality of the recognition can be hampered as much by the breadth of the database as the algorithms themselves. The target also plays a large part. For example, if we wish to recognise an arm, we could suddenly find ourselves with positive matches on (relatively angled) lamp posts. Context would mitigate this (the need for an app to differentiate between lamp posts and arms is unsurprisingly quite low), and tweaks to the algorithms and database could overcome this.
The point I am trying to make is that to accurately pick out and track non specialised or relatively featureless objects is tough. There are ways to cheat this. In as much as the mapping applications make use of additional information to enhance their reliability, we can use markers or patterns in image recognition applications. This is becoming quite common already. For example, many of the proof of concept application that have been developed (most based on the same open source code) rely on a small square containing an arbitrary pattern.
These two approaches to augmented reality are quite different, and I have read of several people suggesting that different phrases / names be coined to differentiate between the different types of the technology in order to manage expectations (http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/09/resetting-expectations-some-augmented-reality-links.html discusses this and more). This is unlikely to happen; instead as the technology improves, it will likely get rebranded or tweaked (as with HD television).
It certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be successfully used now to great effect. A nice commercial example would be Lego, who recognise their packaging and use it to apply a rendered image of the built product (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGu0N3eL2D0). A similar example is the Bluray release of Transformers 2 – it includes an AR element using the disc packaging.
The key then is to carefully consider what you are trying to achieve, beyond simply looking cool (gimmick for the sake of it tends to create fairly short term buzz and appeal to a limited demographic). For best results, you need to determine a way to augment your Augmented Reality – as much as it may seem limiting, you risk doing more harm than good marketing an unreliable demonstration. Some projects will lend themselves to this more than others for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=628ruDBA6Jg&feature=player_embedded – facial features themselves can act as markers. This obviously won’t be appropriate everywhere (context again).
Other recognition based projects may necessitate markers (such as the card). But if the benefit is sufficient, the user will be more likely to accept the additional inconvenience. For example, on an ecommerce site it is common to include pictures of the products. We could perhaps supply a printable pattern which is then used to display high resolution 3D models of each item – this allows the user to examine the product from a much wider range of angles than the standard 3d “click-to-rotate” style wrap around. If done properly, the user can better gauge, for example whether the dress they are about to buy will make their bum look big. Hooray!
It would then be easy to suggest expanding on this – for example why not have it wrap the clothes on the person themselves? Here we start pushing the boundary of the image recognition / inconvenience trade-off. If a person has to wear certain colours while shopping online, and only in front of a certain colour wall-paper in order to use the feature reliably, they are likely to deem it too much hassle.
That’s not to say it is unworkable – some US shops have introduced “virtual mirrors” that allow just that – however it is in a “controlled” environment (the benefit of context again). This may get people into the store for novelty, but provides a tangible benefit that might induce sales (no waiting in line for changing rooms, etc).
Leaping back to location aware applications, there are a number of smart phones out there that would allow such applications. The iPhones “app store” allows for easy deployment, and tends to appeal to the same demographic that would be most impressed by such technologies, hence the proliferation of augmented maps and sky charts.
To leverage this technology then isn’t a massive departure from current marketing thinking – you just need to carefully consider who you are aiming your campaign at and exactly what requirements it will place on the target user, versus what gains you are hoping to achieve.
While the location aware aspect of the technology is definitely the more mature, with real world 'useful' applications already out there, the image recognition element definitely has much further to go. However, there is tremendous potential in the technology as a whole and it is only a question of time…
Nick Nawrattel
Lead Multimedia Developer
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