Over the past few weeks I seem to have been living in a virtual world, wherever I go I can’t seem to escape the augmented reality bubble. Having spoken about it some time ago when I was less clued in on the topic I thought that I would come back to it and see where it, as a mobile concept, is headed.
There are a number of ways in which AR can work but two major types of augmented reality seem most likely to see academic use in the coming five years, markerless and marked (Pence, H). Markerless AR has little reliance on any fixed markings but instead can use GPS and recognition software in order to produce results. Marked AR however relies on the use of two dimensional barcodes that can be read by a web camera or Smartphone (Fig 1.0). It is the later that we have seen more over the last few months with many marked AR pieces coming to the forefront of marketing. Just a simple YouTube search for Augmented Reality will throw up hundreds of results for people experimenting with marked AR. A great example of marked AR would that of Ikea, as discussed in my previous entry on AR, Ikea have developed a try before you buy service that will be 100% dependant on 2D markers placed around the room in order to generate the furniture images.
Another example that came to attention a couple of weeks ago was Lynx’s station ambush that coincided with the new ‘Angels will Fall’ campaign. In the middle of the station, a large dot was put were people had to look above. At the same time, an Angel (such as in their commercial) would fall from the sky. Not literally, but virtually. (Callens, B. 2011)
The angels ambush at Victoria was a huge success and was followed up with another event at the Birmingham Bullring two weeks later. The reliance on the large screen of course was no problem given the size of the operation undertaken by Lynx but I still can’t shake the feeling that the future of AR doesn’t lie in gimmicky Smartphone apps or technology that requires us to live life through a lens.
Through some of my further research into the uses of AR in fields other than advertising I discovered that my fears may be unfounded as there are companies making inroads into the relevant new technology. Wearable computers may sound like something that you would rather see in Star Trek or a Japanese laboratory but by the looks of things that may be exactly where we are heading.
“Wearable computers will allow a much closer association of information with the user than is possible with traditional desktop computers” (Barfield and Caudell, 2001). Finally someone is reading from the same page as I am. This may just be the development that could entirely convince me that AR is a viable technology across the board.
Barfield and Caudell, 2001, also believe that Future extensions of wearable computers will contain sensors that will allow the wearable device to see what the user sees, hear what the user hears, sense the user's physical state, and analyze what the user is typing. If this was possible, the incorporation of the other sensory factors would make for an all together superior experience and far more appealing as a technology, not just in advertising but across the board.
It is unclear what form this wearable computer would take on a practical level, a form of head wear or goggle perhaps? While the theory behind this is exciting and there is no doubting in my mind that AR does have a future, I can’t help but feel that consumers will not react well to having to wear their computers. Even if it was expertly incorporated into a pair of somewhat chunky glasses, would this be seen as a practical solution? Surely the fashion police would be after you in a number of days at the most. The practicalities of wearable computer equipment are further questioned in my mind by Jaramillo et.al suggesting that if wearable computers were to take off as the future of mobile AR then In this case, the system should be extremely robust to tolerate outdoor conditions (Jaramillo et.al 2010), A fair point given the necessary durability of the gadgets in the market place today but as I am not a product designer the words robust and weather proof sound alarm bells that it’s going to have to be big and bulky.
Problems aside, the possibilities for AR would seem to be endless. Uses are being found in many different industries such as medicine, engineering, gaming and assembly to name a few. Feiner says the mainstreaming of AR technology now largely depends on the ability to manufacture and sell the technology profitably. He says he remains convinced that future AR technology will not be a mere novelty; instead, he says, it will be one of the fundamental user interface paradigms through which humans interact with the world. (Kroeker, 2010)
The interactive user interface would seem to be driving the success of AR for most people; an immersive world of virtual overlay that is a little nostalgic of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s view of the world in The Terminator series.
So looking at what augmented reality could offer us from an advertising perspective do we think that it is a viable medium? Well looking at the Lynx clip above you may well think so. I certainly see a bright future for AR in direct mail, the use of a 2D marker in a piece of promotion could add an edgy and engaging facet to a brand.
On a larger scale AR could be used in a similar way one of its current incarnations, Layar. The smart phone application allows the user to view to world through the screen of their mobile phones and offers pop ups and promotional information on stores you pass. If there was some way that this service could be offered without the need of a smart phone then who knows what may be possible.
The future potential of AR is an exciting prospect and I think that pairing NFC’s with AR would again open all sorts of new avenues and take advertising into a new position, perhaps more of an impulsive buying society. I will leave you with a clip of a public service campaign that was executed in Holland, while your watching think of all the other possibilities that AR could be used for in UK public sector marketing.
References
Barfield, W., Caudell, T,. 2001. Fundamentals of wearable computers and augmented reality. Lawrence Erlbaum: Mahwah USA.
Bimber, O., 2005. Spatial Augmented Reality : Merging Real & Virtual World. A K Peters: Natick USA.
Callens,B,. 2011. Axe Lynx: Angel Ambush. Unknown: Creative criminals. Available from http://creativecriminals.com/outdoor/axe-lynx-angel-ambush/ [Accessed 23/4/2011]
Jaramillo, G.E et.al 2010. MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS IN DAILY ENVIRONMENT. Revista EIA, 14, 125-134.
Kroeker, KL., 2010. Mainstreaming Augmented Reality. Communication of the ACM, 53 (7), 19-21
Pence,HE., 2011. Smartphones, Smart Objects, and Augmented Reality. Reference Librarian. Vol. 52 Issue 1/2, p136-145
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