Microsoft’s unveiled IllumiShare last week: a new software/hardware combination that allows people to interact with physical objects remotely and reciprocally. Two lamp-like peripheral devices connected by the internet project camera images on a desktop, while also capturing physical objects that are next to them. Just the beginning of how augmented reality will continue to become more and more closely integrated with our physical environments and experiences.
(Source: creativity-online.com)
No More Long Fitting Room Lines!
After years of envying Alicia Silverstone’s virtual closet experience in the classic 90s movie, Clueless, I thought I would never get the chance to experience that! Well, Topshop and Russian agency, AR Door, seem to have created something quite like it! They recently launched an innovative retail shopping experience for its customers in Moscow. The idea? A virtual fitting room for the new “Dress up” collection. This augmented reality fashion experience uses the latest Microsoft’s Kinect technology! Who said that fashion and video games couldn’t go together?
(Source: psfk.com)
Every object has a story. “The things we keep” is a lovely short film from last year. What I love about it is something that I come across again and again when I think about what is important in our world of brands: simplicity, storytelling and connecting on an emotional level. I also enjoy how this film (without really trying) touches upon and makes me think about augmented reality, geo-tagging and shared experiences.
Film by Christian Svanes Kolding.
Volkswagen blends print and mobile. Automaker Volkswagen is using an augmented-reality application to make its print campaign interactive and let mobile consumers take a virtual test drive of its new Passat model.
(Source: mobilemarketer.com)
A couple weeks back, a company called Quest Visual released Word Lens, an iPhone app touted by many as one of the most innovative, practical uses of augmented reality to-date. Its purpose: the translation of text from English to Spanish and vice versa in real time, imposing an aesthetically matched translation of text on your mobile device’s (currently only iPhone) camera view of textual objects.
While interesting in and of itself, the release of Word Lens is symbolic of a broader, more important historical trend that’s happened time and time again: the increasing relevance of certain novel technologies over time — e.g., the car, the television, and, in this case, the mobile phone/augmented reality.
Why is this important to the business of brand experiences? At present, we’re living in a world of rapid technological innovation, in which communications technologies are at the forefront. The ways people see, hear, and feel the world are changing — even if, for the most part, we hold on to perennial values, principles, and processes for making decisions about stimuli (which, many argue, are also changing). As marketers, we must adapt, look forward, and prepare for how to best reach people’s hearts and minds.
The Audi Augmented Reality Car Calendar
A fantastic idea executed to perfection by Audi. In 2010, they didn’t create just another beautiful calendar—they created an unexpected experience.
They printed the calender purely as landscape images (blank, with no cars), and then prompted people to download the special iPhone app that allowed users to activate the calendar though an Augmented Reality feature that brought the images to life on your iPhone.
I personally think the experience could have been somewhat more interactive and interesting, but it’s certainly a novel take on the traditional car calendar.
