Before today, Augmented Reality (AR) applications were reserved for iPhone 3gs and Android users. Now, with the Symbian version of Wikitude, also Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini owners can use their mobile phone camera as an Augmented Reality Browser. The application surface has been adapted for Nokia and existing control elements have been integrated to increase the user experience for Nokia customers.
If you don’t know Wikitude, here is a movie on the Android version:
The movie Avatar inspired some big advertisers to give Augmented Reality a try. It makes sense to go AR if you are sponsoring a movie in which a person’s avatar lives in a virtual world.
Coca Cola enables 140 million bottle-shaped cans, some 30 million fridge packs, bags, bottles and drink cups to show a controllable helicopter if you put them in front of your webcam.
Here is the ad that announces the AR coup:
You can try the real thing as of the launch of the movie. December 18th that is.
McDonalds is also getting into the game. It’ll have special cards that bring up a controllable mechanical toy when you hold it up to your Webcam and visit an Avatar-branded site. More details are not yet revealed.
And of course we also have the AR enabled Avatar cards, but this one you must have seen already.
If you visit the online clothier Tobi.com, you can go to its online dressing room and try your selection out. If you are not sure about the dress or the shirt, push the button to take a picture and share it on Facebook to get instant feedback from your friends.
Augmented Reality, motion capture and social networking all working together to help you shop.
This is just another example of how augmented reality is taking over a part of the online shopping process. Agree, it’s not perfect yet put we are getting there. The value that AR can bring to the process is obvious. We only have to wait for the technology to catch up.
But the real question is if this will drive more sales. That’s a difficult one. People do like to feel and touch the item before they decide to buy it. But then again, all the catalog shoppers will tell you otherwise.
Anyways, if you want to see how it works, here is the movie.
On Adobe Max there was a session on Augmented Reality. The speaker was Lee Brimelow, a platform evangelist at Adobe. Enjoy.
Citroën launches its new DS3 with an Augmented Reality application.
When you go to the promotional website, you can download a marker. Actually two markers. One is to view the car in 3D, the other one is to go on a testdrive in a 3D game.
Marker 1
Marker 2
It’s really well done. The only downside is you have to download and install a plugin.
Two important entrants yesterday in our industry. Layar as well as Urbanspoon brought their apps to the iPhone. Layar is, as we all know the European pioneer in augmented reality browsing. Urbanspoon is a popular US restaurant finding app. Below are some screenshots from the Layar app.
We were wondering how long it would take before anyone would put a girl dancing on a marker ;-)
Lionsgate Films has done it to promote its new movie Gamer. The AR app is on a different site. You can pick a society girl and have her performing a lap dance just for you. Only for men with a webcam….
What it has to do with the movie promotion, I have no clue.
looking at the many AR applications today we can partition them into three major categories:
The three major AR categories
Some examples:
| App | Contextual | Informational | Interactive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lego box opener | - | + | - |
| Wikitude | + | + | - |
| Terminator | - | + | - |
| Gum5 Music Mixer | - | - | + |
| Layar | + | + | - |
| Sony’s EyePet | - | - | + |
| Living AR | - | + | - |
| Excell AR | - | + | + |
| Medical AR | - | + | - |
| BMW repair assistant | + | + | + |
| Tube finder | + | + | - |
Note that interaction (for instance in the BMW repair assistent’s case) can also be by means of voice commands, or by operating a phone’s touchscreen. Of course the coolest interaction is by means of gesture recognition as in SONY’s EyePet’s case.
Although Augmented Reality exists for a very long time, it is only the last year or so that it is becoming hyped as the new new thing. And with every new technology popping up, you have believers and non-believers. We have to admit….we are believers :-).
What to expect from the blog? We want to give you the full picture on AR. Plenty of expert opinions, plenty of examples: our own work, but also loads of work from the AR community. Stay tuned.
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