Author Archives: Nipun Sangral

20 Ways Augmented Reality Is Being Used In Education Right Now

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Augmented reality is exactly what the name implies — a medium through which the known world fuses with current technology to create a uniquely blended interactive experience. While still more or less a nascent entity in the frequently Luddite education industry, more and more teachers, researchers, and developers contribute their ideas and inventions towards the cause of more interactive learning environments. Many of these result in some of the most creative, engaging experiences imaginable, and as adherence grows, so too will students of all ages.

  1. Second Life:
    Because it involves a Stephenson-esque reality where anything can happen, Second Life proved an incredibly valuable tool for educators hoping to reach a broad audience — or offering even more ways to learn for their own bands of students. Listing the numerous ways in which they utilized the virtual world means an entire article on its own, but a quick search will dredge up the online classes, demonstrations, discussions, lectures, presentations, debates, and other educational benefits.
  2. Augmented Reality Development Lab:
    Affiliated with such itty-bitty, insignificant companies as Google, Microsoft, and Logitech, the Augmented Reality Development Lab run by Digital Tech Frontier seeks to draw up projects that entertain as well as educate. The very core goal of the ARDL — which classrooms can purchase in kits at various price levels — involves creating interactive, three-dimensional objects for studying purposes.
  3. Reliving the Revolution:
    Karen Schrier harnessed GPS and Pocket PCs to bring the Battle of Lexington to her students through the Reliving the Revolution game, an AR experiment exploring some of the mysteries still shrouding the event — like who shot first! Players assume different historical roles and walk through everything on a real-life map of the Massachusetts city.
  4. PhysicsPlayground:
    One of the many, many engines behind PC games received a second life as an engaging strategy for illustrating the intricate ins and outs of physics, in a project known as PhysicsPlayground. It offers up an immersive, three-dimensional environment for experimenting, offering up a safer, more diverse space to better understand how the universe drives itself.
  5. MITAR Games:
    Developed by MIT’s Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade, MITAR Games blend real-life locations with virtual individuals and scenarios for an educational experience that research proves entirely valid. Environmental Detectives, its first offering, sends users off on a mystery to discover the source of a devastating toxic spill.
  6. New Horizon:
    Some Japanese students and adults learning and reviewing English lessons enjoy the first generation of augmented reality textbooks, courtesy of publisher Tokyo Shoseki, for the New Horizon class. As a smartphone app, it takes advantage of built-in cameras to present animated character conversations when aligned with certain sections of pages.
  7. Occupational Safety Scaffolding:
    Professor Ron Dotson’s Construction Safety students receive a thorough education in establishing safe scaffolding space through three-dimensional demonstrations incorporating the real and the digital alike. A simple application of AR, to be certain, but one undoubtedly possessing the potential to save lives and limbs alike.
  8. FETCH! Lunch Rush:
    Education-conscious parents who want L’il Muffin and Junior to learn outside the classroom might want to consider downloading PBS Kids’ intriguing iPhone and iPod Touch app. Keep them entertained in the car or on the couch with a fun little game for ages six through eight meant to help them build basic math skills visually.
  9. Field trips:Augmented reality museums guide students and self-learners of all ages through interactive digital media centered around a specific theme — maybe even challenge them to play games along the way. HistoriQuest, for example, started life as the Civil War Augmented Reality Project and presented a heady blend of mystery gaming and very real stories.
  10. School in the Park Augmented Reality Experience:
    Third graders participating in the 12-year-old School in the Park program engage with AR via smartphones as they explore Balboa Park, the San Diego History Center, and the world-class San Diego Zoo. Not only do they receive exposure to numerous educational digital media resources, teachers also train them in creating their very own
    augmented reality experiences!
  11. QR Code scavenger hunts:
    Smartphones equipped with a QR code reader make for optimal tools when sending students on scavenger hunts across the classroom or school. The Daring Librarian, Gwyneth Anne Bronwynn, sends kids on an augmented reality, animated voyage through the library to figure out where to find everything and whom to ask for assistance.
  12. Mentira:
    Mentira takes place in Albuquerque and fuses fact and fiction, fantasy characters and real people, for the world’s first AR Spanish language learning game. It intentionally mimics the structure of a historical murder mystery novel and allows for far deeper, more effective engagement with native speakers than many classroom lessons.
  13. Driver’s ed:Toyota teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchi to deliver the world’s cleanest and safest test-drive via augmented reality. While the method has yet to catch on in the majority of driver’s education classes, it definitely makes for an impressive, effective alternative to keeping and maintaining a fleet of cars.
  14. Geotagging:
    Classrooms with smartphone access blend Google Earth and web albums such as Picasa or Instagram for a firsthand experience in geotagging and receiving a visual education about the world around them. More collaborative classrooms — like those hked together with Skype or another VOIP client – could use this as a way to nurture cross-cultural, geopolitical understanding.
  15. Dow Day:
    Jim Mathews’ augmented reality documentary and smartphone app brought University of Madison-Wisconsin students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the year 1967. As they traveled campus, participants’ smartphones called up actual footage of Vietnam War protests corresponding with their current locations.
  16. SciMorph:
    Using a webcam and printed target, young kids in need of some science (although, really, everyone is in need of some science) interact with the cute critter SciMorph, who teaches them about gravity, sound, and microbial structures. Each lesson involves exploring a specific zone within the game and opens users up to questions, quizzes, and talks.
  17. Imaginary Worlds:
    With PSPs in hand, Mansel Primary School students embarked on an artistic voyage, where downloaded images and QR codes merge and provide challenges to draw up personalized environments. The journey also pits them against monsters and requires a final write-up about how the immersive experience left an educational impact.
  18. Sky Map and Star Walk:
    Available on Android and iWhatever devices, these deceptively simple applications pack a megaton punch of education via an innovative augmented reality approach. Both involve pointing the gadget to the sky and seeing the names of the currently visible stars, planets, and constellations pop up, along with additional astronomical information.
  19. Handheld Augmented Reality Project:
    Harvard, MIT, and University of Wisconsin at Madison teamed up with a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and nurtured science and math skills to junior high kids using GPS navigators and Dell Axims. Moving through the school meant moving through a synched virtual environment, with each area presenting new challenges they must tackle before pressing forward.
  20. Project Glass:
    One of the most ambitious augmented reality initiatives comes straight from Google, who believes its Project Glass holds potential far beyond the classroom. Notoriously, it requires a pair of glasses versus the usual smartphones and laptops, and current experiments involve placing users in first-person extreme athletic experiences, snapping photos, and more.

The World Is Not Enough: Google and the Future of Augmented Reality

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The new Google FieldTrip app probes the question: What digital information do you want to see overlaid on the physical world?


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A book in The Future.

It is The Future. You wake up at dawn and fumble on the bed stand for your (Google) Glass. Peering out at the world through transparent screens, what do you see?

If you pick up a book, do you see a biography of its author, an analysis of the chemical composition of its paper, or the share price for its publisher? Do you see a list of your friends who’ve read it or a selection of its best passages or a map of its locations or its resale price or nothing? The problem for Google’s brains, as it is for all brains, is choosing where to focus attention and computational power. As a Google-structured augmented reality comes closer to becoming a product-service combination you can buy, the particulars of how it will actually merge the offline and online are starting to matter.

To me, the hardware (transparent screens, cameras, batteries, etc) and software (machine vision, language recognition) are starting to look like the difficult but predictable parts. The wildcard is going to be the content. No one publishes a city, they publish a magazine or a book or a news site. If we’ve thought about our readers reading, we’ve imagined them at the breakfast table or curled up on the couch (always curled up! always on the couch!) or in office cubicles running out the clock. No one knows how to create words and pictures that are meant to be consumed out there in the world.
This is not a small problem.

But consider the cramped view of augmented reality you will see here. What information is actually overlaid on the world?

  • The weather
  • The time
  • An appointment
  • A text message
  • Directions
  • Interior directions (within a bookstore? Right.)
  • A location check on a friend
  • A check in

You can see why Google would put this particular vision out there. It’s basically all the stuff they’ve already done repackaged into this new UI. Sure, there’s a believable(ish) voice interface and a cute narrative and all that. But of all the information that could possibly be seamlessly transmitted to you from/about your environment, that’s all we get?

I’m willing to bet that people are going to demand a lot more from their augmented reality systems, and Hanke’s team is a sign that Google might think so, too. His internal startup at Google is called Niantic Labs, and if you get that reference, you are a very particular kind of San Francisco nerd. The Niantic was a ship that came to California in 1849, got converted into a store, burned in a fire, and was buried in the city. Over the next hundred and twenty-five years, the ship kept getting rediscovered as buildings were built and rebuilt at its burial site. Artifacts from the ship now sit in museums, but a piece of the bow remains under a parking lot near the intersection of Clay and Sansome in downtown San Francisco.

Now, not everyone is going to want to know the story of the Niantic, at least not as many people as who want to know about the weather. And the number of people who care about a story like that — or one about a new restaurant — will be strongly influenced by the telling. The content determines how engaging Field Trip is. But content is a game that Google, very explicitly, does not like to play. Not even when the future prospects of its augmented reality business may be at stake.

The truth is, most of the alerts that Field Trip sent me weren’t right for the moment. I’d get a Thrillist story that felt way too boostery outside its email-list context. Or I’d get a historical marker from an Arcadia Publishing book that would have been interesting, but wasn’t designed to be consumed on my phone. They often felt stilted, or not nearly as interesting as you’d expect (especially for a history nerd like me). You can handtune the sorts of publications that you receive, but of the updates I got, only Atlas Obscura (and Curbed and Eater to a lesser extent) seemed designed for this kind of consumption. No one else seemed to want to explain what might be interesting about a given block to someone walking through it; that’s just not anyone’s business. And yet stuff that you read on a computer screen at home has got to be different from stuff that you read in situ.

What happens when the main distribution medium for your work is that it’s pushed to people as they stumble through the Mission or around Carroll Gardens? What possibilities does that open up? What others does it foreclose?

“Most of the people that are publishing now into Field Trip are publishing it as a secondary feed,” Hanke told me. “But some folks like Atlas Obscura. They are not a daily site that you go to. They are information on a map. They are an ideal publishing partner.”
They are information on a map. That’s not how most people think of their publications. What a terrifying vision for those who grew up with various media bundles or as web writers. But it’s thrilling, too. You could build a publication with a heatmap of a city, working out from the most heavily traveled blocks to the ones where people rarely stroll.

Imagine you’ve got a real-time, spatial distribution platform. Imagine everyone reading about the place you’re writing about is standing right in front of it. All that talk about search engine and social optimization? We’re talking geo-optimization, each story banking on the shared experience of bodies co-located in space.

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Some of what legacy (print and digital) media organizations produce might work nicely: Newspapers publish (small amounts of) local news about a city. Patch could provide some relevant updates about local events. Some city weeklies (OC Weekly!) do a fantastic job covering shows and scenes and openings (while muckraking along the way). But everyone is still fundamentally writing for an audience made up of people who they expect are at their computers or curled up on the couch. The core enterprise is not to create a database of geo- and time-tagged pieces of text designed to complement a walk (or drive) through a place.
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What you need are awesome “digital notes” out there in the physical world. That’s what Caterina Fake’s Findery (née Pinwheel) is trying to create. People can leave geocoded posts wherever they want and then other people can discover them. It, like Junaio, is very cool. But the posts lack the kind of polish that I’d voluntarily opt into having pushed to my AR screen. I wouldn’t want to have to sift through them to find the good stuff.
To me, in the extremely attention-limited environment of augmented reality, you need a new kind of media. You probably need a new noun to describe the writing. Newspapers have stories. Blogs have posts. Facebook has updates. And AR apps have X. You need people who train and get better at and have the time to create perfect digital annotations in the physical world.
Fascinatingly, such a scenario would require the kind of local knowledge newspaper reporters used to accumulate, and pair it with the unerring sense of raw interestingness that the best short-form magazine writers, bloggers, tweeters, and Finderyers cultivate.
Back to the future.

How Augmented Reality is redefining entertainment

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Google received plenty of attention this past summer when it announced Google Glasses, possibly the highest-profile use of augmented reality (AR) yet. The glasses incorporate AR data to provide users with information directly on the eyeglass display. By now, you may be familiar with all the ways that Google Glasses could change the future, redefining our interactions with technology. What you may not be aware of are the many lesser-known AR projects in development.

Many smaller vendors are using AR in ways that will blow your mind. Although the apps and ideas have yet to garner the attention directed at Google Glasses, they are definitely worth checking out. Here are some examples of how augmented reality is being used and developed for mobile apps today, and how the technology is advancing at an astonishing rate.

AR’s mobile invasion

The term augmented reality was first coined in the 1990s, but the idea behind it is even older. It’s based on the concept of manipulating reality using technology and sending that information back to the user, who can then interact with AR-enabled apps to manipulate their surroundings on the screen in front of them. Unlike the AR of the past, today’s AR is centered less on the idea of wearing specialized headsets, and more on using cameras to distort reality. Now that every smartphone features a solid camera, AR has made significant strides in the mobile app market. Augmented reality can integrate aspects of the real world into the digital world using information sent from our smartphone’s cameras. An app can sense the geometry of objects we see in the real world and turn that geometry into a digital landscape.AR-enabled mobile apps work by taking an image that you’ve snapped of your surroundings using your phone’s camera and superimposing that data on the image of the actual landscape. In effect, the apps turn your mobile device into a channel that combines virtual imagery with your actual surroundings. This allows you to interact with an altered view of your surroundings.

Real player: Gaming apps with amazing AR functions

 A great example of such an app is Piclings, an iOS game that uses the iPhone’s camera to create level layouts for the game. The game recognizes the images taken by the camera, redefines them digitally, and incorporates them into the game world.
There are also games that are capable of integrating live camera feeds as well as still photos, such as Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner. The iPhone’s camera captures what is in front of the player in real life, and then integrates it into the game. When players are looking at a landscape of mountains, they’ll be shooting down TIE fighters in the same background that actually exists in front of them.

Using AR apps for educational purposes

Although augmented reality has shown innovation in mobile entertainment, the technology has great potential beyond fun and games. A well-known app that demonstrates the best that AR has to offer is Google Sky Map. This Android app lets you point your smartphone camera to the sky and identify the stars, constellations, and planets above you. Details and scenery change in real time as you move your handset across the sky.
A similar app exists for iOS called Star Walk, which also tells you exactly what stars, constellations, and satellites you’re looking at as you point your device at the sky. The camera records both your position in relation to the sky and where you’re pointing. It then presents information to you about the cosmos. The app also has a feature called Time Machine that shows you what the sky looked like in the past or will look like in the future.
Such apps allow mobile devices to become educational tools and can aid students in a wide range of fields. Astronomy is a prime example, but think of the possibilities in fields such as anatomy and medicine. For example, you could use augmented reality to see where each body part is located, what it looks like under the skin, and how it functions.

AR as a tool for navigation

Another great use for AR is as a navigation tool. An example of an app that takes advantage of AR in this way is Spyglass for iOS, which turns your iOS device into an outdoor toolkit with a wide range of features. Spyglass includes a milspec compass, a gyrocompass, maps, a GPS tracker, a speedometer, a sniper’s rangefinder, a sextant, a gyro horizon, an inclinometer, an angular calculator, and a 5X zoom camera.

 However, what makes it such an interesting tool is the way it incorporates AR into its features. Spyglass can find, tag, and track multiple locations, bearings, and aspects of the sky in real time thanks to its 3D augmented reality; it also gives you automatic feedback depending on where you’re pointing your device’s camera. Such tools have incredible potential for navigation and travel, especially if the apps don’t need to rely on a data network or Wi-Fi connection to work. If a user’s coordinates and geographical information are stored within the app, the information can be provided via AR feedback rather than online connectivity.

Mobile AR browsers take AR to the streets

Some specialized mobile browsers offer augmented-reality capabilities, such as theWikitude World Browser, which is available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone users. Wikitude overlays AR information within the app, displaying live information as the smartphone points to stores, hotels, scenery, and the locations around the user. The company behind Wikitude also created AR window, a tool geared for website developers that overlays information in ordinary webpages based on camera feeds.
These apps show the potential for AR to become an indispensable tool—especially as more development continues to provide more functionality. In addition to smartphones, tablets, headsets, and nearly any device with a camera can push the boundaries of AR technology.

AR apps and media interaction

Besides being an efficient tool for smartphone users and offering an innovative experience for gamers, AR can also use a camera to interact with other types of media, something we’ve previously seen in the Junaio Augmented Reality Web Browser.
The Junaio browser made headlines last year when German TV station ProSieben used it for a show called Galileo. Viewers with smartphones and the Junaio app could become active participants by pointing their smartphone cameras toward their TV screens in order to answer quiz questions. They could then compare their progress with that of other participants live through the app.
The company described it as the first interactive TV broadcast, and ratings shot up 14 percent thanks to the show’s use of AR. More than 40,000 unique users took part in the quiz, and Junaio became the number one app in the German App Store for three straight days.
Broadcasters have found other uses for AR besides quizzes and surveys; for some companies it can also be a great advertising tool. According to branding company Serviceplan, the SyFy TV channel is using AR for just this purpose: SyFy started an ad campaign where users point their smartphone cameras toward physical and outdoor display ads, and then see different images pop up on their screens.
Ads such as this can be made a lot more interesting with the help of digital technology and AR. They can also be made interactive with users taking pictures or using their devices to make choices related to the ads. There is great potential for AR to change the face of advertising.

AR on the bigger screen

Although AR is currently being developed for a broad range of uses, it’s still in its infancy. This is particularly the case when it comes to AR on the big screen or in home entertainment centers. Imagine an AR app that shows you where the TV cameras don’t go, to give you a true behind-the-scenes view. Imagine movies or TV shows that use AR special effects to add content projected from the TV set to your living room(think of “The Ring”). For instance, AR cameras could register walls and other real objects and display content upon them for you to explore virtually. Another potential use of AR is to virtually incorporate your rooms into the show. For example, a scene from your favorite TV show could take place in your bedroom, using information sent via the mobile camera.
In the future, TV networks could integrate viewer feedback to create new TV episodes or change content. The show could change depending on popular demand from viewers voting using AR technology, or a movie could have different outcomes and endings depending on the choices viewers made through their AR-enabled devices. Users could dictate the future of content.
Apple could be in a unique position to truly embrace AR for TV consumption and home entertainment if the company actually released its oft-rumored connected TV. If and Apple TV set came with a fully functional OS/iOS, many of the above ideas could become commonplace—and those applications could even start incorporating stereo 3D for a truly mesmerizing experience.

Mind-reading headsets integrated with AR

Although AR as a term is generally reserved for apps that allow your device’s camera to alter reality or the on-screen image, it goes beyond this implementation. The future of AR may mean being able to go inside virtual worlds or scenery while your mind controls the augmented objects around you. There are already apps and headsets available that allow you to control apps and aspects of apps—such as a character’s movement—with your mind alone.
Google isn’t the only player in town when it comes to AR headsets. Some competing headsets, or the ideas behind them, also have the potential to redefine entertainment. There are a growing number of apps available for mobile devices that provide a great experience and show the potential of augmented reality. By itself, AR is interesting stuff, but its true potential will be seen when it can be combined with other technologies. The adoption of AR technologies may move us closer to true virtual reality, where users can enter an entirely different world. Mobile apps today use AR in incredible ways, but we’re getting increasingly excited about what it will mean for the technology of tomorrow.

5 common augmented reality mistakes

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Walmart

Walmart’s augmented reality app

There is no doubt augmented reality has made a name for itself in the mobile space and marketers are flocking to incorporate the technology into their efforts. However, companies are still making several common mistakes, which can deteriorate the user experience.
Over the course of the year, it seems that augmented reality has become the new QR code. Companies such as Domino’s, IKEA and Walmart have invested heavily in the medium to offer consumers a unique experience.

Here, industry experts sound off on the five common augmented reality mistakes.

POOR EDUCATION
Nothing is more important than educating consumers about new technologies. To this day, there are still consumers out there that do not know what a QR code is or how to use it.Same goes for augmented reality. Education is key and essential in executing a proper AR experience.
“I’ve seen this for years – marketers or brands put time and effort into a great augmented reality experience, app or campaign and then barely communicate it,” said Trak Lord, a spokesman for metaio. “Augmented reality is an amazing technology, but it’s not a household name.
“Agencies and brands need to better educate users on how to access and use the AR,”. “This goes for promotion as well – I often see an AR app as an aspect of an integrated marketing campaign, yet without any kind of sufficient promotion.”
NOT INVESTING IN CONTENT
Realistic and entertaining content is the best way to draw people in to an augmented reality experience. Augmented reality is all about the experience – that is why the technology is becoming a huge hit among brands.
When creating a campaign, marketers must make sure that their content is engaging and really takes that user experience to another level. “Even a ‘light’ experience – let’s say just overlaying something onto a single print ad – can make jaws drop”.
DIFFERENT AR APP FOR EVERY CAMPAIGN.
Creating a new app each time there is a new campaign just confuses users. Nobody wants to download various applications that ultimately have similar functions. And, consumers will probably steer clear of augmented reality campaigns if they have to download different apps.“Brands often want their consumers to download their own app for a more/less mediocre augmented reality experience,”.“What they need to realize that, unless they are a top 5 branded app with millions of users, no one wants to download a specific app for each magazine they read, each beverage they drink or each product they buy,”.
“Brands need to go for a single lens platform app where a cumulative audience is being built which the brands can access – and where, as a consumer, multiple real-world brands, magazines, signage and logos can be ‘unlocked’ via a single lens.”
AR and 3D FOR THE SAKE OF ‘AR’
Marketers should not use augmented reality for the sake of using augmented reality.
“While the triggered AR experience can have an initial wow experience – 3D animation or photo that seems to jump to life – for however many seconds, it is the subsequent features and content value that is key to long term consumer adoption.
MAKE CONTENT ENGAGING
Similar to QR codes, augmented reality needs to have a purpose.Consumers need to make sure their campaign features engaging content to help drive word-of-mouth and user engagement. “This tech will remain a gimmick and novelty if used for gimmick and novelty effects,”.Companies should invest in the content delivered.

“Go beyond simple animation.”

Augmented reality vs. QR codes: Which delivers most bang for the buck?

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QR code use skyrocketed last year because of how easily the technology bridges digital and real-world engagements. On the other hand, augmented reality offers a more exciting way for brands to interact with consumers, but may not be the right choice in all cases.
Magazine advertisers and publishers, consumer packaged goods brands, catalogers and ecommerce providers have all embraced QR codes to deliver content and support virtual shopping experiences. The number of brands embracing augmented reality is currently smaller but some unique experiences driven by augmented reality are starting to appear.
“Hands down, QR codes are the better value for anyone looking to connect the real and virtual worlds. Dan Roche, vice president of marketing at TalkPoint, New York. “At TalkPoint, we see our customers use QR codes to drive viewership to webcasts on a regular basis through print and on-site conference promotion among other outlets.
“Augmented reality creates an interactive experience that is more fun and immersive, and those are great qualities for a campaign that provides a lot of creative options,” he said.
“I do, however, think that QR codes are more pragmatic than augmented reality. QR codes are able to provide a comparable – although maybe somewhat less – engaging experience with the benefit of being a bit more versatile to help drive revenue dollars directly into your program.”
The practical sideQR codes and augmented reality each has its own set of pros and cons.
There is still no standard format for 2D bar codes – which minimizes consumer awareness – and users do not always know what to expect when they scan a code. Additionally, QR code readers are not standard on all mobile operating systems.
On the plus side, QR codes require little effort on the part of the consumer to use and offer a great way to see a product in action before making a purchase. From the marketer’s perspective, they are relatively inexpensive to implement.
“There will be continued growth in QR codes usage,” Mr. Roche said.
“I do not see the QR code as a game changer that will have meteoric rise,” he said. “However, I do see practical, controlled-use cases that really fit well with QR codes because they are convenient, helpful and can generate hard dollars.
“Their usage in retail outlets, on subways, trains and buses and at conferences help make them a practical choice for customers wanting to control the user experience. They provide a way to offer coupons, product reviews and outlet locations.”
The excitement quotientAugmented reality can be an awkward experience, with users required to hold up a phone in front of their face to find the digital overlaps for physical objects. On the other hand, unlike with QR codes, there is no need to download a special reader to interact with the physical world.
The production costs for augmented reality can also be high, but the investment can be worth it when the end result is a fun and immersive experience that users remember.
Another issue with augmented reality is figuring out how to measure its return on investment.
“I think that 2013 will see a lot of buzz and interest in augmented realities, but more as a novice and clever concept,” Mr. Roche said. “They are great, but their ‘soft’ ROI creates an uncertainty about using them for core promotion.
“Some retailers, like Starbucks (with its Cup Magic), have done a good job using them to augment their holiday efforts,” he said.
Retail is one area, in particular, where QR codes and augmented reality have taken off, as merchants looks to push customer experiences beyond the physical and into the digital while bringing some added excitement to their stores.
For example, Walmart has been embracing augmented reality to create in-store experiences around retail promotions for popular films such as Spider-Man and The Avengers .
“The use of augmented reality and QR codes will continue to increase in 2013, all in the name of shopper convenience and retailers’ revenue,” said Kevin French, executive director and general manager of G2 Philadelphia.
“2013 will mark the most dramatic shift to every touch point becoming ‘retailified’ by bridging the gap between physical experiences and digital experiences to provide as much convenience to shoppers as possible,” he said.
“Both technologies will find their appropriate use in the value exchange between shoppers and retailers.”
Google Glass In 2013, brands will continue to use QR codes as a practical way to engage users and deliver useful content while augmented reality is likely to be used as a means to drive some excitement for the user.
Already, excitement is building for Google’s Glass project, which will offer an augmented reality-like experience via glasses that users wear.
“QR codes are really just about a quick short-cut to a digital site,” said David Bryant, chief creative officer at Organic, San Francisco. “They’re still useful – but interest in them has dropped naturally as they are no longer ‘news’
“We believe there will be an upswing in interest in AR with the advent of Google Glass,” he said. “People have started to develop applications using the SDK – the platform is solid and has enormous company behind it plus the love and attention of one of the Google’s founders.
“Although not pure AR, it has many AR-like features and will certainly restart interest in it.”

The State of Augmented Reality in 2012: Heads Up, Metadata, and Mapping

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1Cameras. They’re everywhere and in everything, usually as a person on the street we connect cameras with the idea that someone is watching us—but in our hands, they have a secondary purpose: they allow us to record and translate our own experience through a device. That’s a long way of saying, “My smartphone can use its camera to give me more information about what I can see—and at the same time share my experience.”

Right now, augmented reality is still in its infancy. It’s the stuff of video games and a slapped-on surface added to applications questing for a purchase in a culture that is putting smartphones in every hand. People already look to their phones for a great deal of information—maps, movie times, traffic reports, the news, movies, even self-recording—but it may still be a few more years before we see many people peering at the screen and looking (through the camera) at the world.
Augmented reality and mapping our world with metadata

In 2011 we talked about a trend of hyper local information delivery. Smartphones and other connected devices provide an excellent opportunity to allow people to hook into a nexus of information about the area around them—use Bluetooth, GPS, or some other fashion of getting information about your surrounds and your smartphone becomes a focus for businesses, museums, passersby, or others to deliver information that is fitting for wherever you’re standing.
This part of augmented reality is all about giving a second layer of context to place. Point your smartphone at a statue in a park and receive a short blurb about the statue’s history; point it at a business across the street and get a lunch menu; point it at the street and a menu appears offering information on when the next bus passes by or offers to hail a cab. All this from knowing where you’re standing and what the phone is pointed at.
Nokia has been attempting to lead this trend with augmented reality connected devices by baking the capability directly into their phones. As I’ve said above, using a camera and a way to give software context to where you’re standing, allows your phone to become a second-skin over what you can see—think about the applications to shopping such as this app developed by IBM to aid in personal shopping.
Using a smartphone or tablet to “look” at products on shelves and with access to a huge database of information a user could then use such an app not just to navigate the store (imagine being able to ask your phone, “Where’s the taco seasoning?”) but also to help you do a quick calculation such as price-per-ounce comparisons between products. All displayed in the surface of the mobile device as you’re looking “through” it at a shelf of products.
Going to cook dinner? Blend in a cookbook app that delivers a list of ingredients to the augmented reality app—which turns that into a shopping list, which provides a list of likely products, connects with the store’s own database of products, and even helps price it out.
Although the science fiction video SIGHT is a sterile look at how this technology might be used; it’s still an awesome view of how it could change our lives (if we didn’t sacrifice our humanity for the tool.)
Delivering information in a more convenient way
Augmented reality has applications for public transit, going from-place-to-place, public transit, and even just learning more about the world on the fly; but it also has a lot of applications for the workplace. One excellent way augmented reality can be used is for jobs that require a certain amount of on-the-spot information from either gauges, communication, or simulation.
In 2012, I came across an article about a welding mask that included a camera and a Heads Up Display (HUD) that enabled welders to finely adjust their welding technique to match the material and flame heat to get a stronger weld. Software would watch through the camera in real time and project to the welder’s vision a read out that enabled them to decide how quickly or slowly to weld the seam for the best results.
We’ve seen this sort of thing already with visualization systems such as Kinect hacked to help surgeons blur the lines between visualizing and working on a patient or enabling surgeons to manipulate images without touching anything (to maintain the antiseptic environment). Already much medical equipment does a great deal of context-adding when used to visualize the human body—it’s a perfect candidate to use a HUD for during surgery.
We’ve seen the first steps toward using vehicle windows as a HUD with “smart glass”. Although, right now, this is more about entertaining passengers than delivering more information to drivers—this might be useful for public transit drivers or delivery drivers to receive maps and other information that does not obstruct their line of sight but enables them to check a map without taking their eyes off the road.

AR vs VR and the applications of AR

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Virtual Reality was a rage once. It had a good run, especially during the 1990s, and perhaps culminating with Second Life in the decade which just closed. But virtual reality is old in the tooth. People are a lot more interested these days in “augmented reality,” or at least they are on Google where it surpassed “virtual reality” as a search term in last few years or so.

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Augmented Reality

 

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Virtual Reality

Virtual reality involves the creation of a computer-generated world that a person can interact with in such a way that he or she believes that the virtual world is real. Augmented reality, however, is a meeting of virtual reality and real life, as a computer image melds with real-life images to create a composite for the user to interact with. If virtual reality is a complete immersion in a digital world, augmented reality(AR) is more a digital overlay onto the world. It enhances the real world with digital data, and therefore it is much more interesting than a completely fabricated environment. AR has an element of magic attached to it.

AR has recently been highlighted in various marketing campaigns as a cool way to show products via PC or mobile phone, such as in the concert launch by BBC. But AR is much more than just a gimmick, and has the potential to change product and brand communications in remarkable ways:

There are endless possibilities to add useful and interesting information onto a world we and marketers are already in. If you want a marketing reality, then this is the one to go for. You should put your thinking caps on and find new and attractive ways to market your products.
You can check more interesting applications at the blog : Augmented Reality