Emerging Technology 16 | Ramble by Sunil Bahl @SunMatrix

Augmented Reality will be second only to voice

10 years back the Internet was the big upcoming thing and everyone was scrambling to make web sites…then last year thanks to the iPhone, mobile got the much needed push and this has now made it the next big thing for the coming decade. 🙂

Google, Apple, Nokia, Samsung…are going all out to build the best phones and this in turn is facilitating a rapid evolution of Augmented Reality…just the same way we saw Social Media evolve out of the Internet.

So here comes the future…

— The first mobile AR browser that premiered in the Netherlands this June 2009

— AR is also starting to be used with print…Esquire Magazine is offering some AR-enhanced ads in this December issue.

Adobe’s marketing chief Ann Lewnes said at the recent MIXX conference that Augmented Reality could become the direct mail of the 21st Century, by tying a physical mailing to a Web experience when someone holds a page up to her computer’s camera.

Augmented future beyond just mobiles

Few days back I wrote about Augmented Reality (AR) and how it was being used by various brands in their campaigns.

Today I have come across some exciting examples of Augmented Reality which have little to do with mobile location awareness! These implementations give a whole new dimension to what more can be done in this field.

Eye Pet

The Eye Pet is a virtual critter that users can interact with through a webcam and is currently expected to be released for the Sony PS3 game system soon.

Demo:

Sony PS3 Version with 3D menus:

AR Sketch

Hand sketching is used here as a natural way for creating Augmented Reality mechanical experiments. The user can sketch experiments and watch them simulated in 3D.

AR on natural shapes uses a real time shape recognition and pose estimation system.

So get ready for a future that is going to be all about ready to browse and interact with data on top of the physical world, through webcams, mobile phones and AR glasses.

A future where such experiences are mainstream is fast approaching. 😎

Breakfast cereal box is a 3D game console!

No longer the stuff of science fiction, augmented reality (AR) is fast catching on with forward-thinking brands.

This growing trend has led brands to conjure up useful ways to integrate AR within their campaigns, with mobile playing a very big part.

Augmented reality apps are proving popular with brands
Augmented reality (AR) is the process of superimposing digital information or objects onto real-time video streams in order to create the illusion that they are part of the physical scene.

The latest AR application being Nestle’s Chocopic cereal box being turned into a 3D game console for the film ‘Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard’. The film and the cereal box will roll out across Europe, starting in France next month.

The game itself is fairly simple – a variation of the hand-held maze games requiring the player to manoeuver ballbearings in to a hole. Achieving that has a rather spectacular effect in the AR version, as shown off in this video released below.

Still for many, AR remains little more than a gimmick, but the campaigns shared in the below links show it can be much more. Here is a top 10 list from Revolution Magazine: