Tag: London

AR Cinema: London Movie Scenes on iPhone

Turn London into a living movie map

The Augmented Reality Cinema app for the iPhone allows you to walk around London and discover all the places where movies have been shot. Just point your iPhone in the direction of a sweetspot and get a replay of the movie scene that was shot there.

The app is currently a work in progress prototype. But if and when it does see the light of day, I am sure it will make a great gizmo for all the movie buffs out there.

The magic is not AR. It is time travel

The clever part is the juxtaposition. You stand in the real location. Then you pull the filmed moment back into that exact space. That overlap between “here” and “then” is what makes the concept feel instantly shareable and instantly fun.

In city exploration experiences, the strongest mechanics turn real-world wandering into a lightweight mission with an instant payoff.

Why this fits the way people explore cities

It turns wandering into a mission without forcing a route. You move naturally, and the city rewards curiosity with a scene. That is a strong mechanic for tourists and locals alike because it makes discovery feel personal.

What this prototype is really aiming for

A new kind of location-based entertainment. Part guided walk, part trivia, part nostalgia. Built around the simplest action. Point. Watch. Move on.

What to steal if you build AR experiences

  • Anchor the experience to real places people already want to visit.
  • Give the user one simple gesture that unlocks the payoff. Point and replay.
  • Use “before vs now” contrast as the hook. It creates emotion without heavy storytelling.

A few fast answers before you act

What does the Augmented Reality Cinema app do?

It lets you walk around London, point your iPhone toward a location “sweetspot,” and replay the movie scene filmed there.

Is the app available?

The post describes it as a work-in-progress prototype.

Who is it for?

Movie buffs and anyone who enjoys exploring film locations while walking the city.

What is the core mechanic?

Location-based discovery paired with an AR replay that overlays a movie scene onto the real place where it was shot.

iHobo

Its easy to ignore a homeless person as you walk past them on the street, but after having one on your phone for three days Depaul UK hopes that you will be able to see the complex and varied issues behind youth homelessness.

This free app was created (pro bono) by Publicis London to raise awareness of Depaul UK, a charity devoted to youth homelessness in the UK.

Ford C-Max Augmented Reality

A shopper walks past a JCDecaux Innovate mall “six-sheet” screen and stops. Instead of watching a looped video, they raise their hands and the Ford Grand C-MAX responds. They spin the car 360 degrees, open the doors, fold the seats flat, and flip through feature demos like Active Park Assist. No printed marker. No “scan this” prompt. Just gesture and immediate feedback.

What makes this outdoor AR execution different

This is where augmented reality in advertising moves from a cool, branded desktop experience to a marker-less, educational interaction in public space. The campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather with London production partner Grand Visual, runs on JCDecaux Innovate’s mall digital screens in UK shopping centres and invites passers-by to explore the product, not just admire it.

The interaction model, in plain terms

Instead of asking people to download an app or scan a code, the screen behaves like a “walk-up showroom.”

  • Hands up. The interface recognises the user and their gestures.
  • Virtual buttons. On-screen controls let people change colour, open doors, fold seats, rotate the car, and trigger feature demos.
  • Learning by doing. The experience is less about spectacle and more about understanding what the 7-seat Grand C-MAX offers in a few seconds.

How the marker-less AR works here

The technical leap is the move away from printed markers or symbols as the anchor for interaction. The interface is based on natural movement and hand gestures, so any passer-by can start immediately without instructions.

Under the hood, a Panasonic D-Imager camera measures real-time spatial depth, and Inition’s augmented reality software merges the live footage with a 3D, photo-real model of the Grand C-MAX on screen.

In retail and out-of-home environments, interactive screens win when they eliminate setup friction and teach the product in seconds.

Why this matters for outdoor digital

If you care about outdoor and retail-media screens as more than “digital posters,” this is a strong pattern:

  • Lower friction beats novelty. The magic is not AR itself. The magic is that the user does not need to learn anything first.
  • Gesture makes the screen feel “alive.” The moment the passer-by sees the car respond, the display stops being media and becomes a product interface.
  • Education scales in public space. Showing how seats fold, how doors open, or what a feature demo looks like is hard to compress into a static ad. Interaction solves that.

Practical takeaways if you want to build something like this

  • Design for instant comprehension. Assume 3 seconds of attention before you earn more. Lead with one obvious gesture and one obvious payoff.
  • Keep the control set small. Colour, rotate, open, fold. A few high-value actions beat a deep menu.
  • Treat it like product UX, not campaign UX. The success metric is “did I understand the car better,” not “did I watch longer.”
  • Instrument it. Track starts, completions, feature selections, and drop-offs. Outdoor can behave like a funnel if you design it that way.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core innovation here?

Marker-less, gesture-driven AR on mall digital screens that lets passers-by explore product features without scanning a code or using a printed marker.

What does the user actually do?

They raise their hands to start, then use on-screen controls to change colour, open doors, fold seats, rotate the car, and trigger feature demos like Active Park Assist.

What technology enables it?

A depth-imaging camera measures real-time spatial depth, and AR software merges live footage with a 3D model of the vehicle.

Why does “marker-less” matter in public spaces?

Because it removes setup friction. Anyone walking by can immediately interact through natural movement and gestures.