Augmented Reality

On any given day, you will most likely interact with numerous online interfaces, typing emails, shopping online– all by clicking around on a screen with a cursor. But, what we’ve come to develop as a society is a flat environment, one that is hard to interface with on a spatial level. Most importantly, our interactions have become almost unintuitive, and we have to do a great deal of cognitive thinking just to click on a link. Augmented Reality, merges these two worlds, bringing digital, 3-dimensional environments into your immediate surroundings. Just as the name suggests, it enhances our perception of reality by adding new, dynamic pieces of information that couldn’t exist naturally in the real world.

These experiences work well through a camera lens, such as the live digital graphics that are imprinted on the field at football games and at Olympic events. But, we’re starting to move to more personal experiences. Most of these new applications are within the “gimmick” stage–primarily utilized for entertainment purposes. Soon, we should start using these techniques to build new relationships with brands, with audiences physically and emotionally connected on many integrated levels. These elements and tools, by choice of your segments, will become part of their every day lives. For example, imagine a clothing store with blank price tags, where by looking through the lens of your phone, you could reveal the price. This line of thinking promotes dynamic data, providing opportunities to easily modify sale prices. Simple ideas that engage your users, which are cheap and intuitive, will set your brand ahead of others.

What’s amazing is that marketers are already beginning to take advantage of these new techniques to enhance the user experience. One good example is a new feature on the iPhone app, Yelp. The app allows you to peer through your iPhone, into your environment, and visualize what restaurants are around you. Utilizing the compass and GPS technology on the phone, by revolving your view, more labels of restaurants appear depending on the direction you’re facing. This is fantastic for those in foreign cities, or someone willing to try new restaurants, creating a useful tool and loyalty to the online service of Yelp.

But, why has it taken us this long to progress to this point? The obvious answer comes with the progression of mobile technology. Where these applications resonate are within computer systems that can move around through a space, and are not bound to a desktop. Soon enough, we will see these elements within stationary environments: in retail spaces, gas stations and even under the hood of your car. Our old, ’80s visions of “the future” are actually manifesting themselves, opening up new platforms for marketing and communication.

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