One of the enduring problems of the Information Age, it seems, is how to integrate information with our everyday lives. Mobile phones, particularly smart phones, let anyone carry a great deal of computing and communication power, and combined with access to the ‘net, offer a wealth of information. Phones equipped with GPS functionality can even pinpoint the users’ location, and the integration of cameras, radio tuners, and other devices change our mobile phones into all-in-one information powerhouses.
Getting to that information is the problem because our mobile phones aren’t quite smart enough yet to determine what we might need to know, and deliver it to us in an easy-to-consume fashion. We’re on the threshold of the next big thing in mobile computing: augmented reality.
Simply put, augmented reality (or AR) is the combination of the real world with computer generated graphic or other information. This is often done through cameras, such as you might find on your mobile phone. The camera shows whatever the phone is pointed to, as the computer connects to the internet, generates infographics and displays them with the camera image. This can take the form of real-time 3d graphics generated on the fly (to create virtual objects) or as “floating” information and pointers, that appear transparently over objects, buildings or people in the camera’s view, like a fighter pilot’s heads-up display.
Since a large part of the human brain is devoted to visual processing, interposing computer-generated imagery with reality in this way is a seamless way to feed information to the user. In addition, AR uses what we see as an anchor, and connects relevant information to it. This is a highly intuitive way for the viewer to receive information.
And AR can be a lot of fun. Esquire Magazine launched an AR issue in December 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGwHQwgBzSI), which allowed users to interact with the content in new and interesting ways. And if you have an iPhone or Android phone, you can try out Layar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtpNx7Y14d0) an augmented reality browser tied to real-world locations, so that you can see what other people have said about the location you’re looking at. Already we are beginning to see other AR apps appearing for many mobile devices, including path finding apps, games, and more.
Augmented reality is rapidly increasing in sophistication, as the technology matures and new applications are developed. As with all new mobile technology, this maturity will also benefit those of us who are interested in marketing on the mobile platform. Last December, UK-based Juniper Research predicted that AR would net only $2 milion in revenue this year – but that the number would grow to $714 million by 2014. Most interesting is where Juniper predicted that revenue would come from: paid application downloads, subscription-based services and advertising.
At this point, the field is wide open. Augmented reality is just another technology that aims to make people’s lives easier, whether it’s delivering information where and when the user needs it, or enhancing real-world experience through connectivity. How to use it to create customer conversations is an exercise that I will leave to your imagination.
