Augmented Reality: Can the 'Stars Wars' Effect Sustain Engagement?

Despite Intriguing Trials, the Technology Remains Is Still Niche

Posted by Garrick Schmitt on 05.01.09 @ 07:44 AM

Garrick Schmitt

We are obsessed with the next new thing. As an industry we eagerly anticipate new software releases, tirelessly champion new services (MySpace to Facebook to Twitter) and new eras (Web 3.0 anyone?). We also have no fear of eating our young -- how many times have you heard the phrase "Google-killer"?

For digital marketers the eagerness to find the next new thing is both a blessing and a curse. Steve Rubel, Edelman's digital czar, summed up the paradox best recently when he said, "Second Life was digital marketing's Vietnam." There is a price to be paid for being too quick to embrace a new, untested technology after all. You can both overshoot the market and look foolish at the same time.

Augmented reality, also known as AR, sits at that precarious nexus today. It could transform the digital landscape, merging online and offline in wild new creative ways, as Hashem Bajwa points out in an earlier DigitalNext post. Or it could forever be the stuff of freaks and geeks. Will the hype around augmented reality crush the technology before it can really take off?

First, a bit of background: today augmented reality enables consumers to physically manipulate 3-D objects as displayed on a monitor. The technology is based on using markers that are basically printed patterns on paper that when viewed through a video stream and recognized by software create a type of hologram-effect.

Think Star Wars' Princess Leia's hologram communication with Obi-wan and you are pretty close.

Brand marketers have spared no time in utilizing augmented reality to inspire consumers' imaginations -- here's a look at some of the best early work:

Lego and K'Nnex:
The toy company, with its "digital box," has one of the more arresting uses of augmented reality today. Simply hold up the Lego box to an in-store kiosk with a web cam and watch a rendering of the toy assemble itself. Metaio, one of the leaders in AR, designed the experience for Lego. Total Immersion, another leader in AR, created a similar experience for K'nex toys which also allows you to control and even pilot the AR rendering of the toy.

Topps:
Topps is leading the way with augmented reality today and trying to ignite new consumer interest in sports trading cards for the digital era. The company enlisted Total Immersion to create a full AR experience that brings Major League Baseball favorites like Ryan Howard to life. At Toppstown fans get the full 3-D experience, can make the tiny players bat and pitch, plus explore stats and game info.

"Coraline":
The marketing for "Coraline," the first stop-motion animation feature shot in stereoscopic 3-D, was top notch. One of the highlights was the creation of a digital out-of-home campaign that literally placed consumers in the story by allowing them to see themselves as a part of the film through augmented reality. These "Storescapes" used AR to superimpose images onto pedestrians, so onlookers could see their reflections in a screen with animations including button eyes covering their real eyes.

Toyota IQ and Mini:
Car companies such as Toyota and BMW have been quick to use augmented reality technology to create a 3-D interactive experience for new cars. Toyota employed the technology to show off its new small car, Toyota IQ, which allows consumers to interact with the car and discover its agility and interior space. MINI employed the same strategy for the release of its Cabrio convertible.

Fanta Virtual Tennis:
Fanta uses augmented reality to bring a bit of whimsy and play to its Play On Virtual Tennis offering. The game enables consumers to play in either single or double mode, facing off with a friend any conceivable location. It's promises the closest thing to an out of home Wii experience that we've seen yet.

As novel and fun as these examples are (and there are many, many more -- even GE is in on it), we are still years away from realizing the true potential of augmented reality. The next wave, which is just starting to emerge from the labs, promises a full melding of virtual and physical without markers. Imagine walking down the street and seeing digital overlays on physical locations (bars, restaurants, movies) with adverts, video clips and even avatars.

The primary way to experience this today (albeit with bugs) is with a mobile device, such as T-Mobile's G1, which runs Google's Android software. For example, Wikitude from Mobilizy is a mobile travel guide that provides overlays of locale information for more than 350,000 world-wide points of interest. Similarly, Enkin wants to "reinvent navigation, by combining GPS, orientation sensors, 3-D graphics, live video, and several web services into something wholly new. More practically, SPRXmobile and ING deliver a mobile ATM finder for the Netherlands that allows you to locate ING ATMs simply by holding the phone in front of you.

At this moment, augmented reality for marketers is a novel, nifty new technology -- but one that will probably grow gimmicky quickly. I've personally played with seven or eight demos at this point (many mentioned above) and after the "gee whiz" factor is exhausted, there's not really much there to sustain any real engagement. Besides, there's a vague whiff of "Dungeons & Dragons" around this stuff that's will be hard for most to get over.

Today, the biggest potential is for both geeks and gamers. It's not hard to imagine how a video-game company could use the technology to literally place consumers into the game. Or how companies like Topps and Legos will further use augmented reality to enable a more enhanced game play experience. Check out WiiSpray for a taste.

Augmented reality has huge promise, but in the short term it's a niche technology for a niche audience. But, of course, gaining a foothold in the multibillion-dollar gaming industry is not a bad place from which to start. Let's just hope our desire to hype it AR as the next big thing won't harm it.

~ ~ ~
Garrick Schmitt is Group Vice President of Experience Planning at Razorfish and the agency's global lead for User Experience. He publishes FEED, Razorfish's annual consumer experience report, and writes and edits the Razorfish Digital Design Blog. In his spare time he flails about on Twitter @gschmitt.

8 Comments

By nickkinports | Chicago, IL May 1, 2009 09:41:25 am:

Not sure about what we are seeing today - I have a feeling in store and in display style AR will be the first true success stories. AR over the web just seems too gimmicky without enough payoff for consumers to actually go through the trouble.

I can definitely see uses for mobile apps that allow users to get more information by pointing the camera at a product in store and having a real time display of info, interactivity, etc...

All of this, of course, will require some form of standardization to be truly effective. Companies like Total Immersion are poised to move, but making the experience effortless for the consumer will be essential to pushing AR forward.

http://www.twitter.com/admaven

http://admaven.blogspot.com

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By CHRIS | TEMPE, AZ May 1, 2009 12:10:46 pm:

Garrick, you couldn't be more on point and it's clear that AR is getting a ton of buzz. Sure, that buzz could be the downfall of the technology before it gets anywhere close to mainstream, but it seems that the majority of the chatter is within our industry with most consumers still having little or no idea about or exposure to Augmented Reality.

I also agree with nickkinports that the success of AR in the consumer market is going to come down to compelling campaigns that leverage the technology as part of a 360° strategy where AR is effectively executed and delivered in the retail channel. In fact, Hashem was quick to point out that "Marketers should think about how to leverage this kind of technology in retail locations, on products or in static advertising..."

In fact, in a brief email conversation we had with Hashem just recently, we shared how Digital Consumer Solutions, Inc (DCSI) is already doing exactly that through our nationwide network of digital signs in high-traffic C-Stores, Grocery Stores and QSRs.

Using AR as a tool to deliver compelling brand experiences in retail channels will be essential to the adoption and success of the technology and directly affect its ability to increase brand awareness, product sell-through and drive an unparalleled consumer experience.

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By gschmitt | San Francisco, CA May 1, 2009 01:56:30 pm:

Nick and Chris, you make good points. Integration with an overall marketing effort is key and clearly in-store will be the best place for consumers to experience the technology today.

The real promise, in my opinion, is when we start getting out into the world and AR plays a much more utilitarian role (ala ING's ATM Finder).

I've collected a bunch videos of the examples I've listed above. You can find them here:

http://www.digitaldesignblog.com/2009/05/01/will-augmented-reality-reshape-digital/

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By freedimensional | London May 1, 2009 08:18:09 pm:

Great article. Some excellent case studies I hadn't read about before.

I am releasing a series of blog posts about AR that readers might be interested in - http://bit.ly/B0VOc - would love your feedback.

Best,
Tom

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By MATSNL65 | LOS ANGELES, CA May 3, 2009 10:39:24 pm:

That AdAge is discussing the challenges of Augmented Reality is a part of the process of moving things forward. I can see Garrick being chased down the hall of Razorfish by one of the Senior Flash Dev guys doing their 5 minute elevator speech about how cool AR is. I say that because that's how I learned about it.

Here's an idea that we are all thinking but only the right client will take advantage of (preferably out of the recession we're in)

Imagine not just the paper in front of the web cam but a full fledged installation that uses not just one camera but several that gives a 360° experience that multiple people can participate in. The platform's patterns would be read by each camera differently (think: infrared or one pattern, UV for another pattern and the screen would stitch the AR parts together along with the people. RFID technology could be added for other effects. Even a modified kiosk with a sort of sensor that users can affect the 3D world would be a great task.

As with all ideas, like gschimtt says, if it isn't a real use for it, then things that are created using AR will simply be found in trade magazines and their subsequent award annuals.

Anyway... I'm grateful for those wild flash cats who just do this sort of thing for the love of it all and not have the marketing/business minds that I and many of my colleagues are blessed/cursed with.

Langston Richardson
VP, Executive Creative Director at infuz
Twitter: @MATSNL65

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By robertrice | Raleigh, NC May 5, 2009 10:46:30 pm:

Garrick,

Nice article, definitely more informative than the other one. There are a few points I'd argue with, but nothing major.

I believe that AR risks being a "novelty" technology and is being dangerously over hyped right now. Anyone thinking about leveraging AR at this early stage needs to spend some time researching who and what is out there, and making sure that they aren't implementing it for the sake of using it, but that it has a value added effect on whatever marketing campaign, ad, or product.

Even though I think that the emerging industry is all over the place right now, there are plenty of people driving innovation and pushing hard to avoid being sidelined as novelty and attempting to build better tech, or in some cases implementations that have only been dreamed about in sci-fi. I think we are closer to things like Minority Report and Denno Coil that people realize (a few years, not many).

I think that marker based AR is going to lead the way in the immediate future, as it is easy to implement and relatively straightforward, but the real value and potential of AR will only be realized when we start seeing markerless systems and wearable displays (transparent lenses, eyeglass form factor).

I highly recommend that anyone interested in learning more about AR check out Ori Inbar's blog, www.gamesalfresco.com, which is arguably the definitive source for all news and info on AR. I would also suggest attending this year's ISMAR (International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality) in October in Orlando. This is a breakout year for AR.

Of course, I'd suggest my own blog, www.curiousraven.com and keeping an eye on my company, Neogence Enterprises.

The world is changing and augmented reality has a better than average chance of becoming a paradigm breaking technology that will have a massive impact on traditional and new media.

Just don't buy into the hype or let cheap augmented reality efforts cloud your vision. I'm looking forward to more coverge and commentary of the emerging augmented reality industry by Ad Age.

Robert

twitter: robertrice
skype: rrice919
www.linkedin.com/in/robertrice

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By zazila | Sidcup May 10, 2009 04:28:10 am:

Good article Garrick thanks for all the links

I first used ar with schoolchildren (11yrs) at Kings Cross EAZ a few years ago when the BBC were developing an AR with the moon circling around a spinning earth on a place card. This was brilliant for science as you could see a (tall!) man on it and it showed how shadows change. It was a secret project then. However am now at a Junior school in Sidcup nr London and am working with my class of 7/8yr olds using green screen technology and ar. We are using technology to extend the science and other areas of the curriculum in the school. I have just showed them google earth ar 3d models on place cards which (most) thought was great but some didnt see any point to it. However having discovered the bmw z4 ar this will be their art and technology for next week! A lot of it is fun but I also think it will have a great effect on Education. All my class already have e mail addresses of their own and many use them regularly. Am supposed to teach them about it later this year, but they got there first!

They are developing new language and concepts at an early age. Showing them the google models on a placemat one said " I ve just put my hand through the Eiffel Tower" that sentence would not have been constructed before ar happened.

So.. I will be teaching with ar as we develop technology at the school. I also have a group of 17 ICT gifted 7-11yr children as a test bed. I believe ar will have a real impact on their education and if anyone wants to use our school as a test bed that would be great. We also have no money so any grants for this would be good too....

Peter
peterbtt'at'btinternt.com

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By zazila | Sidcup May 10, 2009 05:01:23 am:

Hello again

Apart from a number of typos my e mail address is:

peterbtt'at'btinternet.com

sorry!

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