{"id":1378,"date":"2011-08-06T17:07:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T21:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/retailprophet.com\/blog\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2011-08-06T17:07:20","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T21:07:20","slug":"has-augmented-reality-finally-come-of-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailprophet.com\/2011\/08\/06\/has-augmented-reality-finally-come-of-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Augmented Reality (Finally) Come of Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been almost a year ago that I spoke with Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, one of the co-founders of Layar<\/strong><\/a> and a pioneer in the development of augmented reality or \u201cA\/R\u201d applications.\u00a0 At that time we were discussing the potential for a battle between brands over virtual real estate as companies awaken to the opportunity to create augmented reality stores in high traffic public places, such as Nike\u2019s installation<\/strong><\/a> in New York.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maarten\u2019s passion and excitement about A\/R was palpable and we had a great conversation about its future.\u00a0 Like many others, I saw tremendous possibilities for the technology to manifest itself in cutting edge consumer experiences.\u00a0 This melding of the physical and the virtual seemed to me to be a marketer\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

A\/R had a long way to go…<\/h3>\n

I was also not alone however, in the belief that A\/R had a long way to go.\u00a0 While companies like Nike and Lego were clearly experimenting with the technology, there simply weren\u2019t enough public A\/R installations or applications out there to generate consumer awareness of the technology or where to find it \u2013 much less how to use it.\u00a0 Even the marketing community was generally unaware of what augmented reality was.\u00a0 Furthermore, the technology itself was a little rough around the edges.\u00a0 Graphics and animation tended not to be extremely clear or crisp making for an often-disappointing overall experience.\u00a0 Above all, the big question about A\/R was one of utility.\u00a0 Sure, it was cool<\/em> but was it useful <\/em>especially\u00a0compared to other, more developed and trusted mediums such as QR<\/a> (quick response) codes?<\/p>\n

A giant step towards mainstream<\/h3>\n

This week Layar (and augmented reality in general) took a quantum step forward in satisfying skeptics with an innovation called Layar Vision.\u00a0 Essentially, Layar Vision is a new system protocol that enables recognition of everyday objects, , overlaying them with digital content- \u00a0similar to Google Goggles. It also works much like QR code technology does but in this case, the object itself acts as the code. \u00a0Just scan the object using the Layar app and you’ll immediately be able to see the digital content attached to it.<\/p>\n

Magazines, books, food packages, cars or any other object can be recognizable to the program and instantly overlay it with digital information which the user can then interact with.\u00a0 The conceivable applications for it are limitless.<\/p>\n

I think you\u2019ll agree after watching the video<\/strong><\/a> below that with this single innovation, it\u2019s my feeling that we\u2019ve seen A\/R go from being a novelty to something many marketers could find practical applications for.\u00a0 It certainly takes A\/R off the marketing fringe and puts it in a similar arena with QR and NFC technology.<\/p>\n

[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AsD0DuPT1GI&feature=player_embedded#at=25[\/youtube] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens It\u2019s been almost a year ago that I spoke with Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, one of the co-founders of Layar and a pioneer in the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[160,161,162,163,126,164,165],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-augmented-reality","tag-layar","tag-layar-vision","tag-maarten-lens-fitzgerald","tag-nfc","tag-nike-airwalk","tag-qr-code"],"yoast_head":"\nHas Augmented Reality (Finally) Come of Age | Retail Prophet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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