Whatever happened to... augmented reality?
March 4, 2011 | Posted by
Since appearing on the scene in 2009, augmented reality (AR) has had an interesting lifespan. It quickly became the "hip new thing" in the technology world and marketers jumped at the opportunity to utilize this new engaging experience. In fact, a quick Google news search reveals that there were 7,000 augmented reality news articles published last year alone. AR was destined to become a mainstream reality because camera-enabled smartphones enabled users to "escape reality" and explore their world like never before. One question remains though, after having more than two years to develop and mature, whatever happened to augmented reality?
If you've never heard or seen augmented reality before, I'll give you an introduction. In March of last year, GE made big splashes after introducing their "Smart Grid" campaign. Within the campaign, GE released a micro site that contained a nice little easter egg. Users could print off a "marker" and interact with the website by utilizing that marker. To prevent confusion, I'll let GE explain the details and show you how it works.
GE's Plug Into The Smart Grid Augmented Reality Demo
It has now been a full year since that AR demo hit the web, and where do we stand? Well not too well. Immediately following the release of GE's demo, hundreds of marketers and developers jumped at the opportunity to create their own augmented reality experience. And not surprisingly, most of them were terrible. Here are just a handful of the worst the web has to offer:
Now that you've seen the worst, let me bring some good news. Augmented reality isn't dead. In fact, one of the biggest technological products released in the last year is based on augmented reality. I'm talking about Microsoft's Xbox peripheral, Kinect. Utilizing all kinds of drool-inducing tech to create a full-body controllerless gaming experience was no small feat, and Microsoft nailed it. The public loves it, and most people probably aren't aware that they are using an augmented reality device, but selling 8m Kinect units in the first 2 months is strong evidence of that.
That not the only success story either, marketers have finally started to figure out some decent uses of augmented reality for everyday use. Applications and utilities that actually make our life easier and allow us to engage with brands on a deeper level. Here are some great examples of AR being used today:
What are your thoughts on augmented reality? Is it just a fad, or is there some real value in it?