cascade

Augmented Reality (or AR) is one of those subjects that causes as much confusion as excitement. Over the past year, and with increasing frequency, the advertising world has been abuzz with AR campaigns, where the real and virtual worlds have ‘blended’ to startling effect: Lego, Nokia, BMW, Doritos and even General Electric have all got in on the act. And when Hollywood gets hold of a subject, you know that its importance will increase not decrease (‘Surrogates’, a blockbuster film starring Bruce Willis that explores some of the issues of living in a blended world, launches in 2010).

The term, which is believed to have been coined in 1990 by an employee of Boeing, refers to any technology that overlays virtual information on top of the real world. Commonly known examples of AR are the yellow lines seen in television broadcasts of sports games, where coloured trails show the location and direction of the ball or players. The real-world elements are the football field and players, and the virtual element is the yellow line, which is drawn over the image by computers in real time. Another type of AR application uses projectors and screens to insert objects into the real environment, enhancing museum exhibitions for example. The difference to a simple TV screen is that these objects are related to the environment of the screen or display, and that they often are interactive as well.

As with all such things, the advent of technology and more specifically, the internet, has allowed us to apply more complex applications of this idea. Maps that are overlaid onto camera phones to guide people to the nearest subway; codes embedded into packs in store which allow shoppers to visualise the product without having to remove its packaging; binoculars that overlay the image that you are looking at with detailed descriptions about distance, terrain and even elements of historical interest!

One of the nicer examples I have seen is in the Lego store in Orlando where AR is used to allow children to witness a working version of the model that they are looking to buy, by simply waving the pack in front of a computer screen; another nice example is the shopping assistant that works with a web cam, to allow online shoppers to overlay clothes that they like are interested onto their body to see how they look. When you see examples like this, the commercial possibilities seem limitless.

How it will be applicable in HR or Recruitment Advertising remains to be seen. Some of the ideas we have discussed include a support function for exhibits, preloaded virtual maps of buildings and facilities for onboarding, virtual conferences and even virtual decorations!

As with many of these fads, there will be hundreds of business, marketing and educational applications that will appear alongside the first generation entertainment examples that are currently being developed.  Expect a lot of guff as well as something that is genuinely useful. But the reason I think that AR is here to say is that it abides with three of the simple laws of the internet: it adds value, it requires minimal effort to use and it is free.

That’s enough on AR, I’m off to do some virtual work…

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