I am living in a world where technology is really very fast paced. There are so many awesome and amazing things that keep on happening every single day or I can say even minutes. Changes are faster than I or you all can think of.
‘Augmented reality’ is something very different. When I started this digital agency I never had a clue that we will come such a far way.
Here are some of my thoughts over what Augmented reality is all about.
Imagine you find a parking spot in the hottest restaurant in town within seconds and all this is done today with the magic of augmented reality.
Augmented reality is the ability to insert overlay digital and virtual information into the real world track. There are augmented browsers which allow the user to see the world in a whole new way. These browsers basically help you to recognize and see the things immediately which in turn provide you information on an immediate basis. The browsers can be accessed by using your smart phones. Just imagine how awesome it can be to browse real life just like browsing the web.
This technology was created way back in 1962 by cinematographer called Morton Healy by the concept of the simulator which had visuals and some sound effects added to it. It was not too advanced back then as it is now.
The first real world application of augmented reality heads up display in fighter jets where the symbols are projected on the transparent glass. This helped the pilots to take away the distraction looking at gauges and allows pilots to aim their weapons better.
Now-a-days we get to see the heads up displays in BMW which displays all the information about speed, navigation. It projects from a console on the dashboard and onto the glass where only the driver can see it.
Augmented reality eases the activities such as travel, shopping and can even be applied to medicine & education for rapid development.
It can also be used as a marketing medium. Using augmented reality in advertising we can engage users. Many brands are opting for it like IKEA. In 2013, IKEA came up with a catalogue where they used the augmented reality application which was designed in such a way that various pages of the catalogue were recognized in different ways. They used 3D animation for showing the furniture. Instead of looking at the video you can have a look at the catalogue with your camera in the app and it will visualize the bed right there on the page. The drawers can be opened and closed which actually helps us in seeing how all the work is being done. There is even an app which will tell you how the furniture may look at your home.
Mitsubishi also has an app which allows the customer to see the products and their actual size inside their home. Augmented reality has helped in replacing the old manuals and shows the real-time instructions.
One other place where it is used is the art museum where your smart phone replace the long audio tours where you can point your device at each painting and you can get its information in real-time.
But this technology is not only limited to the mobile phones but also has huge deployments in the commercial space. One of the best examples of it was ‘LEGO’. Wherein you could walk into every ‘LEGO’ store in the world and grab a box off the shelf hold it up the flat screen that has a camera on the top and the entire model could be visualized which was animated on top of the block. It was a huge hit and Lego internally calls it as NAG factor because once a kid sees the model on top of the box there is no way the parents will not buy it for them.
The main point is that augmented reality is not that it’s mobile but its further interaction using the vision. Reality is all about vision.
Google glasses are running in the forefront of this race. They allow us to take pictures, videos, navigate, send messages and get information simply by talking to the glasses.
We can expect to see things differently what we can call the Augmented city in the near future.
Augmented reality also faces some hurdles.
- Banned by law.
- Unless the manufactures get serious we may not get proper and good quality hardware and softwares.
At the end, I would conclude by saying “As we cannot change the reality let us change the vision which sees the reality.”
About Ashish Dalia
Ashish Dalia, Entrepreneur, Chairman & Chief Business Strategist at I Knowledge Factory Pvt. Ltd. has spent 16 years helping brands with online marketing strategies and brand building. His specialized areas include Marketing, Business Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Internet Marketing, Digital Advertising, Brand Management, SEM (search engine marketing), SEO (search engine optimization), ORM (Object-relational mapping), SMM (social media marketing).
As an Entrepreneur, Ashish’s goal is focused on taking the organization to a greater scale, utilizing and optimizing resources, manpower and taking them to a higher level of productivity, drive growth and profit, he believes one of his key responsibilities is “to create an environment which motivates and inspires individuals to contribute their part in executing the company’s goals.
