matt - Friday, August 27th, 2010
Augmented Reality & Rock Band
Great video showing how games like Rock Band could leverage Augmented Reality in the future. (Via Immersivetech.org)
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Technologymatt - Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Facial Tracking Via Mobile PhonePretty cool video via Engadget showing real-time facial tracking on the front facing cam of the Nokia N900. More details here. Amazing… matt - Monday, August 16th, 2010
Viral Videos and Politics Don’t Mix – Vermont Senate Candidate Old Spice Guy RemakeI’m not sure if Politicians looking to take advantage of the latest viral video sensations or social media crazes really know what they’re getting into. First we had Mike Weinstein trying to channel Footloose through an 80′s inspired ‘viral video’. And now we have Vermont Senate Candidate Dan Freilich trying to recreate the magic of the Old Spice Guy video response campaign. Does it work? We’ll be political ourselves here and let you decide matt - Monday, August 16th, 2010
Google Goggles Live Demos At NY/LA Augmented Reality Meetups!
Google will be giving demonstrations of the new Google Goggles technology at the upcoming Augmented Reality NY and Augmented Reality LA meetups. If you haven’t seen Google Goggles before, I suggest checking out the embedded video below. This is a game changing technology and sure to be a killer app for any mobile device. Both events are usually livestreamed so even if you’re not in either city, you can still watch the presentation… ARNY (Augmented Reality New York) meetup is this Tuesday, 8/17 – more info here. ARLA (Augmented Reality Los Angeles) meetup is this Wednesday, 8/18 – more info here. matt - Friday, August 13th, 2010
Augmented Reality E-Commerce & Neuromarketing
Zugara and One To One Interactive are looking to do a pretty mind-blowing session at the upcoming SXSW Interactive conference. If you’re not familiar with Neuromarketing, you can read more about it here and here. Needless to say, this should be a pretty engaging panel so I hope you take a moment to make sure it’s part of SXSW’s program by voting for it here. You can find other details on the panel here but this is the short description: “Augmented reality and neuromarketing have been getting a lot of attention as cutting edge innovations that are available to brands to engage their customers and measure effectiveness. This panel will discuss ground breaking neuromarketing research that explores the difference between an AR e-commerce application vs. a traditional web based e-commerce application. The study will highlight perceptual changes, the level of neurological attention, and the post-purchase emotions that each experience yields. The study hypothesis is that e-commerce applications that utilize AR to enhance the buying experience will yield higher levels of positive engagement vs. traditional e-commerce applications.” P.S. You can see a pretty innovative use of this tech from this TED presentation we blogged about before. matt - Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
The Next Digital Revolution Will Be In The Living RoomAfter years of hype around Web TV and the “Digital Living Room”, it appears we’re finally ready to get connected in new and exciting ways. In this op-ed entitled “Ready for the Tidal Wave” written for Adweek, I tried to communicate just how large this digital ecosystem is set to be. You can read the entire adweek op-ed here or read it below.
Ready for the Tidal Wave? Those of us on the fringe of emerging media and technology are often faced with the question, “What’s next?” Mobile (especially location-based services) is obviously here to stay and will be the critical component to any integrated marketing campaign. Also, marketers seem to understand that augmented reality can be a useful and utility-based technology. But the area about to explode? Internet-connected TVs with application stores. That is, TVs with the ability to both connect to the Internet and have interactive apps downloaded directly onto them by consumers. There’s been lots of talk about the Battle for the Digital Living Room. Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Roku, Boxee and a host of other players are trying to rush out Internet-enabled boxes or gaming systems that will provide digital content and Internet connectivity on standard television sets. Cable providers are also trying to get into the game with partnerships with companies such as ActiveVideo that can stream content “from the cloud” to most standard consumer cable boxes. Even Google is trying to get into the game by modifying its Android OS for this new, connected digital living room market. (There’s a great three-minute video that shows just how disruptive Google’s entry into the connected-TV environment can and most likely will be.) Not to be left out, many electronics manufacturers that create TV sets don’t want to be without a chair once the music stops playing. So now you have companies like LG, Panasonic, Samsung and others also trying to bring Internet-enabled television sets to the digital living room as fast as possible. Regardless, whether it’s the TV itself, a gaming system, set-top box or other connected peripheral, the Internet-enabled digital living room is upon us. So with all this connectivity, what’s the end game for the consumer? Think of the still-exploding smartphone app market and apply that to your living room and TV set. It’s no secret that consumer electronic manufacturers are hoping to replicate the success of the iPhone app market by offering the same type of direct-to-consumer app ecosystem. Consider these recent projections from In-Stat: • U.S. shipments of Web-enabled consumer electronic (CE) devices that support TV applications will grow from 14.6 million in 2010 to 83.4 million by 2014. • By 2014, over 59 million U.S. broadband households will own at least one CE device that supports TV applications. • By 2014, the U.S. installed base of CE devices that support TV applications will be 136 million units. As you can see, there’s a pretty high trajectory for this market. But what of the potential pitfalls? Well, similar to the entire mobile ecosystem, there might be app compatibility issues and, unlike “mobile Web optimization” that can act as a common bridge, the interactive television app market doesn’t appear to yet have a Plan B. However, unlike mobile phones, most consumers don’t trade their TVs in every year or are tied to one carrier to determine what hardware they can buy. So, in this instance, you’ll probably see a few market leaders dominate the space and because of app purchases, stick with the same brand /compatibility for future purchases. Content owners or brands that wish to create apps in this digital living room ecosystem will most likely need to go with the leaders or wait until standards are in place and uniformity exists (which is unlikely at this point, since every new emerging tech market seems to fragment). You’ll also most likely see demographic splits where older viewers are more interested in passive viewing experiences versus younger audience viewers who are more apt to download apps that can create a more social, collaborative and interactive experience similar to online. By replicating what already works for interactive online video on the Internet, “social TV” on connected sets will most likely start gaining traction. If you were at CES this past January, you might have also seen that almost every TV set manufacturer has a partnership with Skype to offer the service via sets with webcam integrated into the hardware or ability to add webcam via USB. I personally cannot wait to see connected apps take advantage of this video chat technology tied in with contextual information from shows people are watching. Finally, there’s the whole mobile app market itself that is already offering TV-companion apps, remote control functionality and so on. It will be interesting to track how consumers will start using the sets, and where and how mobile apps will be used in relation to TV-connected apps or if they will most likely function together. I’m betting on the latter vs. the former. However it plays out, there’s a good chance that you’ll soon “augment” your viewing experience with downloadable apps that can provide further context on a show, allow you to play games tied to content you’re watching, and create an overall interactive experience for your new customizable digital living room. The only question will be if the market dictates 99 cents for these connected apps as it did for mobile. matt - Thursday, August 5th, 2010
The Social Movie Viewing Experience Gone Wrong…Cracked has an amusing 14 Inevitable Scientific Breakthroughs The World Will Regret and I found this Social TV/Movie example particularly funny and eerily prophetic. Swap out the laptops and replace with mobile and it’s pretty much true. This type of text to screen Social Movie Viewing experience is already in existence in theater with MuVChat and will be coming soon to the Digital Living Room with mobile and Connected TV apps. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this whole social viewing phenomenon probably won’t be adopted by Baby Boomers any time soon…
matt - Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Where Is Augmented Reality On Gartner’s 2010 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle?Gartner today released their annual Emerging Technologies Hype Report – you can buy the official report here. I’ve embedded the Hype Cycles form 2008 – 2010 so you can see how certain technologies are tracking. I suggest you check out the 1st image below to get explanation of how the graph is defined. Hype Cycle Definition
2008 Note: As you can see below, Augmented Reality was looking at more than 10 years adoption by mainstream…
2009 Note: In one year, Augmented Reality went from more than 10 years to mainstream adoption down to 5-10 years.
2010 Note: AR Continues to climb so expect even more of it in Q4 2010 and all of 2011
Conclusion: AR has been on a unbelievable trajectory and will continue so with mobile and kiosk-based AR sure to capture the imagination of marketers everywhere – especially in 2011. Throw in Kinect and the adoption of ‘gestural controls’ in the digital living room, and I think you’re going to see much faster mainstream adoption of AR than predicted here. If you’re sick of hearing of AR already, I think you’re going to need to deal with it because it’s not going away anytime soon… P.S. The webinar also had another interesting graphic showing a different view of information in the hype cycle. I personally think AR is transformational but that’s just me
Zugara - Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
What’s New in Mobile Marketing – 08/04/10
Zugara - Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
What’s New in Interactive Video – 08/03/10
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