We Are Organized Chaos

Augmented Reality Links of the Week- December 3, 2010

Here are the stories that got the most activity on the Augmented Reality Facebook Group this week:

• Interactive Puppet Prototype with Xbox Kinect
• Black Eyed Peas – The Time (Dirty Bit)
• Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes – The Joy of Stats – BBC Four

Kinect – Hype vs. Reality

Kinect is a huge hit and is helping usher in the era of the Natural User Interface (NUI).  This is the future of how we will interact with digital content.  Not only has Kinect sold 2.5 million units in 25 days, but it is also selling 2X as fast as the iPad.

But like every great NEXT BIG THING, there’s a reality check that needs to happen.  Kotaku has a great annotated video outlining what’s real in Kinect vs. what was part of the infamous June 2009 concept video launch.  It’s interesting to watch to see what’s real and what’s still in store for the future.   You can view the video here.  On a side note, if you’re interested to see how people are ‘hacking’ Kinect, there’s a great site to check out called Kinect Hacks.

*Augmented Reality Shopping is not available on Kinect, but is available on Zugara.com

TechZulu Spotlight, A Showcase Of Los Angeles Tech

Are you currently in Los Angeles? If you are, hopefully you can attend what’s shaping up to be an exciting TechZulu event tomorrow night (11/18). We’re honored to be presenting our e-Commerce Augmented Reality Software at the event, and looking forward to meeting some great folks and inspiring companies.

More information about the event is pasted below, but if you’re there please be sure to find us and say “hi”.

From TechZulu’s site:

“Join TechZulu and the Entrepreneurship Association at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management as we celebrate LA’s most exciting tech creations of the moment with the brightest digital minds and engineering talents this side of Fresno. There is still a few tickets left for you to be part of what will surely be an amazing night.

The inaugural Spotlight takes place Thursday, November 18, at UCLA’s Korn Hall auditorium. The evening will consist of a series of live stage demonstrations guaranteed to impress and inspire new ideas among all in attendance.”

For more info, please click here.

Augmented Reality Links of the Week- November 5, 2010

Here are the stories that got the most activity in the Augmented Reality Facebook Group this past week:

• Interactive Go-ban
• Star Wars Mobile Augmented Reality Game
• Apple Patent Takes Augmented Reality Games To The Next Level

AdAge OpEd: Defining Virtual Property Rights In an Augmented World

I contributed an OpEd on AdAge today on the upcoming battle defining virtual property rights in an Augmented World.  This is one area to keep an eye on as we get closer to a world where certain legal and ownership rights for physical presences has yet to be defined.   I included the OpEd in this blog entry so feel free to comment on AdAge here or below…

Picture this scenario coming soon to a future near you: You are out and about looking for something to eat. As you walk along a row of restaurants, you decide to put on your augmented reality glasses to see ratings, a video greeting from the restaurant owner and interactive displays of their daily specials. However, as you look closer at the restaurant, you notice a virtual advertisement and coupon from a competing restaurant just a few blocks away. Touching the advertisement, you’re then given animated directions to the establishment, the virtual coupon and video recommendations from the competing chef. Your decision on where to eat has just been made for you.

Sound like science fiction? Not really. As augmented reality and location-based services continue to evolve, companies will need to start thinking about their ownership rights in virtual space.

Right now, the technology exists to tag virtual information onto a physical location in a very basic form. You can use an augmented reality mobile application such as Tagwhat that knows your general location (based on GPS) and you can access consumer generated information (videos, images, etc.) specific to that area. But as the U.S. government launches its next-generation GPS system, we’re looking at future GPS accuracy that will be “less than a meter”. The only question remaining will be if the government will allow this type of precision for civilian use and subsequently, new location-based systems.

Nothing right now is preventing companies from delivering virtual advertisements on a physical competitors’ presence. Physical presence is defined by square footage and boundaries of your building and other rights that might be granted to you property-wise. But where do rights to your space begin and end in an augmented world?

Geofencing is one step in the right direction as it allows for a virtual boundary for your physical location. This would allow you to potentially defend competitors from digitally tagging your physical property based on current laws, but what about 50 feet above your property? We tend to think of physical boundaries on an X and Y plane but where does your space end on a Z plane? How will public virtual space be defined and monetized as well?

Pillsbury Law Firm has recently started a division that is specifically setup to help define law in virtual and augmented space. James Gatto, leader of Pillsbury’s Virtual Worlds & Video Game Team, has been working with clients to help protect them from the potential issues mentioned above. “In emerging fields like virtual worlds and augmented reality, it is important to understand the unique legal issues these new technologies can represent. Real world laws will need to be redefined to bring order out of the potential chaos an augmented or virtual world will usher in for unprepared companies.”

A recent exhibit at MoMA in New York allowed people to view augmented art works via a layer app on their smartphones. Though not seen by the naked eye, these virtual works of art could be seen in an Augmented View in the exhibition space. You might also recall a recent battle between Audi and BMW through the use of physical billboards across from each other.

Imagine how this advertising battle could escalate in an augmented world with virtual ads targeted to specific customers. It’s important for companies to start thinking about all of this now because an augmented world is closer to becoming a reality than many of us are prepared for.

Augmented Reality Links of the Week- October 22, 2010

Here are the stories that got the most activity in the Augmented Reality Facebook Group this past week:

• Augmented Reality Tetris
• The 600 Years

Minority Report’s Gestural Interface Now An (Augmented) Reality…

On a previous blog post, I blogged about the TED presentation that showed John Underkoffler showing his Minority Report interface to the audience.  It now seems that this is a reality from this video posted on Singularity Hub (via TechCrunch.)  This specific interface is often referenced in Augmented Reality presentations to show how AR is used in a projected future from the movie, but now it appears that it is in fact a reality. I suggest people start using the Iron Man 2 Augmented Reality interface to show the new future

What’s The Opposite Of Augmented Reality? Diminished Reality.

As we all know, Augmented Reality adds objects/animations/information into your view to ‘augment’ it.  But, what if you were to remove physical objects in your Augmented View?  Well then, you would have Diminished Reality.  The video below shows how this is already a reality in the lab…

Augmented Reality Links of the Week- October 8, 2010

Here are the stories that got the most activity in the Augmented Reality Facebook Group this past week:

• ARSights: Tour Eiffel (Augmented Reality with Google Earth Client)
• Vuzix Begins Shipping the First Ever Sunglass Form Augmented Reality Wrap 920AR Video Eyewear
• Apple Is Now Shining A Spotlight On Augmented Reality Apps :: App Advice

Mobile AR is Sexy, But is it Practical?

I read a lot (which probably shocks those of you that know me) of articles, blog posts and the like on Augmented Reality (AR). And it’s interesting to me how much buzz Mobile AR is getting. In fact some articles seem to think that Mobile AR and AR are synonymous… that is, they seem to discuss it as if it’s the only type of AR. There’s some great work being done around the world with Kiosks and Online, yet everyone seems enamored with mobile. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have much of an issue with that (“a rising tide lifts all boats”), but the problem for me, is that the buzz/hype is disproportionate to the near term practicality of the medium. I feel as though you brand and agency folks reading this might be getting a touch misled. The fact remains it just doesn’t make sense for most of you to do a Mobile AR campaign today. In a few years, it will be different (hopefully. I mean remember how it was “the year of mobile” in 1999, and 2000, and 2001, and 2002, and 2003….). But we aren’t talking about 2015 right now, we’re talking about 2010.

Now before I discuss the reasons I feel this way below I just want to make it clear that if you’re doing something with mobile that’s incredibly cool and your main goal is to get press, then my points aren’t applicable. I’m really only focusing on the brands/agencies that want to engage their consumers.

Now let’s get down to it. I think the main reason Mobile AR isn’t practical comes down to primarily two reasons: Technical Issues, and Consumer Reach.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

I wrote at length last August (2009) about the Technical Issues, specifically the inaccuracies of Civilian Grade GPS and the Compasses that are installed on smartphones. So I won’t rehash that here even though the points are still valid a year later (If you want to read that post though, please click here). I would like to bring up a new point briefly though, and that’s Data Accessibility. Simply put, the networks aren’t fast enough yet and web content loads too slow to provide a reliable and satisfying experience for mobile users. That’s not just my opinion, according to an eMarketer report that came out this morning 29% of people feel that the biggest problem with accessing the mobile web is that sites load too slow. Do you think people really want to wait 15 – 30 seconds on a street corner with their phone pointed in a direction waiting for the content to load? I don’t… Will 4G be the answer? Maybe. But what’s the penetration rate of 4G right now? And that gets me to my second point… consumer reach.

CONSUMER REACH

There was a great infographic yesterday on Mashable regarding the popularity of the iPhone. There were some fascinating stats in there. I learned that 83% of Americans have a mobile phone and 25% of phone owners (i.e. that 83%) own a smartphone (both numbers are higher than the rest of the world. Those numbers are 68% and 17% respectively). Now, obviously you need a smart phone to interact with AR, so where does that put us? Roughly 1 in 5 Americans has the technology to interact with your mobile AR execution. Not terrible numbers (as I’m sure you’re targeting the “early adopters” anyways), but it’s not actually the full picture. According to an InfoWeek article “Nielsen reports that 33% of smartphone owners in the U.S. haven’t even subscribed to a data plan”. Obviously why someone would own a smartphone with no data plan is a head-scratcher, but apparently a large number of people do it (and let’s not forget, that was before AT&T and Apple began phasing out the “all you can eat” data plan so it will be interesting to see how people use their phone’s when data is a bit more of a “precious resource”). Of course, no data plan means that 1 in 3 smartphone owners can’t technically access your execution. The potential reach of your execution just got much smaller…  Wait, you’re just creating an execution for the iPhone?  None of the other smartphone operating systems?  Again, your reach just got smaller.

Now, I don’t want to be a complete pessimist, so I wanted to point you towards two mobile AR executions that I really like.  That’s not to say that the issues above don’t still apply.  It’s just that if you plan on doing Mobile AR no matter what, these executions conceptually separate themselves from the pack:

1) A  “Tower Defense Game” called “ARDefender”.  Rather than try to describe it, I’ve embedded a video demo below. Once you watch the video, think about the potential of using product packaging to engage consumers in this way (are you reading this kid’s CPG manufacturers?).  The possibilities are pretty exciting…

2) iButterfly.  Now admittedly, this is an execution from Japan so we were unable to try it out.  But as you’ll see in the video below, the concept is unique, and engaging.

As always, I’d love your to read your thoughts below, or you can contact me directly at twitter.com/jack_benoff