Like us, many of you are passionate about Augmented Reality. And since news waits for no man/woman, we decided to create an iPhone app so you can always get real-time access to the latest AR related news and conversations.
AR PEEPS: Tracks the tweets of people and companies involved in AR (via @ChrisGrayson).
AR TWEETS: Searches Twitter for “Augmented Reality” to show you what people are talking about right now.
Additionally, you can share the content above via whichever channel is right for you. Email, Twitter and Facebook are all integrated into ARWire and only one touch away.
Check it out (we’d love to hear your thoughts below), and please spread the word. Currently, there’s a free version up in the iTunes store, but a premium version (with ads removed) should be going live soon.
UPDATE: ARWire Premium is live, and can be found here.
ZugSTAR Combines The Interactivity Of Augmented Reality With The Immediacy Of Live Video Conferencing
For all press inquiries, please contact: press(at)zugara(dot)com
February 4, 2010, Los Angeles – Today Zugara is introducing “ZugSTAR” (Zugara STreaming Augmented Reality), a technology that allows people in different locations to have shared Augmented Reality experiences from within their video feeds. Picture a web based video conferencing system similar to Skype*, but with the added functionality of being able to see one another’s “augmented” experience in real time. With ZugSTAR, Augmented Reality becomes a technology that facilitates collaboration, and physical distance becomes less of a barrier.
As a proof of concept, Zugara has already integrated this prototype within their Webcam Social Shopper to create a more engaging, and social, online retail experience. Whether its two lifelong friends attending different Universities, or a mother in NY who wants some quality time with her daughter in Dallas, online shopping can now be a more emotionally satisfying experience. And with the effectiveness of traditional forms of advertising in steep decline, what brand wouldn’t want to facilitate that type of branded experience for their consumers?
The video below demonstrates both the Webcam Social Shopper integration, and a few potential use cases that are currently in development:
“While integrating ZugSTAR into the Webcam Social Shopper is a natural extension of the tech, it’s certainly not the full extent of our vision.” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara. “Gartner predicts that by 2015 200 million people will be paying for desktop video conferencing. Now, I don’t want to sound hyperbolic, but this tech has the potential to impact virtually every single industry. Anywhere distance is a barrier to real-time collaboration, ZugSTAR has the potential to provide a tremendous amount of value.”
To illustrate Matt’s point, here are a few potential use cases for ZugSTAR:
EDUCATION (DISTANCE LEARNING): A science teacher can field questions and twist and turn a DNA helix as he/she explains their answers.
MEDICINE: 3D models of an fMRI will allow a Dr. to either consult with other Dr.’s, or explain the test’s results directly to a patient.
PUBLISHING: Augmented Reality Pop-Up Books can enable a parent that’s on the road to help their child to learn how to read.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: A 3D model (e.g. of a shoe or a building being developed) can be shared, and discussed, with colleagues, clients, vendors, and partners.
CASUAL GAMING: Augmented Reality based casual games can now be multiplayer.
So, what do you think? What other industries can this technology impact? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below.
About Zugara’s Proprietary Augmented Reality Technologies
The Webcam Social Shopper
For more information on the Webcam Social Shopper, click here.
Cannonballz, A Casual Game Using ZugMO Motion Capture Technology
Zugara, a member of the Augmented Reality Industry guiding “AR Consortium”, is an interactive marketing company focused on emerging media and technology. Zugara’s main areas of expertise include interactive video, social media, mobile marketing and website / application development. In addition to the strategic marketing based services we provide for our clients, Zugara also creates proprietary Augmented Reality technologies and products, including The Webcam Social Shopper, and a web based motion capture interface, ZugMO. Founded in 2001, and based in Los Angeles, Zugara is currently in the process of expanding and opening a second office in New York.
www.zugara.com
www.zugarastudios.com
Copyright 2010 ZugSTAR Technology
Copyright 2009 ZugMO Technology
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
*Skype is not affiliated in any way with ZugSTAR, and was just used to give readers a frame of reference.
For those of you tracking the Augmented Reality (AR) space, I thought that this might interest you. Today our CEO (well my CEO, not yours), Matt Szymczyk, gave a presentation on AR at the IAB conference in Poland and demoed (for the first time) a new piece of technology that we’ve built called ZugSTAR.
ZugSTAR (Zugara Streaming Augmented Reality) allows for multiple people to share an AR experience via their video stream. In essence it’s a live video conference where you can see the data (or the image) that the other person is interacting with. The rest of the web is social, and now AR is too. It’s no longer a solitary experience.
This tech has potential for numerous verticals, but for the purpose of the demo, we’ve coupled it with our existing online AR shopping application, The Webcam Social Shopper. As you can see in the picture below (via @deandonaldson), Matt is onstage in Warsaw giving the presentation. Behind him (on the large screen, which is just a duplicate of what Matt is seeing on his laptop’s screen), my colleague Aaron is in his home in Los Angeles (at 3 in the a.m. local time mind you, so props for that) “modeling” a shirt. If you look at the bottom right corner of the video area in which Aaron is standing, you’ll notice the picture in picture, where you can see Matt with the image of the shirt he was “modeling” still up. AR is now two way, and it’s social.
Think about the opportunity that this presents for just the online retail space alone. Moms can shop with daughters away at college; Grandparents can shop with grandkids in another state; teenage girls can shop together on a weeknight; men can get articles of clothing “approved” by their girlfriends/wives while on their lunch break… etc. etc.
Admittedly, this blog post is just going to serve as a bit of a teaser. In a few weeks, we’ll have more details and more to show you then just a picture, but we’d love to know your initial thoughts on the tech below.
(This article originally appeared in the WebAward October Briefing Newsletter on 10/13/09)
3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Using Augmented Reality In Marketing And Advertising
(If you are already familiar with the basics of Augmented Reality, please skip this paragraph)
Augmented Reality is a technology that has to be seen to be believed. In its basic sense, Augmented Reality is just what it sounds like – Augmenting One’s Reality. For a more detailed definition per Wikipedia, Augmented Reality (or AR for short) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery thereby creating a mixed reality. AR on a computer usually requires a webcam and a marker where a person can hold a unique marker (usually a symbol on a sheet of paper) up to the webcam and an animation will appear on the marker within the feed of the webcam. This is augmenting your ‘video reality’ by adding additional information to your live video feed. You can view examples of Augmented Reality on http://www.facebook.com/augmentedreality or alternatively, search YouTube for video examples.
Augmented Reality (AR) has quickly become the buzz word du jour for those of us in Interactive Marketing and Advertising. Like every other emerging media or technology that becomes flavor of the month, agencies and marketers are rushing to launch an AR execution to show that they’re hip and down with the latest interactive technologies. To say this is becoming a problem is an understatement. Most of the AR executions coming out lately are one-off executions that don’t seem to be part of any well thought out strategy and don’t make any sense for the brand. AR is here to stay so it’s important that brands and their agencies start looking at the utilitarian aspects of AR that can help promote their product or service in a meaningful and engaging way for the consumer.
Unfortunately, utility based AR examples are few and far between. Listed below are some recent AR initiatives that are utility focused and based upon a simple objective – using AR to solve a problem for the consumer or end user:
AKQA launched an AR based shipping solution for the U.S. Postal Service
However, these are the exceptions to the flood of recent AR executions. Most current AR examples are really nothing more than animated 3D demos that are exploiting the novelty of this new technology. As a result, the AR space is quickly becoming overcrowded and it won’t take long for the novelty of AR to wear off.
Over the next year, more consumers will be exposed to AR based initiatives, so it will be critical to rise above the current ‘gee whiz’ factor of AR and develop well thought out AR initiatives that provide a benefit or enhancement for your consumers. For AR to be effective for both your brand and your end consumer, you should be asking yourself 3 questions before getting started:
1. Is this something I can already do on my site within a normal browser?
Too often, we’ve been seeing AR executions that are AR just for the sake of using AR. Do you really need to launch a video in AR? Or a 3D asset? Too many recent AR executions are guilty of this and scream, “WHY!!!” Why are you making your consumer go through unnecessary hoops when they can just as easily view the video or 3D asset in a standard player on your website? An AR initiative should not be exempt from Best Practices online, so it’s always important to put usability before the ‘experience’. AR is already asking a lot of the consumer – that they have a webcam and, in some cases, will need to print out a marker to view the AR itself. In addition, there are AR platforms or technologies that will require an additional Internet browser plug-in or will only work in Internet Explorer so doing your research beforehand will be vital to the end consumer experience.
2. What am I trying to communicate or accomplish with AR and what is the experience I’m providing for my consumer?
Gimmicky executions of AR are not the way to go so if you are going to use AR effectively you should first outline your objectives for using AR. Are you using AR to show how your product can solve a problem for the consumer in a way they might not have seen before? Will AR help enhance an experience for your consumer that they otherwise would not experience through other interactive channels or technologies? In regards to the Webcam Social Shopper above, we focused on the aspects of AR that we could use to help bridge the gap between offline and online shopping. This specific AR application would not have been possible without AR so it’s important to focus on the utility based aspects of AR and how it can potentially solve a scenario or problem for your consumer, and subsequently your brand. One brand (that shall rename nameless) was guilty of doing AR just to do it and suffered from severe backlash on the web. The AR had nothing to do with their product and in fact, targeted a demographic that was least likely to be engaged by AR technology. If you’re not careful, the AR experience can hurt your brand or product rather than help it.
3. How will Augmented Reality interact with or enhance other aspects of my Integrated Campaign?
It’s very easy to get caught up in the hype and amazement of viewing AR for the first time. I know we all did the first time we saw AR in person. However, that should not stop you from asking the hard questions about any AR initiative that might be part of your campaign. Will your AR effort tie into any other integrated efforts or are you only looking at the ‘cool’ aspects of AR that function as a one-off for your product or campaign. Many well thought out integrated campaigns lately are using print and AR together to provide a unique experience. Mobile AR has also become much more prominent on smart phones like the iPhone and Android and can be leveraged with retail or OOH components of a campaign. There are even examples of AR integrated with Social Media that help transform AR from an individual to community focused experience.
Augmented Reality is not only here to stay but is the future of how we will view and access virtual information in the real world. However, in the marketing and advertising worlds, it’s going to take some restraint by agencies and marketers to not rush out multitudes of gimmicky, non-utility based AR executions that will quickly turn off consumers and overhype the technology. AR has the potential to be a unique technology that can enhance the product or brand experience for the consumer – especially when paired with other emerging media and technology. It’s an exciting time right now watching AR evolve into a science without the fiction.
For the AR examples mentioned above and more, please visit the Facebook Augmented Reality community – http://www.facebook.com/augmentedreality. If you have any questions related to AR, please feel free to reach out to me at Matt@zugara.com.
Integrates Facebook Connect To Put Casual Gamers And Their Friends In The Same Game.
August 12, 2009, Los Angeles – Today we’re launching another emerging media application, “Cannonballz”, an interactive webcam based flash game. Obviously it’s not news that an interactive marketing agency has built a flash game. The news is that “Cannonballz” is the first casual game built using Augmented Reality and our proprietary Motion Capture User Interface Engine (A.K.A. ZugMo Technology). ZugMo Technology enables anyone with a webcam (and a Flash plug-in) to physically engage with various elements that are integrated within their video stream. No mouse and no keyboard, it’s all done with gesture recognition. With this immersive technology you no longer just play games, you get to be in them. It’s a whole new experience.
If you just want to see a demo of the game, please check out the video below.
With “Cannonballz”, we’ve used ZugMo Technology to build a casual game to showcase the potential of this technology. We previously used the technology to build an online shopping application called the Webcam Social Shopper. While we hope that people find this game to be fun, it’s not “the star” here. The technology is, and the possibilities of how it can be utilized are really as endless as a company’s creativity. Think about it: educational games for children; an entire section of games on Yahoo; casual games that engage consumers with a brand; product demonstrations; an interactive element in a corporate training session; etc.
“We chose casual gaming as a way to showcase the ZugMo Technology because over 200 million people play casual games every single month” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara. “It’s an experience we’re all familiar with, and we hope will allow people to see the greater potential for this technology. Gaming is also the perfect execution to show the power of social media integration. For ‘Cannonballz’ we integrated Facebook Connect to allow users to not only bring their friends into the actual gameplay, but to quickly and easily share their scores and the game with their friends via their news stream.”
So, what do you think? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below.
Zugara, a member of the Augmented Reality Industry guiding “AR Consortium”, is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York.
For more information on this technology, including purchase of the Software Development Kit so you can create your own applications, please contact: cannonballz(at)zugara(dot)com.
For all press inquiries, please contact: press(at)zugara(dot)com.
Copyright 2009 ZugMo Technology
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
Song in video courtesy of David Rovics.
June 23, 2009, Los Angeles – Here at Zugara, we’re proud to announce the launch of our newest application, The Webcam Social Shopper. Coupling the functionality of both Augmented Reality and Motion Capture, this application will allow anyone with a webcam to shop online right from within their video feed. We like to think of it as “Augmented Reality meets Utility”. This app allows you to seemingly hold articles of clothing up in front of yourself to see “how they look”. And the Motion Capture allows the app to track your movements so you can interact with the site (e.g. cycle through a product’s various colors/styles or take a picture of yourself so you can get immediate feedback from friends on Facebook) while standing several feet away from your computer’s controls. No extra downloads, no new plug-in, no consumer headache.
To see the application in action, check out our video below.
Now that you’ve seen the application in its “Alpha State”, think about the potential an app like this has as we partner with brands to allow their consumers to do things like:
Livestream their webcam’s feed to friends and loved ones, and get comments and feedback right next to the application in real time.
Receive “clothing care packages” from loved ones who might be somewhere else in the country and set up times to “shop together”… online.
Enter their measurements into the app and get a “fitted image”.
Match entire outfits at the same time, both top and bottom.
Shop right within a branded Facebook application.
It’s not a secret that friends/family recommendations influence a consumer’s purchase decision and beat any other “consumer touchpoint”. Now, we can help brands empower their consumers to integrate their friends and family into their online shopping process like never before. The thinking is that this application will help bridge the gap between how people like to shop offline and how they are forced to shop online, subsequently providing an enhanced interactive shopping experience for the consumer and increased sales for the brand. So, what do you think? Please, feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone, or embed the video above in your own blog. And, as always, we’d love to know your thoughts below…
(UPDATE: We’ve partnered with RichRelevance to integrate their recommendation engine into WSS and create a completely unique application dubbed Fashionista. Fashionista is currently live on Tobi.com and you can read more about that launch on Fast Company.)
About Zugara
Zugara is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York (www.zugara.com) (www.zugarastudios.com).
For more information on The Webcam Social Shopper or ZugMo Technology, please contact ar@zugara.com. For all other inquiries, please contact info@zugara.com.
Copyright 2009 ZugMo Technology
Copyright 2009 Webcam Social Shopper
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
Disclaimer: We Are Organized Chaos will post Zugara company case studies from time to time. These are meant to share success stories (and failures), statistics / analytics, and things we have learned for the greater good of the interactive world. Please feel free to contribute your own stories and opinions in the comments section.
For all you Twitter users out there, you may have experienced frustration when trying to change your background image. There is no easy way to add text (i.e. contact information for your business) unless you are a designer and have access to Photoshop. Or, there is the option to pay an online designer $75-$100 for a custom background, which I think is absurd! That is why we, at Zugara, developed a “Free Twitter Designer” application: http://www.freetwitterdesigner.com/. Free Twitter Designer allows you to utilize Photoshop-like tools online to fully customize your own Twitter backgrounds (complete with text, shapes, upload image, pre-designed backgrounds, colors, etc.), for $0. Better yet, 50% of “tips” received in the PayPal Donation Jar go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation!
Due to the success of this pet project, we felt inclined to share statistics to date. In just under one month, Free Twitter Designer has received:
35,094 unique visits
69,207 page views
79% new visits average
An average time of 5:12 on site
18% click to “generate image”
As for the last bullet point, the “Generate Image” button was tracked as a “goal”, given that is the entire purpose of the site is for users to create Twitter backgrounds they download and upload to Twitter. We are pretty happy with these results – and this is just for the first month alone!
To coincide with the launch of Free Twitter Designer, we created an account @freedesigner. We have gained a following of about 850 followers, and we have been tweeted/blogged about several times…including two very influential tweets from the well respected @ mashable. (Thanks!) The following is a list of various published articles, blogs, and even videos:
So how did we do this? We found a great niche that hadn’t yet been marketed for the Twitter community. The idea for custom Twitter backgrounds is not new. Even the idea for Free Twitter backgrounds is not a new one. But was there a site that made the designing process easy for people of all design levels, and allowed for true customization? Not from our perspective. We took a popular concept and made it the best. Then we passed on the idea to all our friends, and opened up a dialogue between @freedesigner and other Twitter Tweeps. There’s no better way to market a social community tool, than to talk about it with the social community.
Lately, mobile marketing has become an increasingly important channel for integrated campaigns.And though WAP sites and SMS/MMS messaging tend to be just fine for content / information related marketing, the iPhone allows for the more sexier side of mobile marketing to shine.So the “Branded iPhone Application” stampede is upon us and though it can’t be stopped, it can be questioned – especially when it comes to determining if an iPhone app is really that necessary or even justified.(We’ll review some of the more popular Branded iPhone applications in another column.)
So you have decided that you definitely must be on the iPhone.The upsell will always be “Do the App!” – it’s sexier for you and it’s much sexier for the agency / developer – but is that necessarily the best economical (or even functional) option?When discussing iPhone development with clients, we often look at whether it makes more sense to do an iPhone Optimized Site versus an iPhone App itself.Below are just a few pros and cons for both options:
iPhone Optimized Site
Pros
Cheaper and Faster to develop
Easier to modify existing content for Safari optimized viewing
No barrier to deploy to market (i.e. iTunes approval)
Site icons can be displayed on ‘deck’ similar to iPhone apps
Can still take advantage of photo and video viewing specific to the iPhone
Cons
Limited by HTML/CSS (i.e. no 3D game here)
Can’t notify user automatically of updates to the site
Can’t leverage iPhone features such as GPS
Need to have EDGE / WiFi to function
Safari browser will not display Flash*
*Though Flash continues to be rumored for the iPhone, this will most likely never happen due to continued concerns of Flash being a ‘resource hog’
iPhone App
Pros
Allows much more flexibility in terms of 3D, animation, etc.
New information can be pushed to the consumer via application updates
Promotion of App through store and on iPhone App related sites
Can generally be viewed / played at any time
Community will tell you right away if they think your App is great through user reviews
Cons
Objective C development (i.e. more expensive)
Longer time to market due to submission / wait times for iTunes review and approval
Can only be accessed and downloaded via the iTunes App Store
Apple ultimately determines if your app is ‘worthy’ enough to reside on their platform (i.e. loss of control)
Community will tell you right away if they think your App sucks through user reviews
Your ultimate decision for using an iPhone App or iPhone Optimized Site should always be determined by what it’s being created for.Would you want to create the latest and greatest version of iFart as an iPhone Optimized Site? Probably not.But if your basic need is to optimize photos and videos for mobile then it probably makes more sense to develop an iPhone Optimized Site.And I use ‘develop’ loosely here as many content driven sites can be tweaked for mobile viewing and might not even require a full development overhaul.
A great example of content you might initially think is an iPhone App but in reality is an iPhone Optimized Site is iHalo Stats. For non-gamers out there, this lets you check on all your stats from the game and is still one of the best examples of an iPhone Optimized Site.
For some shameless self-promotion, you can even view the web optimized iPhone site Zugara created for Playboy at http://iphone.playboy.com.To get all the highlights, view the site in the Safari browser on your desktop or through the iPhone itself!Note – The site only has PG-13 content on it and nothing worse than you would see on Maxim.com.
I’ll have more thoughts iPhone specific development as well as Mobile Marketing in general in future blog entries, but if you have any questions you can always get a hold of me at Matt (at) Zugara dot com or @KobraKai on Twitter…
Welcome to We Are Organized Chaos! Glad you found us and hope you enjoy the blog.Some of you might ask, “You’re just doing a blog now??” Well yes and no.Yes, in that this is now our ‘official’ Zugara blog and No, in that most of our content on the blog has been kept internal over the years.Why?Well because we’ve enjoyed flying under the radar and are not into agency blogs that are used as glorified PR outlets.That’s the main reason why we finally decided to do an agency interactive marketing and advertising blog – so we can do it right.
WAOC will be about discussing latest trends, creative, marketing methods, and more throughout the Interactive Marketing and Advertising industry.You’ll also get a heavy dose of Mobile Marketing, Interactive Video and Social Media views as those 3 areas we’re most passionate about at Zugara.And yes, we will probably even rant once in awhile about something that gets under our skin.We’ll try to keep that to a minimum though and focus on the issues at hand.
So, hope you enjoy our insight into the interactive / digital world and if you have any issues, then welcome to the club…
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
