"A key to working with new technology is to have a team that is not only knowledgeable but also patient and personable. Rob and everyone at Talking Dog Studios have all three in abundance, which made for a wonderful experience."
- New York City based director Christopher McLallen (www.christophermclallen.com)
"I have to say, I am very impressed with your dedication to the client, the precision of your questions-comments... It is what I call simply: professionalism! And especially in such new technology, new challenges and creativity.
- Sylvere Azoulai - CEO, SOUS LES ETOILES, New York NY
(www.souslesetoiles.net)
There’s a brand new technology out there that major corporations around the world are using to engage their customers, and enhance their marketing effectiveness. It’s being used to entertain, to educate, and even to sell. What’s it called? Augmented Reality. Rather than try to describe it, here’s a 90 second movie that shows you an augmented reality website we created called How Big is the Baby?
What Is It?
Augmented Reality is clever software that processes video from a webcam in real time and superimposes 3D objects and animations in ways that make it seem as if those objects are really there. This technology has existed in university labs and in expensive installations using proprietary hardware for a while. Two things are changing all that this year:
Home computers are finally powerful enough to perform this magic without the need for installing any new software. If your computer is able to display a youtube movie it will be able to display this Augmented Reality without asking you to install anything. This is important! Some users refuse to install any unfamiliar software on their computer because of their fear of viruses and so on. To make augmented reality work on your computer, all you need is a webcam.
Webcam sales, according to some reports, hit the $1.8 billion mark in 2008 and are continuing to climb. Built-in webcams have become a standard option on new laptops, and are increasingly seen on desktop computers as well. Plus, the latest generation of smart phones are offering new ways for users to have the augmented reality experience using their phone’s built-in camera.
How Does it Work?
Without getting into all the technical details, the version of Augmented Reality (or “AR”) we’re talking about here is a Flash application, running in a Flash window within a standard web page. The user prints out a unique marker and holds it in front of their webcam.
Think about a playing card. If you look at the face of the card straight on it looks a certain way. If you turn or rotate the card your brain is still able to recognize the card, but the changes in the way the card looks tell you how the card is being moved. This is what the computer is able to analyze in real time: there’s nothing special about this marker, it’s just ink on paper! But the computer is able to recognize how the marker is being manipulated in space, and using that information it’s able to instantly generate a 3D image that appears to be in front of, or even behind, the marker.
The first example we looked at showed a 3D baby floating above the marker. Here’s an example of another of our Augmented Reality applications where the 3D imagery is behind the marker instead – it’s like the marker becomes a window into a different world!
Who’s Using It?
BMW, Volvo, Toyota, GE, Molson, Wal-Mart, Doritos, Best Buy (and many others!), plus numerous feature films have all recently used AR to promote their brands. Why not you?
How Effective Is It?
The first time someone sees themselves holding something that isn’t really there, they are immediately fascinated. Reports from Best Buy are that by using Augmented Reality to let people see themselves holding the latest feature product, they’ve seen an upswing not only in the number of visitors to their website, but also in time spent on the site and in completed online sales.
What do you want to achieve? If brand awareness is your goal, then an AR website can let people hold your product in their hands. If you have an identifiable character or mascot, you can have that character dancing on people’s desktops, or standing in people’s hands and interacting with them in various ways. If your actual product is small enough to hold in front of a webcam, you can print a marker right on the product and give your customers a whole new experience. Can you imagine holding a box of Frosted Flakes up in front of your webcam and seeing Tony the Tiger burst out of your box and shout his signature phrase? Here’s a concept we proposed to Doritos showing a version of that idea.
Do you have a film or television show looking for innovative web content? How about an augmented reality game that lets people at home see themselves interacting with the characters from your show? For many years, Talking Dog Studios has been providing the music and sound for a number of very successful Canadian productions, and we are now offering this as an additional service for upcoming projects. There are lots of exciting cross-promotional possibilities, with the added benefit that the “cool” factor makes an Augmented Reality tie-in more likely to go viral as people share the link with family and friends.
If sales is your goal, then linking an AR page to your online store will allow people to see themselves holding the product, learn things about the product, and give them a button to click on if they want to add the item to their shopping cart. There will also be people who have been engaged enough by the experience that they will want to visit your store in person and complete the purchase there.
If providing information or education is your goal, then Augmented Reality is wide open. As we saw in How Big is the Baby, it’s particularly useful for comparing sizes of one thing to another. The United States Postal Service, for instance, now has an AR site where you can print out a marker, hold it on the parcel you’re about to ship, and be able to see what pricing category the parcel is going to fall into based upon its size. Samsung now has a marker you can print out and put on your wall, where your computer will then show you what their latest TV would look like there – another very useful tool, because it quickly tells the customer whether there’s even room for that huge TV they’re thinking of buying before they actually bring it home. And another website we created, www.howbigisaplanet.com , gives people the experience of holding the different planets in their hand – there’s nothing like holding Mars and then Jupiter in your hand to give you a feel for just how big one planet is compared to another!
Where Do We Go From Here?
Here in Canada, Talking Dog Studios is pleased to be right at the forefront of this exciting new technology. Do you have an innovative idea in mind for which Augmented Reality might be an effective solution? We would be pleased to work with you or your web designers to add an AR capability to your site: acting in consultation with or acting as your technical team, we’re flexible. Because we have already invested the time and energy to create the underlying code, you will find our services to be much more cost-effective than what the big companies we’ve talked about above will have paid for their AR installations. Want to know more about how Augmented Reality could work for you? Write to us at ar@talkingdogstudios.com
