During the workshops with Clive we looked at Augmented Reality. I did some own research about it as I got inspired during the workshop.
I am a little bit familiar with AR but I have not used so much that I can say I’m experienced. During the workshop we saw some examples Clive worked with. It triggered my interest and I wanted to know a little bit more about it. I looked for more examples and videos to see how far AR can go.
Ikea
Ikea created an app for their 2014 catalogue. You can use it to virtually furnish your bedroom, living room, kitchen and a lot more. I did a little research about how this worked but also finding out what triggered Ikea to create such an app.
“We know that our customers are increasingly using their smartphones as a shopping companion and we want to continue to find ways to inspire them and facilitate a better shopping experience.” says Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick, Public Relations Manager at IKEA Canada. “IKEA has developed a way to help customers get over the age-old barrier of ‘does this product fit with what I already have?” — Ikea
Ikea took a good look to their target group and concluded that nowadays a lot of people use their smartphone. They created the app to take the customer experience to a higher level. This is how the app looks like:
Ikea did a little digging into their customers’ habits and found that around 14 percent of people have bought a wrong-sized piece of furniture and more than 70 percent of people don’t know how big their homes really are. — Wired.com
Layar
Layar is an app where you can create your own interactive augmented reality experiences. Layar is officially founded in The Netherlands in 2009. They are a part of Blipper as they collaborate with them.
Today, as part of the Blippar group, Layar is a global leader in Augmented Reality and Interactive Print, helping to bridge the gap between the print and digital worlds. Together, Layar and Blippar have collaborated with many of the world’s top brands, including Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Anheuser-Busch, Elle, Glamour, Honda and BMW. — Layar
Layar call themselves a global leader in terms of Augmented Reality. They have a lot of functions inside the app and it works pretty well. In terms of marketing they could do a little bit more. I’ve worked with the app but for the Dutch people it is still an unfamiliar product. When I used the app for the first time it didn’t have a lot of functions (that was around 2011) but when you look at their Youtube channel now, you can see the functions they’ve added an the app has improved a lot already. The promo film they created shows the diversity of the app. It is a great app and to use it is not hard at all.
Conclusion
Augmented Reality is rising. More and more companies are playing with this but also because of social necessity. People are using the smartphones and tablets more and more. To keep the world interactive they create apps with Augmented reality. It is interesting – and maybe a bit scary – how fast this is evolving. Who knows what we have in 10 years from now. The technique is getting better and better and I’m really curious about what the future will bring.