PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD James Cameron’s "Avatar" may have reconfigured what people think about when they say “augmented reality,” but the real thing is close enough to (virtually) touch—or at least shop with.
As a tech category, “augmented reality” covers any technology that allows you to view the real world, layered with data that makes it easier to navigate, shop, find a friend or remember a name that’s on the tip of your tongue. Imagine a heads-up display in your car or a pair of sunglasses that allow you to see the world as you normally would, but with all the streets and shops labeled and tags that let you check how legal that parking spot is, as well as allow you to participate by video in a conference you can’t get to because you’re stuck in traffic.
All that will require huge improvements in wireless and cell phone networks, search technology, imaging systems, and the other practical things that torpedo the coolest views of the future invented by people with better imaginations than technical abilities.
However, augmented reality (AR)—in the form of virtual-reality booths, games and other high-gloss, low-content versions of AR—was a major attraction (and publicity engine) over the holidays for the London retail store of high-end men’s clothier Hugo Boss.
The three-week “Black Magic” exhibit used virtual reality systems from Total Immersion to give customers a chance to win real money in the form of Hugo Boss vouchers by playing virtual games of blackjack in the store.
An AR station in the shop window allowed customers to launch, watch and even insert themselves in Hugo Boss catwalk shows. Inside the store they could play games of blackjack and get a new shuffle and new shot at vouchers for Hugo Boss clothing with every new trigger card they presented.
Trigger cards—coded to connect wirelessly with the AR HD video kiosks—were available from advertisements in magazines distributed free in London or by registering in the store.
A spokesperson for SimonandJohn, the ad agency that created the exhibit, said Black Magic was an attempt to create a fresh attraction in an overly crowded marketplace and draw shoppers into the store with an experience they couldn’t get anywhere else in the retail world.
Total Immersion put together more than 150 AR projects during the first nine months of last year, three-quarters of which have been for marketing campaigns for products such as the new "Star Trek" and "Transformers" movies, the Nokia N97 cell phone, and an upcoming set of AR toys from Mattel that are based on the movie "Avatar."
The company also offers an interactive walk-through system that enables customers to view ghosts, spiders and other virtual video creatures on screen in real time via a monitor and headphones while walking through an exhibit they can see unaugmented with their own eyes.
An AR version of the Website for "Night at the Museum 2" earlier last year boosted the site’s traffic from 15,000 visitors over three weeks to 15,000 in 24 hours, and stretched viewing time from 2 minutes to 6.5, according to a statement from Total Immersion.
Hugo Boss has not, as yet, announced how well its version of shopping reality did in the Sloan Square, London, retail store.
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