Augmented reality applications going mainstream!

Augmented Reality has been around for almost two decades, having been first coined by Thomas Caudell in 1990, an employee of Boeing at the time. By definition, Augmented Reality is about integrating real-world environment with computer generated imagery, creating a mixed reality involving real & virtual worlds. Many of us have already been exposed to augmented reality. Anyone who has seen football games on TV would have already seen how commentators use yellow lines/markers in real-time to depict player positions and what if scenarios. Other augmented reality applications involve wearing special head gear that superimpose or project computer generated imagery on the real-world view that the user is looking at. See the picture below where an cartoon object is placed on a card ( courtesy Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) at the University of Washington)  These have been used in military to train soldiers or in military aircraft such as F-35 Lightning II where information is projected to pilots helmet mounted display system.

Only recently, augmented reality has entered mainstream with many applications aimed at the general consumer. Mattel is introducing augmented reality in its new line of Avatar toys tagged with  i-Tags, a 3D web tag that can be scanned by a webcam. The i-Tags hold information that is then generated/superimposed on the object as viewed in the PC/webcam. For example, once an i-Tag is scanned, imagery associated with the i-Tags such as warriors or creatures suddenly appear providing a highly interactive and immersive experience. Mattel is expected to launch these i-Tag toys in around October 2009.

Wikitude AR Travel Guide

In addition to toys, a number of companies are focused in developing cool "mobile" augmented reality apps combining video, internet & location based technologies found iPhone (iPhone SDK 3.1 Beta 3 is now available with augmented-reality friendly API) & Google's Android. For example, one iPhone app allows you to take a video of the world around you and overlays tweets from people tweeting near you. Another application (Wikitude AR Travel Guide), allows you to take a video of your surrounding and overlays travel informaiton from wiki so you have an instant encyclopedia at your finger tips. 

For advertising, augmented reality holds huge potential. Imagine superimposing contextual advertisements such as Google's adwords within a video shoot. For example, if you are driving by and see a house that you like and take a picture, perhaps informatin such as house plans, pricing informaiton, realtor agent to contact can all be aggregated and displayed. Likewise, you may see a product or item somewhere in display at a store and take a picture and a service can provide product information including places near you where you can purchase this product.  The possibilities are just endless and now with the technology available, we can see such apps hitting mainstream within the next few years....

Real Time Social Search - A real and present threat to Google

The potential of Twitter as a real-time search engine and posing a threat to traditional algorithmic search engines like Google is not to be underestimated. During the recent Iran's post election violence, ordinary people tweeted snippets of events as they were unfolding. Twitter for all purposes was the only real source of real-time event information for CNN and other people as most of journalists and news media were banned from taking any pictures or covering the events. I myself went to CNN and searched for latest news in Google but was frustrated that the information was dated. Twitter on the other hand gave me excellent perspective from both the events as well as the discussions of the events by hundreds of tweeters.

With proper search facilities it would not be inconcievable that Twitter could easily be the primary source for real-time news and information for many pushing Google and other search engines to the side. With millions of users tweeting thoughts, ideas, news and information in real-time, twitter captures the current "pulse" of mankind. It provides an insight to what's currently occupying the minds of people across the world and how these thoughts and ideas will shape tomorrow. So here comes a company that capitalizes on this real-time social search potential of Twitter.

Crowdeye a company started by ex-microsoft engineers and still in Beta mode certainly got my interest. It has the same simple Google interface witht the the various topics/trends listed under the search bar. Click on a topic and you see a screen arranged nicely with real-time tweets, some of the popular links to various sites filtered from the tweets and a graph of # of tweets on the subject per time.

Wondering how these companies will change the search engine dynamics. Would social search offer a compelling alternative to algorithmic search?

Colourful Tags - Another cool way to interact & engage customers

The future media is all about reaching, interacting and connecting with your customers in ways that excite and enrich customer experience. While there are numerous technologies and mechanisms by which businesses can interact with customers, the real challenge to marketeers has been in trying to find simple yet fun ways to allow customers to interact and engage traditional offline signage & advertisements such as billboards, banners, posters, print-ads etc.

Mobility has given marketeers a great opportunity to interact with customers. Already SMS short codes /messaging have been widely adopted by various tv shows such as American Idol to engage and interact with customers. Customers can send in their votes via texting to a short code displayed on the screen. Latest statistics have shown that over 100 million text messages were generated atthe last American Idol final candidate selection.

SMS messaging with short codes has now been seeping into mainstream signage. A few enterprising companies has begun to offer signs with sms short codes to which customers can text in to get further information. SMS short codes have also been used by traditional print media where the short codes are displayed on a print ad to which customers may text and get more detailed product information.

The problem with SMS short codes is two fold:
a) Customers have to text to a particular short code
b) They also have to text in a code and this code can be a long alphanumeric word. Frequently users can make typing errors which can cause some undue messaging.
c) Its a more time consuming. Perhaps some teenagers can text fairly quickly but it is a challenge for less dextrous people especially the older generation


Enter Tags.

Tags offer a fresh new way to interact with customers that relieves the user from remembering the sms short code and from texting. Something akin to bar codes, tags are 2 dimensinal pictorial codes that are placed on a product, sign, image etc. With a camera phone and a special application that users can download and install , the users can point the camera to the picture and take a snap shot. The image is then sent over the air to a server which filters the image and recognizes the 2-D pictorial code and subsequently returns back via sms message information associated with the tag.

2-D tags were originally introduced in the Japan and asia a a few years back. These 2D tags were black and while pictures usually small about a square inch or less. Recently microsoft introduced a new more cooler 2-D tags which are colorful and attractive to place in advertisements. Still in beta mode, these 2-D tags offer a great mechanism for retailers to embed in their product signs etc and engage their customers. These tags consist of small triangles arranged horizontally and vertically and in multiple color shades ( I think 4 colors) and uniquely describe a product. I suspect with numerous color combinations, you should be able to encode uniquely millions if not billions of product codes.

The technology behind this is equally impressive. The sophisticated technology powering Microsoft Tag, High Capacity Color Barcodes (HCCBs), was invented by Microsoft Research. It was designed from the ground up for maximum performance with the limited cameras on most mobile phones. Advanced image-processing techniques decode even out-of-focus barcode images, which means Microsoft Tag works with the fixed-focus camera lenses common in most mobile devices.

With a tag creation tool that you can access online at the microsoft's website, you can quickly create a tag and associate it with a url and some information. The tag can then be printed using a color printer and pasted to a product.

Very cool technology with endless possibilities.

Microsoft's Project Natal - A game changing technology for Advertising?

iMicrosoft's project Natal incorporating motion-sensing technology is poised to revolutionize the gaming industry. While Wii was a game changer in terms of introduing a new level of interactivity to gaming, Project Natal enable hands free control of objects giving users a level of interactivity that is truly something out of science fiction.

The technology that is added to Xbox has three components:

• Video camera that can track in real-time where you are and what you are doing
• An infrared monochrome camera that can detect depth and motion even in the dark
• A highly sensitive microphone that can detect voice commands that combined with acoustic software can detect sounds coming from a particular direction and so can isolate to a person in a group
• A host of sophisticated image and voice recognition software that can identify movements, gestures and voice commands to control and drive objects

I was bowled over by the short video clips demonstrating the technology. A boy enters the room and is at once detected by the entertainment system. He then begins to interact with the character in the game all without using any devices, just hand gestures and body movement.. Amazing...

Obviously aimed at the gaming/entertainment sector, this technology has at once incredible potential and uses in multiple industry sectors. For advertising, this offers a new level of interactivity to engage customers through say digital signage and kiosks to build brand presence. Furthermore, with its ability to track human joints, movements etc, we now have the ability to get further metrics regarding the person interacting with the signage/kiosk something that existing systems lack. Examples include, sex, height, shape of the person that can in turn be used to trigger the placement of appropriate products ( clothing sizes etc) to be displayed.

In addition to applications in marketing, this technology also can benefit the elderly and disabled people to enrich their lives. Imaging controlling various objects in the room such as opening doors, turning off/on various devices in the house through gestures and movement. The system can detect where you are and can potentially even be programmed to send alerts to 911 if the person has fallen down.

In short this technology has the potential of truly raising the bar in human machine interaction and I am looking forward to see its applications in a variety of areas..