VR vs Augmented Reality
Remember the iconic (but now dated) images of bright, fluorescent line shapes on black backgrounds? The awkward, impractical yet improbably-expensive visors and headsets that made you appear to be an unwanted extra from Tron (the original one)? The developer pipe dreams of eventually having the ability to make holograms like those on the USS Enterprise? Yes, nostalgic nausea of the short-lived virtual reality phenomenon. The most significant verdict on the technology was the epic failure of do-no-wrong Nintendo's much-hyped Virtual Boy - the Game Boy for the VR generation. But everything conspired to doom these devices to infamy and remains the only blemish on japan company's perfect record. Certainly, VR has not been completely abandoned as a technology - it still has considerable uses in the medical and design worlds. But its shelf-life as a consumer interface has long expired and most companies are determined to cut their losses with regards to it.
So isn't the half-virtual, half-reality combination into augmented reality a step back? Is usually that not technically half of a technology that has failed miserably in the past? Technically, it may be seen as such. However the actual application of AR can be far more practical and grounded than VR ever promised to become. It is almost as though technology attempted to fly before it might walk if they ventured into virtual reality. Developers were seeing holodecks before they even properly designed the headsets. It was a case of plans well made but well before its time. Computer science and technology was just not advanced enough to create VR a worthy development in the field of complete user interaction. Consumer VR can be seen as the zit-faced wonderkid investment graduate keen to take on the world but crashed because he got too far before himself, got greedy and almost (or did, in some instances) brought banks down with him. For banks, read hardware and software developers. The embarrassment of VR could experienced a similar effect as a Barings or a Lehmans in the tech world. Click here to learn where you can get the best mobile application developed.
So enough about the crimes of VR and onto the merits of Augmented Reality. The now world-wise and more cautious whizzkid sees the error of his ways and decides a soft approach to advancement would be better at all times. Virtual is not a bad thing but only in baby spoonfuls. And so the world heralds the next coming. However in truth, the technology has already been subtly sneaked into our lives for a long time now. Where, you ask?
Do you consider a man with a bucket of magic yellow paint runs on the American football field after each break in play to paint the line of scrimmage? Is there a guy with a laser pen who sits beside an ice hockey rink and follows the puck with it to create the red trail? Without patronising you - of course not. These are examples of augmented reality at the job in our everyday experiences. Augmenting computer-generated graphics and material into our real-world environment.
And recently, it isn't just on television that we see AR make a difference to your lives. Luxury cars (mostly German right now) give their customers a hi-tech heads-up display on windscreens to show off to their friends. At the 2009 LA Auto Present, Nissan introduced the Cube with AR, encouraging people to customise the car with an AR interface. Ogilvy and Mather ran a complete marketing campaign for Ford by using an AR display to let prospects interact with a graphical style of a fresh car. And iTunes is usually packed full of apps which will make usage of the technology - Starwalk and Skyview are two viewing apps for space enthusiasts and there is even a simple AR Soccer game where the player plays keepy-uppy with an AR-generated football through the iPhone screen.
So what's different now then?
Looking back to before augmented actuality technology was introduced into devices and environments where user interaction was stimulated; we simply watched it doing his thing without knowing it. We never knew that the line moving across the swimming pool (to represent the world record mark) on our televisions during swimming championships was called augmented reality. We simply took it as something which our innovative television companies gave us to impress us and nothing more.
However now, with devices coming with in-built cameras, 3D displays, accelerometers, global positions satellite systems and solid state compasses as standard, AR execution has been taken to a new level. The hardware is there to complement the software ideas of developers. It really is there to facilitate the imagination and innovation of individuals who would like to improve the way in which we go about our daily routines.
Apart from smartphones - with Apple's iPhone representing the best example - handheld devices come packaged and mission-ready for AR application. The Nintendo 3DS may be the latest introduction. As if to continue their reparation for his or her Virtual Boy abomination, the 3DS bundle has a group of AR game cards. These game cards utilize the console's camera to make a three-dimensional interactive experience for the player. The question-mark block card (looks as it sounds) gives the player a shoot 'em-up mini game to sample the device's various pieces of ingenious hardware all at once - you aim at the targets which are manufactured on-screen and shoot them, active the targets along real-life dimensions to attain hidden objects. You can only just imagine the kind of games which is produced by game developers as they begin to unveil increasingly more capabilities and unleash the hardware's full potential. Psychologists and computer scientists refer to this kind of discovery and growth as emergent behaviour - whereby a number of algorithms are programmed right into a computer program comprising individual elements. The algorithms determine movement patterns of every element, telling them how exactly to move in regards to nearby elements. As the simulation progresses, the elements start to flock together, which is a feature that was not explicitly programmed in to the algorithms but provides emerged as behaviour of the functions, hence the name. In fact it is this prospect of conceivable exponential evolution of the technology making augmented truth a possible region of growth for marketing and advertising.
Furthermore, it has been predicted that almost half of all mobile phone users will be using a smartphone. With the apparent importance of handheld devices in the future of Augmented Reality, this opens up a massive potential target market.
How so? What use would Augmented Reality be for marketers and advertisers?
Actually, the technology is already beginning to gain recognition in the business world. As mentioned before, car makers Nissan and the advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather have made the most notable uses of AR so far. And the main element point of interest for businesses may be the prospect of user interaction.
In a global where in fact the consumer has begun to tire of interruptive/intrusive marketing techniques - like the regular television commercial, print advertising and other styles of media where in fact the innovator makes the proceed to approach the buyer - the way forward must surely become to gives the consumer a reason to engage with marketing and advertising. As well as AR being a relative novelty, the interactive facet of the technology means that there can be an attraction for the buyer to obtain what they would like to escape the process. If they don't wish to be in contact with a certain piece of communication, it is entirely their own choice. But should they choose to participate, they can determine their own degree of participation. The interactivity aspect gives the consumer a sense of being in charge of the complete experience. Interruption and intrusion offers been removed from the equation and they can gain much more out of an activity where the campaign responds with their own desires and needs. It is almost tailored to their emotions.
To put it crudely, the campaigner can give the buyer the illusion (without the underhand insinuation intended in this analogy) of taking what they would like to take out of the exchange. And this is usually where AR can be most appropriate to the innovator or the campaigner aswell. Regardless of the interaction being seemingly controlled by the consumer, it is the designer of the campaign who decides what goes into the interface. So it doesn't matter how much or how little an individual wishes to indulge, it is ultimately the marketer who decides what aggregate information there is to be indulged in the first place. Once more, emphasis should be placed on the fact that there are no sinister implications in this process - at least, forget about sinister compared to the messages put across in a powerful television commercial.
So what is the need that AR can fill?
Building on the idea of interaction, AR can be an ideal tool for businesses to generate and maintain a relationship with their prospect. Consumers are much more aware of their importance in the capitalist market than previously and will perform this role to their advantage. They will require personal attention, top-class service and can not tolerate anything less. Allowing the consumer to be in measurable control over the interaction process invariably leads to a concept of marketing for an individual experience.
The personal experience procedure is already being utilized by major companies. Tesco make use of their Clubcard system to monitor shopping patterns and tailor offers and deals to customers at appropriate times while balancing that with their own profit strategies. Facebook Deals encourages users to combine their social networking with their consumer habits, accessing Facebook for special deals in nearby businesses and increasing prominence and usage of the network in the process. Both these uses are great for generating repeat custom and brand loyalty, enabling consumers to identify with the brand or company while also fulfilling the consumer's relatively-new dependence on a personalised encounter and social interaction. Augmented reality applications can provide the natural intensify in the development of the systems.
But if the consumer doesn't utilize it, then could it be not wasteful marketing?
No forms of marketing have got a 100% strike rate. No advertising campaign could have a unit-for-unit return of investment. To justify the usage of the likes of augmented reality marketing, waste should not solely be looked at when it comes to investment and financial figures.
For the more intrusive types of marketing and advertising, consumers who do not need the merchandise or service in the campaign but cannot avoid the encounter (as the commercial is continually repeated on television or the emails just keep on coming) will probably develop adverse feelings and emotions towards the business enterprise or company. Consider how you felt that last time you read another piece of spam plugging Viagra or cosmetic surgery, or how quickly you slammed the phone down on just one more automated marketing message.
With Augmented Reality, provided that the campaign offers been planned and designed tastefully and considerately, then the dissatisfaction is unlikely that occurs. The consumer would actively look for the marketing throughout their own routine, such as a shopping trip. As stated before, if the consumer doesn't wish or require it, then they don't activate it.
With this thought, marketing and advertising can be much more focussed and accurately fond of the appropriate audience. Companies producing sports apparel could place their interactive campaigns in places which will be more likely to end up being populated by people who are interested in their products, such as for example sports halls. Surely, this would bring about less wastage as opposed to more redundant usage of marketing budgets.
Learn more about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality on Wikipedia.