Tuesday, November 3, 2009

How Will "Augmented Reality" Affect Your Business?

sviokla-gps.JPGFrom advertisements that allow a customer to buy products by scanning a code with their phone's camera, to virtual instruction manuals projected onto the product itself, augmented reality has a wide range of potential business uses ...

My colleague Anand and I think that augmented reality is going to be a big deal for businesses. What is it? It is the idea that locations, devices, even the human body will be "augmented" by linking and overlaying additional information on top of "regular" reality.

For example, this month's Esquire will have visual codes embedded in the text — even on the cover — which you can hold up to your computer's camera. The computer will read the codes, and take you to a video or other information linked to that magazine "location." Is this just a gimmick? After all, the physical magazine is a great way to create a link to more comprehensive content. The magazine cannot afford to put too much information between its covers, but it can put as many pointers as it wants to more content. This basic notion is very, very powerful. (See the great post on this topic by Gary Hayes which inspired our thinking.)

via How Will "Augmented Reality" Affect Your Business? - John Sviokla - HarvardBusiness.org.

2 comments:

Ian C said...

Wow I dreamed of those virtual signs for a long time. People will be avatars and all real estate will have virtual signage property for rent. Also, houses will be built as templates for virtual/augmented reality design instead of material. Think virtual wallpaper (yeah Like windows desktop). Also everything can have a program ie: walk over to bedroom window for live feed of bermuda beach or something to that effect. All devices will lose the internal memory because it will no longer be needed. Just enough electronics to interact with the augmented reality. Instead of "turn left" gps there will be coronas at the destination with a glowing trail. Or whatever we chose at that point. we are using tech to utilize our collective conciousness more than ever. but after a certain point our brains will have developed the ability to visualise these realms we have created without the aid of electronics. When you think about it our brains can send, recieve and store information just like these cellular networks. Sorry for the lengthy comment but this hits close to home for my visions of the neo human.

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