Our Pozible campaign has wound up and we had plenty of interest and some interesting feedback. Firstly we found the Pozible community is not yet into or meant for the tech/gadget world and is freshly international, so we introduced some newcomers.

BBC coverage of Explore Engage Augmented Reality glasses and their adaption to live entertainment

From here though we found our PR extending from national media in Australia via Asher Moses in the SMH to a revealing story on BBC. The revelation of Microsofts patent submission points to a system that we worked on in Qatar and locally in Australia in 2010 and further demonstrated in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress in early 2011.

Dozens of great partners and a few curious door knockers later, we have been given a healthy round of validation. One other announcement in this time frame was a partnership deal with Crowd Optic. who are featuring at the moment in the Ticketek app for the Australia Open tennis in Melbourne. Behind the scenes we increased our web traffic 250% QoQ, 10,500 unique viewers.

We have little doubt that there is plenty of interest and commitment in augmented reality eyewear and adoption will be led by niche groups. Thanks to all who took a look and got in contact with us throught he campaign. There is definitely more to come soon in 2013 so if you are a consumer, experiential agency or have an enterprise or partnership interest in Explore Engage Augmented Reality glasses, write to us!

Today is a monumental day for Explore Engage, the launch of our first crowdfunding campaign with http://www.pozible.com/2020ar

Tomorrow our CTO and co-founder Paul Kouppas will be starring in Charlie Brown’s http://www.cybershack.com/tv-episode – be sure to tune in if you are in Australia or look out on the site following the 18th November 2012. There are a couple of little surprises in the show as we take an active public showcase of our eyewear over the next couple of months.

The range of rewards caters to various interests and invites enthusiasts of AR, consumers, gamers, cyclists, medical fraternity, gadget lovers and others to access more effective means of overcoming problems of the past.

The major technical choice for rewards is between monocular and binocular – in some ways this is a personal choice and of course binocular may provide a more “balanced” visual experience. As it involves another optic component (we partner with Optinvent) it will add more weight to the form factor. What we have been proud to produce is a reasonably stylish pair of glasses that is side weighted, not front weighted and has a highly responsive

Huge deserved kudos and a lot of recent excitement has been around the Project Glasses by Google which achieved 18M+ views and Oculus Rift eyewear which raised $2.5M from 9,500 enthusiastic backers largely the gamer community. Both will have different uses cases as will our 2020AR glasses. Whilst Google’s “Explorer” (nice name) HMD’s enable a great locative aware visual dashboard near the eye, they do not truly mix the digital world with the real one allowing the same focal point. Explore Engage’s 2020AR Pozible project does. Whilst Oculus Rift allows for an amazing field of view, it again doesn’t act as a true augmented reality experience. Explore Engage’s 2020AR Pozible project does.

The nature of the augmented reality eyewear we have made with see through lenses means that a user can focus on the task at hand, or the task ahead and have less need to change focal distance without disturbance or deleterious effect to their performance. In the first instance we see great use cases for cycling and motorcycling HMD’s and simple CPR education however later to move towards sophisticated surgical/medical applications.

As a chance to input into the project at http://www.pozible.com/2020ar for those without the funds for the see through augmented reality glasses, there is a chance to be involved in some eyewear advancements. We have an AR game that will be developed using images of the funders faces which will be on our eyewear at first but also iOS and Android mobile devices as a fun legacy of this project. Essentially we are welcoming people to our testing pool and we look forward to the new application ideas and builds.

So if you are thinking of the most impressive present for this Christmas, for yourself, a corporate gift, or something to share with the group, or you just want to be on to the most cutting edge new opportunities in human computer interfaces, then please visit http://www.pozible.com/2020ar and pick up your reward, share, favourite, like and comment.

By Alina Timofeeva

1. Drive Sales AR can drive sales by “placing” products in the environment before purchase. For example, customers can “try on” a product and see how it looks on them or place it in their houses. After the attachment with the product has been created, customers are more likely to buy it.
2. Enhance Print Media Advertising. Augmented reality can easily enhance commercial ads in magazines and newspapers, facilitating new interactive features that let customers buy products off the page. AR presents readers with click-to-buy icons so they can purchase items through their smartphones and tablets by scanning AR-enabled images in press or outdoor ads while they are on the go.
3. Create Shopping Lists and Do Price Comparison. M-commerce-oriented AR apps are designed to improve shopping experience and customer satisfaction, therefore, increasing sales and brand equity. For example, using the smartphone’s camera, an AR app can “read” barcodes and recognise simple objects, such as CD or DVD covers, allowing users to do basic price comparison shopping and create shopping lists. These simple but engaging features are designed to make sure that your products stand out and will stay in the customer’s shopping list, consequently, increasing the likelihood that the products will be purchased.
4. Replicate in-store experience. The e-commerce or m-commerce experience is designed to take the shopping environment to the consumer instead of the consumer physically going to the shop. AR apps replicate in-person browsing and trying-on. AR, united with a spotless mobile shopping experience, is a fascinated opportunity to bring the best of your store right into shoppers’ smartphones and tablets. Customers can digitally check the price, view a 3D model, “try on” clothes, and then seamlessly order it.
5. Social shopping. AR mobile apps engage shoppers before during and after the sale, encouraging them to instantly share products, which they have “tried on” and “placed in their houses” for peer review. These features make online shopping less lonely and purchasing decisions more instant.
6. Window Shopping Transformed with AR. AR makes storefronts interactive by bringing exclusive videos of the catwalk to smartphones and providing product information, 3D product models, pricing and the ability to purchase the product. Evidence shows that AR-enabled storefronts can lift sales up to 85% within a couple of weeks.
7. Increase in-store experience. Not only can AR bring shopping experience to consumers, it can also increase the in-store shopping experience. AR apps let in-store shoppers instantly see star ratings and feedback from other shoppers who’ve already purchased the items around them. These apps can make it easy to find additional sizes or styles online, and order them for home delivery or store pickup. There is no need to visit one retailer and then buy online from another.
8. Differentiate your business from competitors. Mobile shopping is becoming a must-have for retailers around the world. Developing mobile AR experiences will help you differentiate your business from competitors and delight customers. Interaction with real brands and real products in an AR environment converts potential interest to actual sales.
9. Call-to-action leading to fulfillment. AR allows customers to make purchasing decisions in an interactive and fun way, while they are on the go. “Add to cart” and “purchase now” buttons in AR apps and ads make shopping decisions more instant and rewarding. The service provides an opportunity to reach customers with a call-to-action just as they have seen a product.
10. Demand generation. When AR content is used in conjunction with sales and marketing content, it is very likely to ensure that the potential customer reaches the conclusion that this particular service or a product is the right solutions and is worth purchasing.
11. Increase profit. Augmented reality revenues will exceed $3 billion by 2015, while mobile commerce revenues will be doubled by 2015 with AR applications. Revenues generated from mobile phone augmented reality applications will reach $2.2 billion by 2015. Secure your business and increase sales by entering the AR world now.
12. ROI from augmented reality can manifest itself in many ways such as conversion to direct sales, dwell time, brand awareness and PR.
13. Customer Intelligence. With AR, companies can collect a new spectrum of data to further identify shopper behaviors and patterns on the path to purchase. Collected intelligence can be used to further develop products and services. AR apps can also drive store traffic and incent shoppers to buy more products and more often.
14. Mobile Devices are an Ideal Platform for AR. Smart phones and tablets are quickly becoming the new PC, and, since February 2011, more mobile devices have been sold than PCs and laptops. The expanded view and functionality that tablet devices provide make them an ideal platform for unique and immersive augmented reality experiences.

So it seems that the Chinese company Yihaodian are banking their future on an Augmented Reality Delivery Model. AR is increasing in popularity but are they going too far?

According to Tech In Asia, “At a press conference earlier today, China’s biggest food e-commerce site, Yihaodian, announced plans to form 1,000 virtual supermarkets at locations across the country. These stores, to be called “Unlimited Yihaodian” will actually just be blank city spaces where Augmented Reality (AR) technology and your smartphone’s camera bring the store to life. So, yes, no actual physical products. The items that are purchased will then be delivered – just like with Yihaodian’s regular website.” Apparently some versions of this have been successful: “UK retailer Tesco in South Korea has seen success with its QR supermarkets, which boosted online sales by 130 percent”

Hybrid stores  allow online shoppers to help reduce the carbon footprint of brick-and-mortar stores by having products shipped directly from manufacturer or distributor to the consumer, skipping its trip to the storefront. No one is driving to the store, and no big trucks are making deliveries. Having a store that carries just products for you to see in person before ordering is pretty new. This will be a store where you would walk in, see virtual food items, order them, walk out, and then have them delivered to your home later.

There are some things though you may prefer to go to the store and pick out yourself to make sure you’re selecting only the best fruit, the crispest lettuce, and so on.

Tech In Asia notes that it helps to eliminate all the clicks you’d make on a computer and increase the exercise you get by walking around a store.

The question is….what will consumers think?

Tech In Asia notes, “[T]he new virtual supermarkets will be about 1,200-square meters in size. That’s about the size of 10 average urban Chinese apartments, making them larger than most convenience stores, but a lot smaller than most major supermarket/hypermarkets in large cities in China. They’ll (virtually) stock about 1,000 items.”

Tell us what you think. Would this be an intriguing option for you? Do you think this is a good example of Augmented Reality?

Let us know in the comments.

To read more about this topic click here

At its core, Augmented Reality is a visual and a visceral tool. It has a magical quality that even engages the tech-savvy consumers. AR is the modern equivalent of a magician’s illusion in the sense that one  second you’re looking at reality through a phone, and the next a digital object appears in thin air (through the device camera). This ability to essentially post advertisements or media in augmented space provides marketers with an unprecedented opportunity to engage their audience with genuine excitement and value.

Some marketers have failed to fully capitalize on the visual qualities of AR by focusing only on this initial ‘magic moment’ and not the long-term engagement value. The real goal of AR is to create an emotional connection between what a buyer is searching for and what the product featured in a campaign can offer. AR gives the product a personal feel where consumers can literally picture or place it in their own world. It works best when it is providing a solution to a problem.

Transforming Traditional Media

Augmented reality has already changed the advertising industry by transforming current static ad formats and introducing new levels of customer interactivity.

Catalogues have been a stable medium since the 1800′s, featuring two-dimensional versions of real-life products. They were begging in this age for the AR transformation in which a catalogue can now be a full extension of the company. AR can unify the brand into an interactive trans-media campaign generated from print and digital channels. Combining a printed array of products with the innovative technology of an augmented reality campaign can be an impactful way of extending a brand’s vision when implemented correctly.

As documented in a recent WIRED article, IKEA used AR for the largest print run of a catalogue in history to date that included AR technology. After users downloaded the app they were encouraged to engage in layered AR scenes, when prompted by a mobile icon, that indicated there was additional content. By “unlocking” these experiences, IKEA transformed their traditional print catalogue into a transmedia experience that encouraged deeper and entertaining engagement with the brand. Well so they thought.

Upon review of  the Ikea app yesterday for this article I found that they have stripped all the augmented reality interactions from their app. This is most likely due to the low responsiveness and high failure rate  of marker activations. The markers were not responding as well as they should, if at all. There is a lesson to be learned here for marketers and that is to choose a developer carefully and seek out a recognized AR developer with multiple successful campaigns under  their belt. Not all AR technology achieves a great result, nor do developers or marketers new to the technology understand how involved it truly can be to create that ‘magical’ experience.

Investment Versus Foresight:

It’s easy to get caught up in the magical aspects of AR to inspire quick engagement and potential ROI for campaigns. The best approach is to invest in an AR infrastructure that will allow for multiple campaigns where you can gain a lot more value off of your initial investment. Once you condition your audience to download an AR app or learn to use a certain type of software, the hardest part of engagement is taken care of – don’t waste the opportunity to simply update the back end of your technology for future campaigns with your already engaged audience.

Another advantage for marketers with this type of campaign is that anything digital is tracked with greater ease than something physical. Beyond simply knowing a customer has been sent a catalogue, marketers can see which ads or products were engaged with and gain great insights into which products to invest in. By also providing a route to fulfillment companies and marketers can achieve greater ROI while  tracking every step of a particular campaign’s footprint, all through the one application.

Tips When Creating Your First Or Any Augmented Reality Campaign:

1. Easy Access.

Consumers are largely familiar with QR codes and the idea of scanning an image to get material to their phones. This technology is now superseded by markerless AR. You can provide a QR code that links directly to the App store or your site where people can download any AR technology required for your campaign or you can give a CTA that conditions consumers to seek out engagement opportunities by scanning your ads for AR activated content. Yes…consumers seek out your ads!

2.Clear Calls To Action

If you’re doing an online campaign, take people right to your page and have clear CTA’s (Calls to Action) that can be measured to define success. These can include(but are not limited to) video views, subscription to your You Tube, Facebook or Twitter pages, signing up for a newsletter, or taking a picture of themselves using your app. Never waste the opportunity for engagement and simply hope people take part in your campaign.

3. Provide Compelling Content.

Create entertaining  and/or  highly functional content.  Simply offering a “design your own ” app would not drive potential sales lift. Provide CTA’s where you should capture prospect’s follow up information and demonstrate your brand value with engaging content.

4. Combine Social Media With Augmented Reality Campaign.

Augmented Reality Content provides great content that is usually highly social in nature. Use snippets or pre-launch extras to build the buzz and gain new prospects to be brand ambassadors for the app or AR experience.

Conclusion

It is essential to seek a quality partner to help design an optimum AR experience. There are a number of options for the types of specific technologies involved in a campaign, along with analytics and delivery options once the app is available. It is wise to partner with developers who have created engaging and successful AR campaigns. There are constraints with the technology that need to be planned for as Augmented Reality is a complex technology that has not been fully adopted by the general population.

Comparatively speaking, the cost of deploying an Augmented Reality campaign or platform can be substantially cheaper than other forms of marketing. It can result in priceless earned media such as top coverage from major publications. This same type of digitally tracked engagement cannot be said of most television spots that still rely largely on word of mouth to demonstrate any measurable lift.

Join the dozens of other brands who are using Augmented Reality to transform their marketing strategies.

Contact Explore Engage Today

Today’s post is inspired by the emergence of augmented reality solutions in the retail sector. Although there are many I will cover off what I believe are the best 5 stories to date.

YourSmurfAugmented Reality App

Many augmented reality companies would love to work with these characters. Explore Engage was asked by Slingshot and Sony to create an experience from the DVD cover which included various actions from clumsy smurf. This was a great example of up-sell and cross-selling with augmented reality.

Tesco Grocery Augmented Reality App

Tesco have really nailed their app when it comes to functionality. As the market intelligence grows, it shows that even the basic AR concepts can achieve great things through design and putting the consumer first.

Features include barcode scanning on smartphones, scan to shopping list.

1000 Augmented Reality Supermarkets

Yihoadian Augmented Reality Supermarket concept to have 1000 stores roll out in China

The company Yihaodian reported it has plans to open 1,000 augmented reality supermarkets, space concerns and the reception of local governments were possible constraints. The venture gained the Chinese governments approval for go ahead.

Unlike brick and mortar stores, virtual supermarkets cost almost nothing to create.

Experiential Retail Marketing

Disney begins converting experiential concept stores

Disney has commenced converting their concept stores with interactive devices and augmented reality specially for the kiddies.They have designed the stores with little eyes in mind.

Lego Augmented Reality

Lego augmented reality retail display

This is an oldie but a goodie. It is hard to beat this example when you consider the functionality and  purpose of augmented reality. Although the animation is simple and clunky, technology has evolved greatly since.

Using Augmented Reality apps in smartphones or tablets, anybody can overlay digital text, video and graphics onto the physical world for others to see later. Most major cities already have digital annotations around the world.  Soon there could be a new type of tag in our cities – cut-and-pasted people – thanks to a technique for editing augmented reality (AR) videos.

Now Graz University of Technology, Austria, have designed software that can cut a person or an object out of a video, so that they alone can be pasted as a digital overlay. The idea is to make virtual human guides that could offer city tours or how-to demos, as well as enhancing AR games.

They used a computer-imaging technique called foreground-background segmentation to identify the required foreground object – usually a person. So a user would film a video, then simply point to the object they wanted to extract. The software would do the rest. In a demo, they filmed a skateboarder doing a jump, and showed how he could be pasted onto a street scene. When the app “sees” the environment, it can replay the person in the right place, skating along the ground, for example.

Although they demonstrated the concept using a PC, the researchers say it would be possible to put the software into a smartphone or tablet app. Their work will be presented at OzCHI, the Australian conference on computer-human interaction in Melbourne next month.

Check out the original article here

Australians are now using more internet data than ever and the trend isn’t likely to slow down, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The release of the figures underscores some key reforms in the telco industry – the introduction of 4G networks and the construction of the National Broadband Network.

According to the latest ABS figures, there are now 16.2 million mobile phones in Australia, up by 7% from the December quarter last year, and 12 million internet subscribers.

The biggest increase was in data. The amount of data downloaded through phones has increased by a third from the December quarter 2011 to the June quarter 2012, and the amount downloaded, excluding phones, during the same period is up by 20%.

The figures highlight the ongoing exodus of data from the desktop to the mobile.

The amount of connections at the “high speed” end of the spectrum, which is anywhere from 24Mbps to 100Mbps or more, grew by 20% and 34% respectively. However, most download speeds are within 1.5Mbps to 24Mbps.

The total amount of data downloaded via handsets was 6.6 terabytes, while data downloaded excluding handsets was 414 terabytes.

Most of the increase during such a short period of time could largely be attributed to online video.

How much do you think it will change when everyone’s using augmented reality browsers and augmented reality glasses in real time?

In 2011 Explore Engage was commissioned by the agency WTF to develop ‘Book Games’ a mobile app series of interactive stories for the acclaimed Australian children’s author Jeanette Rowe. The project involved developing 4 titles in the range for the under 7 year old demographic. The titles included; Guess Zoo, Smartycat Frogs, My First Words and YoYo Go Spy.  Check them out here

YoYo Go Spy was entered into the eLit Book Awards for publishers and authors worldwide creating electronic books the global marketplace. The contest is presented by Jenkins Group Inc., a Michigan-based book publishing and marketing services company that has operated the popular Independent Publisher Book Awards contest since 1996. The eLit Awards are a global awards program committed to illuminating and honoring the very best of English language digital publishing entertainment.

In the Children’s Under 7 category YoYo Go Spy took out the Gold Award!

Gold: YoYo Go Spy!, Stephen Lovchyld, What’s The Fuss! (developed by Explore Engage)
Silver: Sofia’s Dream, Land Wilson, Little Pickle Press
Bronze: Looking For Lucy, Emrys Current, Smashwords

For further information or to see other results for the competition click on the link below:

http://elitawards.com/2011_results.php

By Michael Duturbure

At Explore Engage we are often speaking with the C-suite and I find myself wondering ‘where is the CIO?’. If you are new to Augmented Reality,  it can be highly technical in nature and at times the communication lines can go a little astray when somebody can not visualize the benefits of the technology. Even after showing a demonstration and explaining a concept we get the dreaded question something like….But how can you do that?

As a BDM I have been racking my brain trying to work out the best way to solve this dilemma. In my search for answers I have stumbled upon many articles highlighting this similar situation. It seems that with the rise of digital it has been noted that CIO’s are not in the position of decision making for their prospective organisations. It’s clear that when it comes to further involving CIOs in strategic decision-making, companies are going to take some convincing.

An interesting report released by Ernst and Young the “DNA of the CIO” sheds a little light on the the characteristics of today’s typical CIO. The report is based on a survey of 301 senior IT professionals from Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, Australia and South Africa. It also draws on in-depth interviews with a further 25 CIOs from these regions. A further 40 respondents from across the rest of the C-suite were polled to provide a perspective on how the CIO is perceived by the rest of the executive management team

Key points of note were:

• The average CIO is a 43-year-old male and has typically been in his job for five years

• Seven years is considered to be an appropriate tenure, although the rest of management leans toward eight years

• The most common level of education is a degree in IT (49%). Relatively few hold a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree (10%)

• The majority of their career has been spent in the IT function only

• They have less than a one-in-five chance of having a seat at the top management table in their own company

• As might be expected from anyone with a C-level title, he is highly motivated, works extremely hard and delivers on the (often too low) expectations of the leadership

• There is room for improvement when it comes to communication and leadership skills

Check out the full report here

Hopefully the situation will change soon and we will be speaking the same language – an Augmented Reality Solution.