The was my first ‘mixer’ event, more informal than the usual Mashup events. More emphasis on networking with a short talk on a particular subject, that subject being Augmented Reality. I had been to the full Augmented Reality Mashup in October and there were some great demo’s so I was looking forward to the guys from Total Immersion (TI) blowing my socks off. Unfortunately the guys from TI were held up and so did not make it 
We did have an interesting discussion from Nick Brown at Crossplatform (bio here). Nick talked about the practical side of AR, how to pitch it, get customers interested and ultimately pay for it. I did feel like I learnt something. It was a very practical presentation on the business of AR from start to finish, the challenges, implementation, technical hurdles and measurement (customer satisfaction and campaign success).
More cool demo’s please.
Is AR the next big thing – a view.
I like AR because it is cool, it makes me go ‘oo’ and ‘ah’ like I am at a fireworks display. Unfortunately that is not enough to make it a success.
Given what I do and the nature of this blog I am mainly interested in mobile. We shouldn’t forget that AR is not restricted to mobiles with camera’s. Campaigns include use of home computing with webcam’s and bespoke developments for shops, I am sure there are many more examples. Many people use AR everyday in the form of location based services and satellite navigation. Even a lowly cornflake box can be persuaded to be included in the process to trigger an event (Nick used an example of a £10 note to trigger a demo).
Mobile is an obvious choice for AR, mass market, camera on board, location aware and portable. We hear talk of 2010 being the year of mobile (when have we heard that before ;-)) but could it truly be the year of AR as well? I think there is too much stacked against it. People like Layar have had success with their AR browser, this is one application of the technology, but it is likely to be the closest we get to mass market adoption (in the short term). Its the same old problems the industry always faces with a technology that is not standardised, not on all devices out of the box. What manufacturer? What platform? What UI? I could go on. Obviously being a browser Layar is less concerned about the latter and has more control over the application. It is hard enough to get people to think mobile outside of Apple. I think it will be doubly so for AR on a non-Apple device.
I look forward to the Applications @mashupevent on 24th.
Something to look at:
An example from Crossplatform
[youtube id=”4q4Aew-zx3w” w=”560″ h=”340″]
An example from Total Immersion
[youtube id=”MGWS11GM7-Y” w=”560″ h=”340″]
Avatar AR
Coke
[youtube id=”Jx0IAZkgEco” w=”560″ h=”340″]
Cool….
[youtube id=”7JWk_JIE3Ow” w=”560″ h=”340″]