This science teacher used augmented reality to enhance his lab on the elements:

Read more...

They include the poster they used in downloadable format as well as a handy format to show you how it works!

GE Augmented Reality AD

However, the ROI on such applications cannot be immediately measured this early in the game. Also, this is an interesting youtube video uploaded by an user named extrareality – who is using an app from ZAPPAR, a company that provides digital apps for sheer entertainment. Although, my research has lead me to believe that AR is more popular in UK than in the USA, it will take-on in a few years or so.

Augmented reality, which bridges the divide between virtual and physical worlds, has crossed into a new frontier: print media.

Penguin Books recently unveiled a surprising partnership with Zappar App, an augmented reality entertainment channel, to bring four novels from the English Library to life. Augmented reality, known as “AR,”  is type of virtual reality that overlays objects and scenes in the real world with digital information.

To access the content, just download the free Zappar mobile app, available on Android and iOS, and select a Penguin novel on the drop-down menu. Point your smartphone camera at the cover of popular titles such as Moby Dick and Great Expectations to unlock an interactive and highly visual experience. Hover over the Moby Dick cover page, and a whale swims across your phone screen, as you’re prompted to “like” Penguin Books on Facebook.

Publishers have been experimenting with integrating AR for years (in 2010, GQ ran a series of enhanced Calvin Klein underwear ads), but this futuristic technology has not yet been incorporated into classic novels until now.

“Gimmicks are easy, compelling value-adds in transmedia are hard,” said Marshall Kirkpatrick, chief executive of Plexus Engine, on the topic of the AR-enhanced Penguin novels.

The jury’s still out on whether AR can help print publishers attract a younger generation of ADD-riddled readers.

Nicola Hill, marketing director for Penguin Press, is optimistic about the opportunity to turn static print into an interactive experience. Hill describes this partnership as an “inventive” and a “fresh publishing idea.”

But managing director for Zappar, Caspar Thykier, said augmented reality is in its nascent stage. According to Thykier, publishers should take AR with a pinch of salt. “We are taking a measured approach to this,” he said. “It would be crazy to say that we are revolutionizing publishing.”

Still, Thykier said there are limitless possibilities for AR. “It’s a bit of magic isn’t it?” he said. “It’s about exciting and surprising people with additional layers of content.”

Underwear ads are one thing, but there’s something unnatural about waving a smartphone over a classic work of fiction.

Experts say we’ll see a series of magnificent experiments over the next few years. “Most will fail,” said Chris Grayson, Director of Digital, humble.tv. “The hint of what we’re seeing on mobile today is a tease of what is to come.”

In the Brand world and business world everyone is asking questions on how Augmented Reality can be used.  I am sure you have seen the fancy trailers for movies using it and all the ipad apps etc etc.

Caspar Thykier, founder and managing director of Zappar, a London based creative technology company, thinks that rather than obsessing over the utility and technology itself, we should instead think about AR as another media channel that can deliver bite-sized forms of entertainment.

This got me thinking? In campaigns I have to deal with the usual suspects of roll ups and boring banners.  But what if this wasn’t the case?  What if I could in fact use a roll up with a static image that has a zappar linked to it and make it interactive on a show.

Challenger Brands are known for using every available touchpoint as a medium with which to project and so for Challengers in particular, I think there are many opportunites to digitally enhance and bring to life those physical touchpoints within the brand experience.  Why do you have to go with the norm in events? Why cant .com companies bring the digital with the physical experiences in UAE.

Stay tuned..am going to take this idea into reality..or if you have already done it please share it with me.

Moonpig have joined forces with AR experts Zappar to revolutionise the way we look at the humble greeting card.

These new cards feature a personalised image from the sender on the front, but when the recipient scans the image with their smartphone, the picture comes to life as a video!

I think it’s a great development that combines the sentiment of receiving a real card through the post whilst utilising the technology available to bring the experience into the modern age.

It’s also a little reminiscent of the newspapers in Harry Potter – bar the fact you have to view it through your phone using the free Moonpig UK app.

If you still can’t quite picture it then check out the ad below for a full demonstration – and just in case you were wondering, these Video Cards cost £4.99 from the Moonpig website.

Read about what the App does on Mashable.

I get it. There’s an item in an area of high dwell time (although these are takeaway cups) and you have users sitting around playing with their phones. The perfect opportunity to get consumers to interact with your product. However, the end result is always a half-baked attempt at something engaging that you may open once but certainly won’t return to.

I’m yet to see a really effective AR mobile marketing campaign. I’d love to see some if you have examples – @joelblackmore

AR in general has such potential, and will soon be perfected on mobile, it’s just frustrating that all the current campaigns are boring. Watch this old concept video for minor car repair by BMW:

When are we going to see something as genuinely useful and well though through as this in AR mobile marketing?

In reviewing a recent CNET blog on interactive Augmented Reality (AR) by ZAPPAR, the company has taken this technology and applied it’s use to work instructions, movie trailers and now, t-shirts.  By use of a free ZAPPER app, iphone, android and ipad users can point at a picture and “zap” it.  An animated character then appears on your scream to share information, or a video game may appear which can actually be played.

At Business Partner of Lutz, we see this novelty technology as having great potential for tradeshows, conferences, new product introductions, store displays, etc.  Of course, the gaming feature on t-shirts may be a little disruptive, so get prepared teachers, we are confident that it is coming to your school in the near future!

Please check out the feature by downloading the app to your phone (“ZAPPAR”), and zapping the picture below.  Make sure that you select the icon within the app that matches the picture below, then press “ZAP”.

Don’t forget to let us know your thoughts on the technology.

What am I talking about?

Since the beginning of motion pictures, movie posters have been made of paper. The dimensions and artistic styles have changed over the years, yet paper was the dominant medium. That is until recently. Technology has advanced to the point where movie posters are no longer just static images. I wrote about this development in my blog entry of December 16, 2009 called Living Movie Posters. Yet, what I wrote in 2009 isn’t the end word on the evolution of movie posters.

You mean there’s more?

Of course there’s more.

A recent issue of Pocket Lint, a gadget news and review website based in the UK, had an article about Warner Brothers releasing a smart phone app, which can be used to unlock audio samples, visual animations and other features locked in images from the upcoming Green Lantern film. App was created by a company called Zappar and it created “hot spots” in the poster that can be tapped to allow a smart phone owner with this app to access these goodies.

What if you don’t have a smart phone? Well, on one hand you’re going to miss out; on the other hand are other ways movie posters are evolving. One way is digital signage. Digitimes, an English language website that covers Taiwan’s IT industry, ran a short piece about how digital signage is being used in the Phillipines. One digital sign company called Cayin has 22 of its digital signs in select Filipino movie theaters. These signs are used to display movie posters, trailers, film synopses, rating, screening times, and even promotions. Before the digital signs came along, movie theater employees would use PowerPoint presentations and that limited them to a single layout without show times.

These two developments show how technology is playing a part in the evolution of movie posters. From static displays on paper to dynamic images rendered via a smart phone, movie posters are become more than just advertisements and more than just art; they are becoming experiences in and of themselves. What’s next? I have a feeling we’ll find out very soon and it will have a certain cache of coolness. After all, if it wasn’t cool, no one would want to be associated with it.

Sources:
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40253/greenlantern-augmented-reality-app-launches

http://www.digitimes.com/supply_chain_window/story.asp?datepublish=2011/06/07&pages=PR&seq=209