out of the box :: The awesome world of digital

Sony launches AR Headphone Music Festivals

How do you launch a new range of headphones to a socially connected mobile world? Sony think they may just have the answer. This campaign, straight from the streets of Tokyo takes some of Japans top bands and brings them to life in Augmented Reality. By holding your smart phone up to posters around the city, people could experience exclusive gigs from some of their favourite bands. 

Some great tech behind it (no doubt using Sony’s own ‘SmartAR’) and a nice way of giving fans something fun while they are out and about. Whether or not it will drive sales remains to be seen, perhaps there is a drive back to retail that I am missing in the translation? What do you think? Clever use of technology or a missed opportunity?

Track My Maccas brings Augmented Reality to restaurants in Australia

Have you ever been sat in Maccas late at night, staring longingly at your empty food carton and thought to yourself, where did this delicious morsel come from? How on earth did it come to be? For the love of god won’t somebody tell me!

…. So have I, you’re not alone. And that’s exactly why McDonalds in Australia have brought us the TrackMyMaccas iPhone app. The app uses your location, data about the food you have just popped in your mouth and a vast database of knowledge to whow you real time information about where exactly your food came from. The beautiful part? It’s all brought to life in front of peoples eyes in glorious 3D using Augmented Reality. The animations are slick and the character style adorable. It’s beautifully executed and a really nice combination of technology to bring to life a product story. Nice work from DDB.

‘Sight’ gives us a glimpse into the future

This end of year project from some students at the Bezaleal Academy of Arts houses some very interesting insights into the world we could become. You only have to look at recent technology innovations such as Google Glasses to start to begin what could be possible in the future, and this video begins to explore these themes. From turning chopping a cucumber into a game, to real-time updates while you are talking to people it amplifies many things people are already doing on a daily basis, but makes the experience a lot more automated. 

It’s a beautifully put together vision, with some very innovative ideas. The dark nature of the ending also hints at what this vision could becomes in the wrong hands. What do you think? How many years away are we from this sort of wearable technology?

Thanks for sharing Mister Conner.

Wonderbra ask people to ‘Decode’ their ads

Here’s a cool idea from Wonderbra in the UK and France. It’s called Wonderbra DECODER. People download the app on iPhone or Android and then they can interact with the campaign across a number of channels. Hold your phone up to the print ads, the window displays or even the YouTube video and see the model in her underwear. It’s a clever use of Augmented Reality, especially in the YouTube experience, as it reveals video content that is otherwise hidden.

For those of you like me that are not lucky enough to live in the UK, you can download the ads here and try it for yourself. And if you have the app installed, check out the YouTube video, it’s pretty cool.

Muppets virtually heal kids boo-boos everywhere

Here’s a smart little app from JWT London. Muppets Magic-Vision brings Band Aids to life. Simply put your band aid on (or plaster if you speak the Queens English), hold up the Muppets app and watch it come to life in glorious Augmented Reality. The Muppets then sing a song to make it all better. Lovely use of technology that the kids are going to love.

Sony launch ‘Wonderbook’ - Augmented Reality books for the home

Since Sony launched their Move platform a couple of years ago, some might argue that it hasn’t quite lived up to the potential. Yes, it’s like Wii…. but so what? What makes it different? It seems Sony are trying to address some of these concerns by launching a new content platform on PS3. Wonderbooks brings real-world books to life in your living room, thanks to a combination of EyeToy and Move. 

People can turn pages and interact with the stories, perhaps even changing the outcome as they progress. It’s like ‘choose your own adventure for a new generation. What will potentially propel this new platform into the stratosphere, is early support from nine other than J.K.Rowling. She will be bringing the Harry Potter universe to the platform with a new game called Book of spells. This new book integrates with the much anticipated Harry Potter digital platform, Pottermore. With some unique features, and one of the worlds biggest franchises launching it, I am extremely excited to see what other wonders await this new interactive storytelling platform.

Augmented Reality brings people closer to the Frozen Planet

To support the launch of BBC Frozen Planet on DVD, appshaker created a U.S. tour to get people talking. The Augmented Reality in-mall experience took some of the most beloved animals from the series and brought them to life in beautiful 3D. People could them interact with them, seeing the projection on a huge screen in front of them. There have been many of these installations recently, but the 3D in this one is extremely well done, really bring people close to the animals in a way they could only dream of. 

Nokia bring Angry Birds to Sydney in Augmented Reality

I’m a big fan of these large-scale installations at the moment. When executed right, they really can give the user a great experience. Nokia are the latest in a long line of people using this tech. We have seen great examples recently from the likes of National Geographic and Disney in Times Square and this variation brings to life the most popular mobile game (probably) of all time. It’s a nice execution in a high footfall area, and it’s great seeing this sort of stuff down-under. Produced by VML.

Sony Playstation re-invents mobile Augmented Reality

With the new PlayStation Vita launching here in February next year, people are wondering about some of its new features. One such feature, and one I hadn’t really considered to be ‘groundbreaking’ until now is its use of Augmented Reality in games. With mobile phones we have seen many iterations of Augmented Reality (and also with Nintendo’s latest handheld the 3DS). But with the power of Vita, Sony could really be set to kick all of the competition out of the water. Even these early games look like they will be offering something a little different, with great graphics as well as seamless interaction with the surroundings. 

Whether the reality will live up to these demos remains to be seen, but if they can, we could finally see high end graphics, and some unique executions in the Augmented Reality field. It is still unclear if Sony will work with brands to offer things to consumers other than the current game line-up. But it will definitely be interesting if they do open it up, as the added hardware could massively benefit the types of executions that you can do. Watch this space I guess.

Posters come to life with new AR campaign from REI

Brands have been trying to further engage consumers through their poster campaigns for a while now, but many get it right. If I’m honest, this one still probably doesn’t quite hit the mark, making consumers download an app to get involved with the experience. It’s an extra barrier that may scare off many. Saying that however, I do admire what it is doing, with a nice execution and quite an involving use of Augmented Reality. Now, simply take away the app download and I’m sold.