Ott 5, 2016 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
The launch of Pokémon Go this summer was a huge success—both for the gaming industry and for Augmented Reality (AR). After launching in July 2016, the game hit its peak in August of almost 45 million users. Despite the fact that Niantic, the American software development company that developed Pokémon Go, has failed to maintain high levels of engagement on the game (its current user base is now 30 million users), the phenomenon demonstrated AR’s potential to be adopted by mainstream culture.
In a previous piece I discussed why some AR apps are destined to be forgotten as gimmicks, and what mistakes marketers should avoid when trying to deploy them. But it is just as important to ask: What has contributed to AR’s increasing success?
Aside from complex technological advances (e.g., mobile devices are now powerful enough to handle AR software and tracking systems), three other elements have enabled the mass adoption of AR apps: 1) meaningful content, 2) convincing and realistic interaction of the virtual with the physical environment, and 3) unique value that goes beyond what other technologies deliver.
Pokémon Go hits all of these targets, and it offers useful direction for designing future AR games. But it also has implications for areas outside of entertainment, such as marketing, fashion, tourism, and retail, where commercial AR apps have already been increasing in numbers and popularity. This growing presence of AR results from a long trajectory of development that has been full of hits and misses. Understanding this timeline is crucial, as it highlights the value that AR can offer in various contexts.
Phase 1: Attention-grabbing early efforts
The first AR technology was developed in 1968 at Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland (named the “father of computer graphics”) created an AR head-mounted display system. In the following decades, lab universities, companies, and national agencies further advanced AR for wearables and digital displays. These early systems superimposed virtual information on the physical environment (e.g., overlaying a terrain with geolocal information), and allowed simulations that were used for aviation, military and industrial purposes.
The first commercial AR application appeared in 2008. It was developed for advertising purposes by German agencies in Munich. They designed a printed magazine ad of a model BMW Mini, which, when held in front of a computer’s camera, also appeared on the screen. Because the virtual model was connected to markers on the physical ad, a user was able to control the car on the screen and move it around to view different angles, simply by manipulating the piece of paper. The application was one of the first marketing campaigns that allowed interaction with a digital model in real time.
Other brands started adopting this idea of situating content on a screen and having consumers interact with it through physical tracking markers. We start seeing more advanced versions by brands such as National Geographic in 2011, which showed rare or extinct animal species as if they were walking through a shopping mall; Coca-Cola in 2013, which also simulated environmental problems, such as ice melting right beside you in a shopping mall; and Disney in 2011, which showed cartoon characters on a large screen in Times Square interacting with people on the street.
In each of these examples, the AR technology was used to engage customers at events or in public spaces. These types of displays aren’t always scalable, as they require considerable investment—but we still see them today. For instance, Skoda ran a campaign in 2015, placing an AR mirror in a Victoria railway station in London, so that people passing by could customize a car and then see themselves driving it on a large screen.
Phase 2: Trying on products at home
Simulating digital products, so that they interact with movements in the real world in real time (usually through paper printouts), was a popular approach to AR in the early 2010s, especially for watches and jewelry. This technology let people virtually “try on” a product. Even the Apple watch was available for a similar virtual try-on. However, the task of printing out and cutting a special paper model so that it could fit one’s finger or wrist has always been somewhat clunky, and it requires some effort from the consumer.
Much more successful apps are those that can offer a more seamless experience. Trying on products virtually, by instant face recognition, has been one of the most successful uses of AR in the commercial context so far, and make-up companies have been leading this use. Predecessors of this technology were websites that overlayed make-up on an uploaded photo or avatar. But AR mirrors, developed by agencies like Holition, ModiFace and Total Immersion, have allowed customers to overlay make-up on themselves in real-time. The technology behind this is highly sophisticated, as it requires adapting virtual make-up to an individual’s actual face. In order to create this personalization of virtual content—and make it seem real—the software uses 2D modeling technology and advanced face-tracking techniques. The effect delivers a highly perceived value: seeing one’s face augmented with make-up not only offers a more convenient and playful way to try it on, but also allows consumers to assess looks that they would not have been able to create themselves or to try on combinations that they would not have thought of. That can’t be delivered by simply uploading a photo to an app.
And this type of technology continues to advance. London-based AR agency Holition and agency Coty recently launched an AR app for the make-up company Rimmel, which lets a consumer scan the make-up of another person or an image and then immediately try that same look on his or her face. It takes the experience of look creation to a whole new level. Not surprisingly, the fashion industry has touted the technology, already picking up on its practicality, and consumer ratings for this type of AR apps keep increasing.
Phase 3: A broader range of uses
Aside from try-ons, a rich body of research also shows that AR can be incredibly valuable for exploring various cultural, historical, and geographic aspects of an environment. This type of app typically operates on the basis of a user pointing his mobile device towards an object or a site, in order to see superimposed content on the screen.
Apps developed for tourism purposes started appearing in the 2000s, but initially they were predominantly created in university labs. They’ve only started to become more widely used in recent years, thanks to technological advancement and a better understanding of the consumer experience. For example, the Museum of London has an app that shows you how the particular London street you’re standing in used to look in the past—you just have to point your phone camera at it for the augmented version to appear on your screen. Similarly, apps designed for museum contexts let visitors get more information about famous paintings by overlaying a description over it on smartphone screens in real time. Then there’s also Google Translate, an app that lets you instantly translate a text, whether it’s on a sign or elsewhere, into a language you can read. And Google Sky Map can help you identify stars and planets if you just point your phone camera view toward the sky.
Research I conducted with Professor Yvonne Rogers and Dr. Ana Moutinho from University College London and with the English National Opera, suggests that AR apps could offer innovative support to cultural institutions as well. We observed how opera singers and theatrical make-up artists would take to virtual try-on apps: the AR mirror assisted singers as they were getting into character and building their roles; and make-up artists used it as a helpful tool for developing the artistic looks for each character. Visitors also interacted with the mirror to see what they’d look like as one of the operatic characters.
Each of these examples demonstrate how AR has distinctly evolved to complement and transform the way users experience products and their surroundings. And it will continue to advance as people come to expect more from it. Recent research I conducted with Dr. Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths, University of London, explored how this new generation of digital technologies are changing consumer experiences. Wearables and the Internet of Things have made consumers expect highly customized solutions and instant access to detailed personal data. And AR is reinforcing consumers’ appetite for compelling and creative visualizations of content.
However, our research has also shown that despite the increased use of such technologies, consumers are not yearning for the robotic digitization of their everyday lives. Rather, they want technologies that weave themselves seamlessly into their activities. Consumers expect their digital experience to be more human and empathic, to be filled with emotional content, to surprise them with serendipitous occurrences, to allow for reciprocity and interactivity, and to offer the option of personalized adaptations. As designers and marketers continue to craft AR experiences, it will become crucial to acquire better understanding which areas of human lives can be visually enhanced.
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Ott 5, 2016 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Apple CEO Tim Cook continues to talk about augmented reality like it’s the next major computing platform after the smartphone.
During a talk with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch over the weekend in Utah, Cook gave his most detailed answer yet about how Apple is approaching the technology, which uses computer glasses to superimpose computerized images on the world around the user, kind of like Google Glass does.
Cook thinks AR will “take a while” to reach mass adoption because of difficult technical challenges.
But it will get there. “It will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, kind of how we wonder how we live without our phone today,” Cook said.
His discussion of the topic, which visibly excited him, provides the skeleton of what to expect as the augmented reality industry develops.
Eventually, Cook thinks that AR could become so essential that it will be as much a part of a user’s day as “eating three meals a day.”
Here were his complete comments:
“I think there’s two kind of different questions there. It will be enabled in the operating systems first, because it’s a precursor for that to happen for there to be mass adoption of it. I’d look for that to happen in the not-too-distant future. In terms of it becoming a mass adoption [phenomenon], so that, say, everyone in here would have an AR experience, the reality to do that, it has to be something that everyone in here views to be an ‘acceptable thing.'”
“And nobody in here, few people in here, think it’s acceptable to be tethered to a computer walking in here and sitting down, few people are going to view that it’s acceptable to be enclosed in something, because we’re all social people at heart. Even introverts are social people, we like people and we want to interact. It has to be that it’s likely that AR, of the two, is the one the largest number of people will engage with.
“I do think that a significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day, it will become that much a part of you, a lot of us live on our smartphones, the iPhone, I hope, is very important for everyone, so AR will become really big. VR I think is not going to be that big, compared to AR. I’m not saying it’s not important, it is important.
“I’m excited about VR from an education point of view, I think it can be really big for education, I think it can be very big for games. But I can’t imagine everyone in here getting in an enclosed VR experience while you’re sitting in here with me. But I could imagine everyone in here in an AR experience right now, if the technology was there, which it’s not today. How long will it take?
“AR is going to take a while, because there are some really hard technology challenges there. But it will happen, it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today.”
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Ott 5, 2016 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
L’amministratore delegato di Apple, Tim Cook, nel corso del weekend ha preso parte ad un evento con la comunità tecnologica in Utah, ed ha fornito non poche indicazioni sui progetti futuri della società da lui diretta, in particolare su tutto ciò che riguarda la realtà virtuale ed aumentata.
Secondo Cook, proprio la realtà aumentata, o mista, decollerà e diventerà una parte fondamentale della società del futuro. Il CEO però sembra aver mostrato meno entusiasmo nei confronti di quella virtuale, che “sarà ancora importante, ma non quanto quella mista che diventerà diffusa come tre pasti al giorno”.
L’amministratore delegato però non ha condiviso alcuna notizia specifica sulla visione che ha Apple di queste nuove tecnologia, ma ha comunque dato delle indicazioni del modo attraverso cui la tecnologia dovrà presentarsi. In primo luogo, dovrà essere integrata bene nei sistemi operativi, in quanto il supporto è cruciale. Dopo di che si dovrà lavorare sulla diffusione, dal momento che secondo lo stesso avrà lo stesso impatto dei primi smartphone, ed in futuro non potremo più vivere senza.
Non è la prima volta che Cook parla della realtà virtuale ed aumentata, già in passato aveva discusso dei piani della Mela a riguardo, ma anche allora non aveva fornito nessuna indicazione sui dispositivi. L’intervista integrale è disponibile in calce alla notizia.
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Ott 3, 2016 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Per ora le applicazioni di realtà aumentata toccano smartphone tablet, in attesa di una flessione dei costi per i display indossabili.
L’interesse per le soluzioni di realtà aumentata cresce ma, almeno nel prossimo futuro, a generare business saranno soprattutto le applicazioni in ambito business e meno in quello consumer. Lo indicano le rilevazioni di Juniper Research, secondo cui il boom di Pokemon Go ha certamente portato il tema della realtà aumentata all’attenzione di tutti ma è il settore enterprise a crescere: dai 515 milioni di dollari di investimenti stimati per quest’anno a 5,7 miliardi nel 2021.
Secondo Juniper la crescita del mercato è legata anche allo sviluppo tecnologico. In particolare il miglioramento delle caratteristiche dei display indossabili (HMD, Head Mounted Displays) per quanto riguarda l’ampiezza del campo visivo e la latenza delle immagini li rende alternative sempre più convincenti a soluzioni più classiche come smartphone e tablet. Questi comunque continueranno a catturare la maggiore fetta degli investimenti aziendali da qui al 2020.
Il mercato della realtà aumentata business per geografia nel 2021
Anche perché in campo HMD si parla quasi sempre di contenuti e piattaforme sviluppati ad hoc, il che ne aumenta i costi. È proprio il fattore costo a frenare la realtà aumentata nelle imprese, che per ora e per i prossimi due anni sarà ancora un tema da “early adopter”.
Lo stesso vale per il segmento consumer. Gli HMD costano troppo e il canale preferenziale per la realtà aumentata restano smartphone e tablet. Nel mondo consumer mancano però le motivazioni di produttività che possono favorire l’AR nel mondo business, il che deve spingere gli sviluppatori a una innovazione continua nei contenuti che tenga alto l’interesse dei consumatori.
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Ott 2, 2016 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Come molti sapranno, la realtà aumentata (RA) è un sistema che permette di sovrapporre al mondo reale contenuti digitali. Tutto questo grazie a tecnologie e supporti già esistenti quali smartphone, tablet, smartglasses (occhiali per la RA e non solo), wifi, internet, sensori vari e così via. E’ sufficiente puntare, per esempio, il nostro smartphone su un quadro e l’applicazione di realtà aumentata attiverà la fotocamera visualizzando in tempo reale il quadro stesso e tutta una serie di informazioni digitali, contestuali e interattivi. La realtà aumentata ha iniziato ad essere applicata nei più diversi ambiti, dalle iniziative commerciali più innovative al controllo dei processi industriali, dall’arte ai videogiochi, dalla manutenzione al turismo, dai videogiochi alla formazione.
Il Piano Nazionale “Industria 4.0”, presentato qualche giorno fa a Milano, fa riferimento alla 4° rivoluzione industriale basata sull’uso di “macchine intelligenti” che connesse tra loro sono in grado di ricevere e trasmettere una quantità infinita di dati e che, grazie alle nuove tecnologie, è possibile analizzare e interpretare in tempo reale.
Per giungere a questo obiettivo “Industria 4.0” individua diverse tecnologie abilitanti come robot interconnessi e programmabili, stampanti in 3D connesse a software di sviluppo digitali, sicurezza durante le operazioni in rete e su sistemi aperti (Cybersecurity), analisi di un’ ampia base dati per ottimizzare prodotti e processi produttivi (Big Data and Analytics), Realtà aumentata a supporto dei processi produttivi (Augmented Reality). I vantaggi sono molteplici: maggiore velocità di produzione, migliore qualità finale e di conseguenza maggiore competitività del prodotto.
E’ un piano ambizioso e importante per il futuro dell’occupazione in Italia. Ed è senza dubbio rilevante il fatto che tra le direttrici chiave del progetto ci siano, oltre agli investimenti innovativi, la scuola e l’università. In particolare all’interno del Piano Nazionale della Scuola Digitale sono previsti corsi di tecnologia e laboratori su Industria 4.0, laboratori per lo sviluppo delle competenze digitali.
E tra le principali tecnologie abilitanti di “Industria 4.0” c’è la Realtà Aumentata.
In particolare la realtà aumentata in molti Paesi del nord Europa e sopratutto negli Stati Uniti, è diventata un valido supporto per la didattica e la formazione scolastica. In molte scuole troviamo gli “augmented book” che permettono di arricchire le pagine con contributi multimediali e interattivi rendendo sicuramente più accattivante la lezione e favorendo maggiormente l’apprendimento.
Un esempio è quello di poter vedere su un libro di scienze un vulcano in eruzione, o su un’altra pagina del libro stesso, si potrebbe interagire con un termometro per variare la temperatura e avviare il processo di ebollizione dell’acqua. Ma gli “augmented book” sono solo uno dei tanti contributi che la realtà aumentata può fornire alla didattica e alla formazione scolastica.
Gli stessi studenti e i loro insegnanti possono essere gli autori di progetti aumentati. Prendiamo il caso di una scuola elementare americana a Minneapolis (Minnesota, Stati Uniti) dove gli alunni, seguiti dal loro insegnate di disegno, hanno dipinto le loro opere su carta imparando anche molto sulle forme, i colori, i contrasti. Una volta che il disegno è stato completato, l’insegnante ha registrato il video-commento all’opera dell’alunno stesso. Questo video poi è stato “collegato” al disegno facendolo così diventare un “quadro aumentato”.
E questo è solo uno dei tanti esempi di progetti che si possono realizzare con la realtà aumentata. Potremmo continuare ad arricchire il progetto precedente, aggiungendo al video anche degli elementi animati ed interattivi, come dei pulsanti audio (che potrebbero attivare i commenti dei propri compagni di classe) o schede di approfondimento. Un’ altra idea potrebbe essere una gita scolastica, le cui foto scattate ad una statua, ad un edificio storico, ad una piazza e così via, possono diventare tutti contributi multimediali di applicazioni aumentate da realizzare poi in classe.
In definitiva la realtà aumentata è un media tecnologico che può creare nuove e accativanti modalità di apprendimento oltre a formare negli alunni quella sana competenza digitale che metta sempre al centro il contenuto. Fondamentale è quindi il ruolo dell’insegnate e dell’esperto di realtà aumentata per la Scuola Digitale.
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