Roger Ewing's Blog

James Cameron’s Avatar is a blockbuster movie , due largely to the technology of augmented reality.

By Roger Ewing

Imagine this for a moment.  You point your mobile phone camera at a busy city street and instantly you see an overlay image on your phone of information about sales, promotions, events, food, coffee and other interesting stuff.  All in real time.

No need to actually walk down the street and check out the menus, or look in the display windows.  If you don’t like what you see, you simply point the phone camera in the opposite direction and check out the action there.  Tonchidot, a Japanese company created an iPhone application called Sekai Camera that channels augmented reality technology into this exciting application.

Recently Esquire published it’s first augmented reality magazine.  Readers must download software from the internet.  Once enabled, the reader then holds the magazine page that includes the marker up to the webcam on their computer and instantly a video of Robert Downey Jr. springs to life on the computer screen.

There are additional augmented reality pages included inside the magazine that are quite amazing.  You can see a demonstration of the application here. Esquire Magazine Augmented Reality Issue

Research into augmented reality involves the assimilation of computer-generated imagery into live-video streams.  This technology expands the way we view the real world.

The Coca Cola Zero | Avatar promotion is probably the most amazing demonstration of this new technology.  It provides a glimpse into the marketing opportunities available through augmented reality.

James Cameron’s Avatar Toys augmented reality demonstration is another example of the commercialization of this technology.  Action figures are now 3D controllable images.  Press a button, and the figure takes flight; press another, and the guns begin to fire.  Add another figure, and they can interact.  The possibilities are endless.  Check out the video below.

It’s not difficult to envision a brochure or direct mail announcing a home for sale that possesses a marker, like Esquire Magazine, that when held in front of a computer webcam will trigger a virtual tour of the home to begin playing on the screen.  This is the power of augmented reality.

In the virtual world of augmented reality, our understanding of entertainment and marketing has changed forever.

Avatar, The Movie

Copyright © by Roger Patrick Ewing, all rights reserved.