The new 2013 Audi RS 4 Avant Ultimate Paintball Duel. Way to much fun.

Walmart’s new augmented reality app

Move over QR codes, there is a new boss in town.

Over the past year, augmented reality has taken over the mobile space and has marketers thinking of new ways to incorporate the technology into their strategies to develop interactive and engaging campaigns. nCurrently, a majority of augmented reality campaigns are being incorporated in print publications. However, marketers such as Starbucks are rolling out their own augmented reality applications to boost user engagement.

Here are the best augmented reality campaigns of the first half of 2012, in alphabetical order: find a job for you

Heat

Bauer Media-owned British pop culture magazine Heat used augmented reality to bring its static pages to life.

Consumers were encouraged to download the Aurasma mobile application to interact with the 12 pages of mobile-enabled content. Additionally, Heat developed a separate, publication-specific app that uses Aurasma’s technology. The app educated users on how to properly use the mobile app to interact with the content. To promote the initiative, Heat placed several calls-to-action on the pages to encourage more scans. By using augmented reality, Heat was able to connect with its readers on a deeper level, as well as bring its print ads to life.

Maxim

Maxim tapped augmented reality to boast readership for its September issue.

The publication launched its own mobile app to coincide with the release of its September issue.The company decided that it was time to give readers a more interactive way to engage with its content without plastering mobile bar codes on its print pages. When readers hovered their mobile device over the cover, they were taken to a landing page that let them watch a video of cover model Bar Refaeli. For example, by holding a mobile phone over the cover image, the app uses image recognition and augmented reality to deliver an on-page video featuring cover model Bar Refaeli. Currently, many marketers are taking a different approach with their print campaigns. Instead of using QR codes like others do, augmented reality is a great new way to interact with new and existing readers.

Maybelline

L’Oreal’s Maybelline New York used augmented reality to let consumers virtually try on nail polish.

The company partnered with Blippar to help execute the initiative. Maybelinne incorporated augmented reality into its New York Color Show Nail Lacquer print campaign, which will run thorugh the end of the year. A sidebar on the opposite-facing page walks users through the process of using their mobile device to interact with the ad. Consumers can aim their device at the print ad to activate the digital portion. From there, the screen shows a spinning circle of all of the company’s new nail colors. Readers can try on each of the 40 different nail colors by snapping a picture of their hand.

Marvel

To help promote its “Avengers VS X-Men” comic book, Marvel Entertainment enlisted in an augmented reality application.

The Marvel AR app, which is powered by Aurasma, was unveiled at this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival. Marvel fans were encouraged to participate by opening up the mobile app and scanning select products, which featured the Marvel AR logo. Consumers were able to unlock exclusive content featuring popular superheroes such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine and the Hulk. nBy rolling out an augmented reality app, Marvel was able to interact with fans at a big event. Additionally, but enabling the app to bring its popular characters to life, Marvel was able to engage with consumers on a more interactive level.

Tic Tac

Instead of incorporating augmented reality into a print campaign, Tic Tac took a different, much bigger, route.

Earlier this year, the company unveiled an interactive Times Square billboard in New York that incorporated augmented reality to enabled passersby to put themselves in the billboard using their smartphones and the Tic Tac Times Square application. The billboard was part of Tic Tac’s Shake It Up campaign, which encourages millennials to explore new, unconventional ways of doing daily activities. Tic Tac used a call-to-action to encourage consumers to view the ad through its mobile app. After consumers scanned the ad, the imagery on the phone switched to show the user’s face on a magazine cover or on a “Vote For” sign, with the app automatically taking a user’s Facebook picture and inserting it in various ads.

Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee is always on trend. Last year the company unveiled its augmented reality mobile application and updated it for Valentine’s day. Coffee lovers were invited to download the Starbucks Cup Magic app and interact with the company’s limited-edition hot cups. When consumers scanned the cups, they were able to watch as their Valentines magically came to life. An augmented reality campaign such as this is very effective as it lets Starbucks interact with consumers using its own products.

Credits: Rimma Kats

OK, I hear you ask, what is responsive web design?

Responsive web design is an approach to web design in which a website is designed and crafted to provide optimal viewing experiences across a wide range of devices including desktop computer, tablets (iPad etc), to mobile phone devices. The aim of responsive design is to make online content easier to read and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning and scrolling.

From experience people use smart phones in different ways. For some a condensed version of a website is far more suitable if they are on the move but for the person with a lengthy commute, they want the same experience that they would get from a desktop.  With such ranges in how and what content is viewed, it all comes down to achieving the best possible user experience. In some instances it is necessary to create a desktop and mobile version but designing for ‘one web’ is more achievable by using Responsive Web Design methods.

By creating a site that can adapt for each user you keep the experience far more consistent and natural. Responsive design is far more than just rescaling a site and when done correctly it optimises content in an intelligent and simple to understand way.

For example on a mobile screen, real estate is far more crucial and over weighted navigation just pushes content further down the page out of sight. The challenge comes by containing and prioritising elements in a logical way that a user will be able to access and not break the experience when space becomes reduced.
With such a wide range of possibilities, the constant improvement in digital products and advancements in web technology it is exciting to think what is achievable when technical knowledge and creative vision are combined.

Responsive design is a great example of just one of the ways in which the online experience is greatly improved and how we engage with content, digest the information and interact with them both. The theory behind Responsive Design is as important because it sets a standard in which the focus is purely on the end user.

• Do your customers or potential customers use their mobile device to view your website content?
• Have you viewed your website on an iPad or smart phone device to see how it performs?
• Does information drop off or do you need to scroll across large areas to find what you are after?

If the answer is YES to any of these then your website may not be responsive to your viewers browsing habits.

To find out how to make your website responsive please contact our team on 1300 123 246 or request a quote.

Everything has come full circle! Check out these limited edition Campbell’s Condensed soup can designs.

“To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Andy Warhol’s 1962 famed work, 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans, Campbell Soup Company is introducing limited-edition cans of Campbell’s® Condensed Tomato soup with labels derived from original Warhol artwork. The four specially-designed labels reflect Warhol’s pop-art style and use vibrant, eye-catching color combinations like orange and blue, and pink and teal.

When asked why he painted Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol famously quipped, “I used to have the same [Campbell's soup] lunch every day for twenty years1.” For his first solo gallery exhibition held in Los Angeles in 1962, Warhol exhibited his famous paintings of Campbell’s soup – 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans. Each of the thirty-two canvases depicted one variety of soup and was displayed side-by-side like cans of soup on a grocery store shelf. The painting helped launch Warhol’s career and ushered in Pop Art as a major art movement in the United States.

“Campbell’s Condensed soup is an iconic brand. And thanks to Andy Warhol’s inspired paintings, Campbell’s soup will always be linked to the Pop Art movement,” said Ed Carolan, Vice President & General Manager, Campbell North America. “This Fall, to honor the golden anniversary of his first gallery exhibit, we’ll celebrate Warhol and soup by releasing limited-edition Campbell’s Tomato soup cans and making Andy’s art available in the soup aisle of grocery stores.

“In 1962, Andy Warhol changed the trajectory of contemporary art by depicting Campbell soup cans on canvas,” said Michael Hermann, Director of Licensing at The Andy Warhol Foundation. “It is only fitting that fifty years later we celebrate the enduring legacy of these two American icons by coming full circle and bringing his art back to the Campbell soup cans that provided him with inspiration.”

The limited-edition cans were produced under license from The Andy Warhol Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation that promotes the visual arts. Beginning Sunday, Sept. 2, the cans will be exclusively available at most Target locations nationwide for $.75 per 10.75-ounce can, while supplies last.”

this image was spotted on huffingtonpost.com

credits: the dieline.

With 4 distinctive broadcast quality 3D scenes, this augmented reality activation delighted crowds providing opportunities to place themselves right inside the content, where they were able to interact with the animals of the Polar Region. This event acted as an organic cross between an art installation and advertising. With live streaming from each event, family and friends were able to share their experience around the world. This fantastic example was developed by Appshaker and BBC.

This AR example demonstrates the capabilities of augmented reality and how it can captures minds, engage audiences, generate awareness, enhances brand experiences, increase sales and entertain simultaneously. For further information on AR contact Applause Digital.

Think Minority Report, Avatar or Iron Man and you get the picture.

But today AR fact is rapidly closing in on consumer applications.

The technology made its first appearance in the real world in 1968 when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland introduced his virtual reality concept: an optical see-through, head-mounted display complete with trackers. While its limited processing power meant the images were simple wire-frame drawings, this was an important launch for AR innovation.

The most widely used applications in the early stages were for the military, says Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, co-founder of mobile AR application developer Layar in Amsterdam. “Headset and windshield displays showing speed or targets have been going on for awhile.”

For the most part, the applications under development, while exciting, tended to be “rough” models that required big computers and were error-prone, he says. “A lot of schools were working with it but there were so many limitations in terms of processing power and mobility.”

In the 1990s, some important technological developments allowed AR to make its way into the consumer sector. Laptops became more powerful, smartphones were introduced and GPS technology was becoming increasingly accessible and popular.

The decade witnessed an extraordinary burst of innovation in which GPS receivers, electronic compasses and processing capabilities were combined to transform everyday experience. The first mobile augmented reality system (MARS) appeared in the mid-1990s. Clunky by today’s standards, it featured a see-through, head-worn display with an orientation tracker and a backpack to hold the computer, differential GPS and radio for wireless Web access.

When the first camera phones were introduced in the late ’90s, it became possible to repackage the various elements in a much more compact format. At that point, AR was able to move beyond backpack-toting users conducting navigation tasks to an accessible handheld technology with limitless options.

“Once the convergence of GPS, compasses and cameras was complete, mobile AR applications started coming to people in big numbers,” Mr. Lens-Fitzgerald says. “Finally the phones became powerful enough to combine camera images with information and interact with in real time.”

He says the three elements had to come together in one device for that to happen. “GPS tracks where you are, a compass will tell you where the phone is pointing and the visual part recognizes what you’re looking at.”

“Mobile AR applications are being optimized and made better every day,” Mr. Lens-Fitzgerald says. “It’s amazing what we now have in our pockets and what it can do.”

credits: Financial Post

B Line Pulse is a social app that’s attempting to buck this trend. Developed by Hornall Anderson and 4Culture for Seattle’s RapidRide B Line bus–the Bellevue-Redmond route that ferries many Microsoft employees to work–it’s a web app that asks the bus riding community questions and creates artistic visualizations from the collective answers.

The daily questions are icebreakers (“What color do you feel like today?”), plain trivia (“Guess the average age of a Bellevue resident”), and a means to vent about your experience (“How do you feel when a fellow rider talks to you on the bus?”). Using the app is like filling out a comment card for your life, and answers are tallied in colors and shapes, instavisualizations that are as satisfying as the anonymous answers themselves. And at the same time, the app is tracking stats like how often and quickly you answer, awarding badges for participation in a touch of gamification that adds levity to the experience.

So is B Line Pulse a game? Is it art? The designers won’t categorize the experience under one umbrella, and that’s what makes it interesting. At the end of the day, it’s just a satisfying phone experience that’s attempting to, not distract you from your daily commute with Angry Birds and Facebook updates, but maybe improve your whole outlook on it.

And, in a sense, it gets you talking to your fellow a-holes, reminding everyone that, yes, we’re all in this stinky dirty box together. (Plus, who knew, about 50% of riders won’t mind if you strike up a conversation.) If you’d like to try B Line Pulse, you don’t have to fly to Seattle and get a job at or around the Microsoft campus. Just visit the link below on your mobile device.

Wired scoured the world’s laboratories for the coolest and cutest animal robots.

RoboWorm

An elastic, flexible robotic worm on wheels can inch its way through a simple set of obstacles.

Mechanical engineer Jordan Boyle modeled the 3-D-printed serpentine ‘bot after Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the most widely used animal models in neuroscience and genetics research.

RoboWorm can adapt to its environment, but it’s not “powerful and robust enough to actually throw out there in the real world,” Boyle said. It still lacks the mechanical and computational prowess to work in search-and-rescue missions, which Boyle hopes it will someday do. For now, the mechanical crawler can’t burrow through rubble nor sense its surroundings — both necessary capabilities for a rescue bot.

“It looks like it’s detecting its environment and responding to it, but it’s actually doing that solely on the basis of proprioception, or one’s sense of body posture,” Boyle said. That’s cool, but not entirely useful for a rescue mission.

Pending funding, Boyle will start working a new prototype that might actually be able to help emergency responders.