I remember the day when I had a ‘wow’ moment the first time I saw statistics from Peter Brock’s Holden commodore during the Bathurst 1000.  It was surreal being inside the car driving with him and also experiencing his gear changes, braking, acceleration and race position in real time all from the comfort of my lounge.  The next wave of live sports had arrived with the use of augmented reality technologies on TV!

Twenty years on, similar experiences are starting to become possible with the latest series of smartphones in the palm of your hand.  Over the last 12 months, a range of mobile augmented reality services and campaigns have been launched and are all part of the bigger and emerging trend around real time geolocation based services.

What is mobile augmented reality?

Wikipedia defines Augmented Reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.

As smartphones have become cheaper to produce, more complex technologies have been included such as Device GPS, Accelerometer, Camera and Compass.  These four components are the key ingredients which enable mobile augmented reality in the latest series of smarthpones like the iPhone 3GS and a range of Google Android series devices to name a few.

Keeping it simple – it’s the ‘camera view’

As a real time mobile platform company, Insqribe has had a fair share of meetings, discussions and kicked off a range of real time mobile projects with many organisations both locally and internationally.  The most common theme has been people’s perception of augmented reality as a little gimmicky.  It’s fair to say, that with many campaigns to date, this is true and unfortunately has been seen as another fad going through the motions.

In addition, most media attention has positioned AR as a product when in reality it is a feature of a mobile application.  In simple terms, the way I like to explain to anyone I speak with is that it is the camera view of the same content you would typically consume in either list or map views within an iPhone app.  In camera view, you hold up the smartphone in any direction and it will present content like closest restaurants, amenities and how far away the closest train station might be.

Why mobile augmented reality?

It’s fair to say that we’re all different and experience the world from a different perspective to everyone else.  What we see and share with others is sometimes not the same as what the person right next to you is feeling or experiencing.  The common example is people’s orientation with maps and getting from location A to location B.  Simple question – how many of us know people who take forever to get oriented to where they are when using a UBD street directory or even a Navman in the car?  No comment.

For this reason, providing greater choice to people who are mobile and on the go with your location based content is a must when looking at launching or releasing a new version of your mobile applications.  To date, when it comes to location based content, most people think of presenting this content in either List view e.g. all the Thai restaurants in Surry Hills one below the other in tabular format or Maps view e.g. 10 pins on a Google Map of Surry Hills.

Now, the third view being the Camera view is seen as a more compelling user experience as it presents this content in view of the real world you are seeing right in front of you.  For a lot of people I speak with are finding this is a their ‘wow’ moment, similar to what experienced twenty years ago in front of the TV screen.

I’m seeing this first hand with the recently launched property iPhone app called ‘housefinder’ together with St George bank.  With property hunting being such a time consuming experience for many people, a property tool which assists consumers to both saving time and making better informed decisions while out searching for properties to buy or rent was a compelling opportunity.  It’s fair to say that there are other apps in the market but none that focused on the visual Camera view as it’s focal point.

Functional value is key to driving usage

In addition to present a compelling visual experience with location based content, another key factor in using mobile augmented reality is making sure that it’s use is on context of what the person is looking at doing at that point in time.  For example, Pizza Hut Australia recently launched their iPhone app and focused on making the pizza ordering process simple, easy and fun with a GPS Store Locator using the Camera view.

If you are going to a friends place to watch the football on a Friday night and have the task of ordering the pizzas, you could simply pan the Pizza Hut iPhone app around the area you are in and see where the closest store is, and click on the store’s details to go to the next step in ordering your pizzas!  The functional approach with the Camera view is what makes Pizza Hut’s use of mobile augmented reality a great example of good functional use with a focus on the consumer on the go.

5 ways brands or publishers should be using mobile augmented reality

Despite the hype surrounding mobile augmented reality, there are several practial ways to applying this technology to enrich your consumers’ experience with your brand and content while on the go.  Here they are:

(1) Provider greater choice – enable the Camera view as another option to presenting your location based content to your mobile app’s users.

(2) Focus on functional value – by focusing on the context you will find that mobile augmented reality does become a core part of the mix of functionality you deliver with your mobile apps.

(3) Present more content – you can present more content in Camera View vs. a pin on a Map because of the depth and perspective you get with using the Camera view.  By being able to present more content up front to your mobile app’s users, you are assisting them in make better choices and completing their task sooner.

(4) Default with Camera View – make the Camera View the default results view as a key differentiator when designing and looking at releasing a new version of your mobile apps.

(5) Track and measure interactions – understand how, when and what your mobile app users are doing with your mobile apps via the Camera view in order to deliver more deeper and interactive visual experiences like real time local store promotions, mystery adventures, etc.

To find out more about how to explore this further with your organisation you can contact me via email: nick@insqribe.com or connect on Linkedin: http://au.linkedin.com/in/nickgonios

Filed under: Insqribe by Nick Gonios