Augmented Reality Delivers Context in Mobile Environments
The words seem whiz bang, but there are similar types of technology consumers are accustomed to seeing every day that will help explain augmented reality. Think of your friendly weather report, the broadcaster is standing in front of a green screen with the map, clouds, temperatures, letters representing pressure systems and other symbols are layered over that green screen.
Augmented reality is a way of layering certain types of information over something else, either a blank space like the case with weather graphics or another set of information, say a map of downtown. At the South by Southwest Interactive festival, augmented reality was a hot topic particularly as it can be applied in mobile settings.
For example, in San Francisco, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is exploring using augmented reality to deliver more information including estimated arrival times, station locations, and other merchants near the station through a mobile device. You would point your phone camera in your surroundings and layered over the image would be information relevant to transit in that vicinity. No map handy, no worry.
This technology has its roots in military applications and will in the future make its way into the home. For example, using what Metaio calls markers, you can take images of your living room, then when you are at the furniture store use the phone to over lay pieces of furniture and carpet in the image of your room giving you a better idea of whether that couch will clash with your drapes.
The increased use of mobile platforms and smart devices is giving rise to further application development. Today Jupiter Research estimates $2 million in augmented reality sales that number is expected to increase to $732 million by 2014.
Here is a conversation with Noora Guldemond and Lisa Murphy of Metaio. Verizon Wireless supported this coverage and supplied me with the Motorola DEVOUR with MOTOBLUR which I used to record this video.
Kansas City social media practitioners shared gems at our South By Southwest tweet up yesterday, thanks to local organizer Lisa Qualls of Fresh ID. As Rick Mahn and I make our way to the SxSW tech festival we are asking consumers and producers of social media about the state of the medium, and how businesses are using it (or not). Also how consumers are interacting with each other and with brands. The dynamic debate among this group was outstanding.
As a journalist of these issues, as well as a practitioner, these gems of opinions from others are data points I keep in mind as I assess recommendations for companies. There is no “right way” to do social media, and each case, each company culture has a different perspective, which is why this summary should be viewed as a pantry of good quality raw ingredients, and not a recipe for the one size fits all social media strategy. Some ingredients may be right for some, companies may have the budget to use them all, some may not.
Measure everything, apply tools like Google analytics, www.bit.ly and www.idek.net (last one shared by Bestofjess ) to every link. - Really I say? Really, the fact is whether you are an individual blogging about a passion or a Fortune 500 company selling cars, measuring is one of the major ways you know that what you intended to communicate is what the recipient receives. Don’t leave it up to the response mechanisms like comments to determine whether you have engaged or not. Measurement to me in social media is like watching someone’s body language when you are having a conversation. Those gestures, facial expressions and twists and turns are cues which impact the next message you send.
Explain stuff until people understand it. Regardless of the “advanced” level of the group there is always something new for anyone in the group to discover. Whether it’s, “this is an RSS feed” or this is the beta version of Google buzz, heck, this stuff is being made hourly, there are no experts on everything. There is constant learn and props to groups like the Social Media Club and Social Media Breakfast who are in local communities creating forums for learning. Bless you.
The relationship between data, individual, and their location is a condition I call mobile which is powerful. Mobile services interacting with location based applications like Yelp, Layar, Foursquare and Gowalla (to name only a fraction) come as close to getting inside your head as we have today. An example raised at the Kansas City meeting was telling. Jenn Bailey was traveling in New York City, stopped in a couple of shops and local landmarks checking into Foursquare at each location. After her fourth stop she received an invitation that went something like this “You’ve been busy this afternoon, must be tired, stop by our restaurant and we’ll buy you a drink.”
As the group concluded, we’ll give up a little privacy to gain something that may well be very relevant to us at that point in time and space. The huge increase in smartphone sales is simply making this relationship easier and putting the power in the hands of consumers as they interact with a society on the move. Analysis predict 50% of web connections will be made via mobile device by 2012.
You can see the discussion at the Twitterface page created for the event. Twitterface is a neat application that allows companies to create a brand experience with streaming video, which is also recorded, and the social media stream.
Neat way to see what is around you at night, Use Google maps and the satellite view. Out your window it’s dark, but with the Satellite you can see what’s beyond the shoulder of the road
Thought I’d capture a moment setting up at the Racoon River Brewery in Des Moines, IA. Great place, and we ended up having a nice interview with Mike Templeton.
We are working our way through the Heartland of America on our way down to the South by Southwest Interactive festival. The more social we get online and on our phones, the more it seems we want to meet in person. That’s why Rick Mahn and I are looking forward to the tweet ups in Des Moines Wednesday, March 10 at 5:30 at the Raccoon River Brewing Company. Then on March 11, we stop in Omaha at Caffeine Dreams at 8AM - 9AM, Kansas City, at Kansas City Cafe at 2pm - 3pm and Lawrence, Kansas. location is TBD. I know Lawrence there’s basketball this weekend, but we’ll coming by anyway. : )
Our last tweet up before pulling into Austin is the morning of March 12 in Wichita at the Donut Whole. 7:30am - 8:30am. I’m told they have a bacon maple donut that’s TDF.
We’ll do profile pieces on innovators in social media and mobile applications in the Midwest. We’ll capture conversations about what’s working and what’s next in business and consumer technology. During the coverage of South by Southwest I will get into some of the challenging topics including, the next phase for journalism, whether greater community participation is necessary for the social web to grow, and how will life change when more than half the web connections are made with a mobile device.
Oh yes and of course TShirts, plenty of TShirts. I can chuck the map, I’ve got turn-by-turn directions. Special thanks to Verizon Wireless for sponsoring this coverage.
It’s official, Social Media Breakfast - Minneapolis/St. Paul has two members going on an official SMB SXSW 2010 Roadtrip. It’s been a long and winding road to be able to make this happen, and planning continues as I write this.
We’ll be stopping in multiple cities on our way south from Minneapolis to Austin, looking to meet with many fine folks in the heartland of the USA. Our planned stops are listed below, with links to event pages. If you can make it to a planned meetup please RSVP, though all meetups will be no-cost (that’s free to you and me). ;-)
Itinerary
Des Moines, IA - March 10th at the Racoon River Brewing Company (RSVP)
Omaha, NE - March 10th at the Caffeine Dream (RSVP)
Kansas City, MO - March 11th at the Kansas City Cafe (RSVP)
We’ll be blogging, podcasting, capturing pictures and video along the way. Mostly, everything we capture will be posted here, either by linking or full posts. However, you can follow us in the following places:
Rick Mahn - Rick is the founder of Social Media Breakfast - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Social Media Strategist for Land O’Lakes, Inc., blogger and connector of people. Rick consults in social media & is a contributing author for Personal Branding Magazine
Albert Maruggi - Albert Maruggi’s experience includes journalist, senior PR adviser and technology marketer. He is in his sixth year as host of the Marketing Edge Podcast and is a senior fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.
A chronicle of the journey of SMBMSP members from the Twin Cities of Minnesota to Austin, Texas. Look out SXSW, here we come!
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About SMBMSP
One of the largest Social Media Breakfast chapters in the U.S, SMBMSP holds monthly events where folks get together to talk about using social media and social networking tools in their business or careers. It's about networking, it's about learning, and mostly it's about people...
Rick Mahn - Rick is the founder of 
Albert Maruggi - Albert Maruggi’s experience includes journalist, senior PR adviser and technology marketer. He is in his sixth year as host of the Marketing Edge Podcast and is a senior fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.
