The Next Big Thing in Interactivity?
The evolution of interactive marketing may be close to taking its next big leap forward.
Let's face it, despite the fact that we use "interactive" to describe digital marketing, there's relatively little true interactivity. Most interactions still involve people sitting at a keyboard (or maybe a touchscreen) and typing or clicking away. Speed of interaction has certainly increased – live chat, for instance, allows us to communicate in nearly real time – but basically, we are still pecking away at a keyboard. Low-cost video conferencing, such as what we can do with Skype and similar services, lets us add a face to a phone call.
The hardware and software that we use to communicate has been the chief obstacle to achieving something that approaches a really personal interaction. But that may be about to change.
Augmented reality (AR) technology is reaching a point where it may be affordable enough for a wide range of applications, including marketing. The simplest way to understand the technology is to see a demonstration...I suggest you check out the video about Microsoft's Project Natal Xbox360. The aim of this system is to continue the evolution of gaming interactivity that Nintendo's Wii began by doing away with controllers entirely.
The current Xbox360 is already a beast of a computer, and it's ability to render high-definition graphics far exceeds the capacity of most of our personal computers. The same goes for other consoles, such as Sony's PS3, so it will not be surprising that gaming consoles may represent some of the first practical mass-market augmented reality technologies.
We also see the beginnings of practical implementations on the Internet, although local hardware (web cams and graphics processors) and network bandwidth are still limiting factors. For example, there are now toolkits available for interactive developers, such as the FLARtoolkit developed by the developer Saqoosha and the tools from commercial developer Total Immersion. Other technology providers include Boffswana, Flat Out Media, and metaio.
Some of the early web applications have been the 3D views of cars, in which a user can rotate a vehicle and interact with some of the car's features. Cool, but not game-changing. But there are many potential applications, some of which have been tried on a limited basis, that may represent a competitive advantage to companies that adopt such technology.
- Online shopping with realistic virtual "dressing rooms";
- Interactive user training...imagine an application in which a diabetic patient gets help using a new blood glucose meter interactively;
- Marketing "videos" in which the customer can interact with the product in complex ways, maybe even with friends or family members;
- A whole new set of social networking applications that don't restrict us to avatars, as in Second Life.
It is always hard to gauge the effect of an emerging technology, particularly how long it will take to become disseminated widely enough, but augmented reality seems to be on the cusp of a mainstream breakthrough. Check out some of the links above and decide if there is a role for the technology for your company in the next few years.
Posted at 11:38AM Feb 03, 2010
by David King in Technology |
