The SPOKE Daily » augmented reality

Amazing 4D Ralph Lauren Light Show

paula.sommerz — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:29:46 +0000

Hatsune Miku – Holographic Concert

Karen Lo — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:18:59 +0000

She is one pop star who will never be confronted with bad plastic surgery, rehabs, and scandals. Meet Hatsune Miku, the latest J-Pop sensation. Miku started as just a voice in Yamaha’s Vocaloid synthesizing technology developed by Crypton Future Media. The consumer software has gained so much popularity since its release in August 2007 that Miku was able to hold her first concert in March this year in Tokyo – in the form of a dynamic hologram. Thousands of enthusiastic fans came out and sang along to the digital vocalist. Unlike the Gorillaz 2005 MTV Awards performance, this holographic animation was 3-dimensional, as opposed to being a back screen projection. With this holographic technology on the rise, I wouldn’t be surprised if a holographic broadway show is on its way, and I just can’t wait to see it.

Emerging: Augmented Reality

Fabio Abreu — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:37:12 +0000

The Science Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that allows you to superimpose, through a camera, graphics and audio over a real-world setting in real-time. It augments what you’re actually seeing in front of you, like looking into a mirror and seeing something that’s not actually there. Recently, Wallpaper* Magazine included AR on their Cover. Functionally, all you have to do is turn on your webcam, go to their website’s AR section, flash the cover’s AR image code in front of your webcam, and witness your magazine come to life. There is unlimited, untapped potential for this digital technology and it presents an unprecedented means for a brand to interact with its consumers. Because of AR’s requisite access to internet and a camera, smartphones have been at the forefront of capitalizing this technology. Imagine pointing your phone’s camera at anything in front of you and having 3-D graphics visually manipulate it instantly. The iButterfly application for iPhone combined with a GPS feature does just this and reinvents the way you collect coupons. Looking forward, it isn’t hard to imagine pointing your phone’s camera at any product with an AR image on it and having branded animation come to life right in front of you. Adidas has gone beyond this and created a whole AR world you can access with the AR image located on select shoes. Don’t have those shoes. No problem. Print out the image, smack it on your shoes, and you’re good to go.

Brilliant Mapping by Elastic Space

Kai Exos — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:11:49 +0000

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited this makes me. Back in December, I was invited into George Brown School of Design to mentor the post-grad students on their final projects. One of those bright, young stars had an idea to improve the wayfinding at Union Station. It would be incredible if an individual user could access Timo’s idea independently from another user. Then ‘outsiders’ who weren’t using the system would avoid confusion. But then again, they’d be confused anyway.

Map/Territory from timo on Vimeo.

Prosthetic Brands

Kai Exos — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:50:16 +0000

The theories around trust marketing assume a general ideology wherein brands ask for extended engagement by a consumer. Over the past few months, I’ve witnessed some rhetoric that calls upon a push-pull metaphor to somehow tip the scales in favour of a rudimentary idea. I’m tired of it. That kind of basic thinking doesn’t equate to insights that are valuable in a campaign’s development. Sure, it’s a good start. Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is promote an infectious brand personality to sell something. Why should anyone care for a product that barely works? A glow behind the type doesn’t make it our saviour. Or a video that tries to trick the viewer into associating humour with product benefit? Come on, be genuine. When you’ve chosen to market to a consumer’s belief system, reinforcement is more critical than the push or pull. Buyers are not necessarily part of your brand’s community just because they’ve purchased the product. No one has the time to care if it’s not useful. We can’t sell lies, no matter how clever the execution. Branded entertainment has given us freedom to create weird and wonderful stories that prepare the consumer to start caring. Think of all the great products you’re loyal to. Did you originally opt-in to be exposed to the brand? Probably not. Only when we’ve done enough work for a person to trust a product, can a brand can assert itself prosthetically. A brand becomes part of a person’s identity. Like Zugara’s Social Shopper, dubbed Fashionista on tobi.com. That’s some cool shit. Know why? ‘Cause it’s useful. Think of how much trust a woman has to give to allow an app to see her live and fit her into that little dress on a webcam. Spending money on awareness campaigns that don’t equate to dollars won’t help the brand build itself; so you’ve gotta build in efficiencies to save time and cost. SPOKE and Praxis did a custom publishing piece for Quaker, nearly 1M issues. Simultaneously, on the same full-day of shooting, our film crew captured coverage for the 15 second TV spot. The cost-efficient delivery mechanisms at retail, online and in health environments are what bring it all back to the brand’s personality. And useful, entertaining content with a fresh, integrated approach shows the audience why we care. It’s not enough to spout rhetoric to prove the media or delivery. It takes a deep conversation to find out who actually cares enough to trust your brand.

GIFs for You

Karen Lo — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:26:43 +0000

In my quest of finding the perfect GIFs for our blog readers, I came across the work of the New York photographer/graphic artist duo – Reed+Radar. Apparently the future of online fashion editorials is headed towards 1987 (that’s the year when animated GIFs were first introduced by CompuServe – thanks for the info, Wikipedia!) Except now, they’re called “Augmented Realities”. Enjoy and happy holidays!