The question over the last 12 months and beyond has been, how this slightly gimmicky Augmented Reality technology can be harnessed for mass consumption?

Well, it seems that the world is making progress on the application of Total Immersion technology. I was delighted to recently find out that Topps, a well known producer of American sports collector cards which I haven’t come across in nearly 15 years, has found a way of using augmented reality to revive.  Sure, gone are the days when die-hard sports fans memorize their favorite players stats from the back of a sport-card (now, we simply Google for real time player statistics), but this adds some new and unforeseen appeal to the humble sports card.

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I mean, look at it…. it’s a chainsaw, that has to be plugged into a USB slot to run.  Awesome!  Who needs a USB-powered coffee cup cooler when you can have a chainsaw on your desk. And at only 3.7kg, suitable for home or office use, and the ability to cut through any type of wood – how can you go wrong?

Well, you haven’t even seen the most radical part yet!

The iSaw is actually a crafty website-based viral campaign. When you opt to pre-order the saw for a meagure $59.95 (plus shipping, of course),  you are presented with a little surprise.

The iSaw is in fact a spoof product, designed to remind you that each time you print a page in your home or office, that your PC is actually already a chainsaw, chopping down tree after tree.

It’s a well executed campaign don’t you think (however I must say, I was a little excited about the prospect of having a chainsaw sitting on my desk).

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Sure, we’ve seen a few campaigns in the past that have used webcams to do simple things – like insert the user’s face on a cartoon body, or something to that effect.

But technology has come forward in leaps and bounds since then, and Paper Motion of Australia has recently released a fantastic new piece of software that uses your PC’s webcam to create a fully interactive user experience – creating virtual characters, virtual objects, and movement in 3D.

It’s breathtaking, addictive, and will be the next big novelty item in interactive online marketing. Check out a few demos of the software in action below…..

And another, used for Earth Hour, here…

If you’re interested to see how some existing websites have already used this technology, it is also worth checking out the following websites:

Jack Links

General Electric

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So the hardware itself is not revolutionary – it’s the capabilities of this device, and the impact it will have on our lives, that is absolutely breathtaking!

Essentially, this device allows the wearer to examine anything in front of them – be it a book, a person, an item off the shelf in a super market, whatever – and instantly receive meta-data relating to that item so that the wearer can make a more informed choice about their next action.  

Think of it as a device that automatically Googles everything in sight for you, without any effort on your part and allows you to interact with your environment in a way that you probably never thought would be possible!

Confused? Watch the video below…and be prepared to be blown away.

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It’s a simple piece of hardware (based on an Arduino platform) that allows bakeries to select what has just come out of the oven, and send a Twitter message to local customers who have subscribed to the bakerie’s Twitter profile. What does this mean for the customers? They’re guaranteed the freshest and hottest bread and bakery treats. And for the bakery, it’s a new way of keeping their customers happy, and part of an engaged and almost exclusive local community – of course with a little bit of novelty factor sprinkled on top (alongside the sugar and cinnamon).

Why has this concept of pushing short & relevant digital messages to willing recipients taken so long to hit the market?

At first I wondered why it had taken so long for products such Baker Tweet as to be ‘invented’, because to be completely honest, ‘pushing’ digital messages in real-time to an audience is nothing new. Heck, well before the pre-Twitter days, we had SMS technology with it’s ability to ‘push’ messages to willing recipients!

It then dawned on me that Twitter has two very unique, and previously unavailable, attributes which contribute to its success as a viable digital marketing tool:

1. Twitter is (almost) free to push data to, and

2. Twitter currently receives over 10 million unique visitors per month, and continues to increase in visitation each month

Ok, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that this concept could readily be applied to other retail markets. If you own a busines that could adapt a similar technology, my advice is to strike while the bread is hot (and the novelty factor is still there) and create a similar Twitter based product. If you’re in an environment that is not full of flour, icing sugar dust and whipped cream, you can even simply use the web-based on mobile-based Twitter application, rather than rely on a dedicated piece of hardware, as is the case with Baker Tweet. Using Twitter in a way that benefits your customers, could see your sales soar through the roof, and your could well see your customers grinning their biggest of jam-donut-covered grins!

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Interactive outdoor advertising in a bus shelter

Across the world bus shelters and phone booths have been adorned with these e-graffiti billboards, however the manufacturer is still yet to be identified (it was rumoured that Sharpie – a reknowned manufacturer of Sharpie pens were behind this but this rumour has since been silenced by a Sharpie spokeperson). Nevertheless, if the image an e-graffiti billboard portrays aligns with your company’s branding or campaigns, I’m sure with a little research you will be able to source a manufacturer of this innovative outdoor marketing medium.

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