Like the real thing

To strengthen the US Postal Service's position in online brand equity, as well as stimulate more use of the site and e-commerce sales, agency AKQA/DC launched the Virtual Box Simulator.

The Virtual Box Simulator is a component of USPS's current campaign, "A Simpler Way to Ship," and its objective is to leverage augmented reality technology in a way that is practical for USPS clients.

Users print a little eagle off the website, switch on their web cams and launch the Virtual Box Simulator. They then place the eagle in front of the screen until a virtual box appears.

The customer can then hold an item up to their cameras and see whether it fits inside the box, which will move as the item moves. Varying degrees of box transparency can be selected, to see best what the item will look like inside the package; package options include Large Flat-Rate Box, Medium 2 Flat-Rate Box and Small Flat-Rate Box.

Prices are listed on the site, and boxes can be ordered directly from the interface. See how it works in this demo:

According to AKQA, this marks USPS' first-ever use of interactive video and augmented reality tools.