Augmented reality - recently limited to mapping applications or experimental ad campaigns - is now being incorporated into mainstream apps, a trend illustrated by the latest version of REALSKI, an augmented reality iPhone App.
Developed by tech company Resort Technology Partners, the app offers a guide to more than 80 mountains in North America to skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. After launching REALSKI, users turn on their iPhone's camera to scan their surroundings. Digital overlays change to match what the camera sees, allowing users to find such facilities and points of interest, as named runs, lift names, lodges, restrooms and restaurants and special areas such as terrain parks.
Find Your Way
The point of the app is simple, says Mark Sedgwick, director of information technology at ski resort Whistler Blackcomb: to find your way on the mountain. "REALSKI is much easier to use because you don’t need zoom in and out like you do on other mobile ski maps," he says. "The fact that you are instantly oriented to the surrounding that you are looking at creates a more natural and easy way for skiers to navigate."
Michael McDermott, senior vice president of sales, marketing and product management at RTP, says the company is pursuing expanding the app to include ski resorts in Europe.
AR Creep
A technology that superimposes images or data on a real time view, augmented reality's ad possibilities are limitless. It can be used to show people which local restaurants are offering discounts, or tweets from stores that someone is walking by or merely to locate nearby friends or bloggers.
Both Google and Bing are using it in their own mapping applications, which has advanced the technology considerably.
More recently, Brightkite, a company that has dubbed itself the social discovery network, launched a national augmented reality advertising campaign on behalf of Best Buy.
The Best Buy campaign was Brightkite's first major foray into AR advertising but the company envisions advertising campaigns with local retailers, bars, restaurants and other businesses. "Augmented reality is one of the hottest new tools out there and it's no surprise that the first campaign to use it is one of the nation's largest consumer electronics retailers," said Brady Becker, founder of Brightkite.
"This initiative pioneers the latest in advertising - combining mobile phones, location awareness and augmented reality."
