The Google sixth sense or Augmented Reality in practice

The Google sixth sense or Augmented Reality in practice

We’ve heard a lot about Augmented reality for the last few years. Really, a lot. Sometimes we can even notice more or less spectacular results of the operations of companies and marketers that deliver applications and solutions making practical use of AR.

But there is one fundamental problem regarding that matter – perceiving the world around us via mobile phone isn’t precisely what we want to do. It is neither comfortable nor necessary for an average person. And it looks weird.

Now, it can finally change. Announced for years, seen in SF films over and over again, AR gains real shape thanks to one of the biggest technological companies of our tomes. The Google Glass Project because of this short clip (see below) won public attention.

Google, it seems, plans to release a device which will be at least as successful as iPad. Glasses, which simultaneously display all the necessary information about the surrounding world, are operated by voice, connected to the Internet and they can replace mobile phone (or rather smartphone). It is difficult to imagine that something like that would not become a huge success and revolutionize the market. Google demonstrated the whole world that they want to be a leader in this field and they showed that they have concrete solutions.

It all wouldn’t be possible without content sui generis. The technology itself is here a tool to make use of the opportunities that we can have with all the information about us that Google has. Normalizing the privacy policy, criticized much by many, give, in fact, an opportunity to implement services that will allow us enormous potential in interacting with the outside world and the information. Today, to learn something about a product which we can see on the shelf, we should take a photo of it and – at best – use a smartphone app to identify it and buy it online or check the prices. It is a version for the most advanced. The less technologically advanced consumers will start browsing for a particular product using a search engine (yes, Google) using smartphone. And the majority, in fact, will write down that name and the model and look for the information later, at home, using their computers.

Google Glass is to change it completely. Finding a product or heading to a particular spot we use Google services unconsciously. We just make use of the information. It goes beyond the features of a smartphone; it is the extension of our cognitive abilities, another sense – without specific interface, without downloading dedicated apps. We go and use the information about the world that surround us that is available on the Internet.

The speed at which suchlike technological innovations, which we have known only from books or websites, come to our lives is really thought-provoking. It will completely change the image of the media and the surrounding reality and it will happen faster than we expect. We should raise an appropriate question – what we, the advertising industry – will do about that. Will we, following outdoor advertisement, litter the augmented reality of our cities with aggressive and unwanted ads or be more kind tour potential clients? I hope that the latter is true. The possibilities of user identification cause the fear about what the concerns know about us. On the other hand they create opportunities for advertisement to reach us in the form and with the content that suits our needs. And, of course, where it will be the most interesting for us and, thus, more effective. Regardless of what the ads will look like on the devices presented by Google (and those released by competing companies which, undoubtedly, will appear), we know today that the world of media changes beyond recognition. The biggest challenge for the advertisers won’t be new screens but, above all, the influx of data available at different levels and concerning a multitude of topics would pose a difficulty to them and to the agencies. The opportunity to reach the potential clients in their natural environment thanks to Augmented Reality is one thing and reaching them in the appropriate time and with the proper message is another thing. It will be a real challenge and we will face it for the next few years. If we don’t do our best and we still flood consumers with huge amounts of unwanted ads, we won’t make proper use of the opportunities technology gives us. The clients can always just take the glasses off.