By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
November 10, 2009
I think the time has come to talk about something that has been increasing in buzz in the general tech community, because of the potential to apply it to retail. So here's my definition of augmented reality: the real-time overlay of digital information over an image of the physical world. In a lot of ways, augmented reality provides the same kind of interaction that quick read codes do, but with a more seamless user interface. Instead of using a camera to snap a picture of a barcode or QR code, you simply turn the camera on (most likely by accessing an app that utilizes the camera but also provides the additional data overlay) and aim it at what you want to know more about.
Yelp's iPhone app is the most recent to garner attention for augmented reality capabilities, overlaying its reviews on camera views of the real-world environment. With three simple shakes of your iPhone, you find the closest restaurants, complete with ratings, simply by pointing your camera down the street.
It's not that far of a stretch to imagine the retail applications. Product reviews is an easy one, though the image recognition is a bit more complex than simply location-aware overlays on Google Maps. Locating the nearest retail store with the product you're looking for is another example. Lowest price for a product? Online availability of a product? How about, where is the nearest employee in the store (wouldn't that be great)? Wayfinding, friend-finding, and product-finding are all applications that have potential in retail. You can see some additional examples here.
What does it mean for retail, besides "throw out your mobile 3-year plan and start over?" It certainly means mobile experimentation round two. It means there is a serious opportunity for someone to tackle the product imaging space to see if they can start connecting product images to product data that will be valuable to consumers - certainly video analytics applications are smart enough to spot an item in a product image, much like facial recognition software.
More important, in my book, is the reminder that the consumer user interface is still evolving in major ways. In the link above, for example, one of the AR apps utilizes glasses to provide the data overlay, leaving the user hands-free. If we successfully navigate that jump, how long before your "mobile" app needs to be optimized for stereo-vision?
Too "out there" for you? It's closer than you think. And, just as online changed consumers' expectations from retailers, new user interfaces will easily have the same impact, forcefully thrusting retailers once again to the forefront of consumer technology adoption. Whether they're ready or not.
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