Today’s edition of the Financial Times features an experiment with an emerging technology which is already winning over geeks and marketeers alike: augmented reality.

It’s part of a broader analysis piece, Out of the box, about how the twin challenges of digital media and the recession are forcing advertising agencies to rethink the way they do business. And if there’s anything that demonstrates how far we’ve come from the 30-second TV spot, it’s augmented reality.

It’s something that’s hard to describe in text but knocks your socks off when you see it in action. Some call it a “digital hologram”; others draw comparisons with Minority Report, the sci-fi film. The variant we have used - which was developed by London agency Tribal DDB in conjunction with the FT’s graphics and interactive teams - uses a PC webcam, to make it accessible to the widest possible audience. But mobile applications are already appearing which have got the tech community salivating at the possibilities for overlaying data from the internet into the real world.

As it says in today’s feature:

A “marker” on a printed page can be “read” by a webcam-enabled personal computer a bit like a barcode. A three-dimensional virtual object appears on the screen, suspended like a hologram over the image of the page.

Car manufacturers such as BMW and Toyota have used the technique to show off their latest models. Paramount Pictures, the film distributor, used 3D graphics to publicise Transformers 2 and Star Trek.

“It’s about creating buzz and getting people involved,” says Chris Jenkins of Tribal DDB, the interactive agency that created the example used on this page. “It’s a startling reaction because it’s something no one has seen before.”

Here are the instructions for how you can try out the FT’s augmented reality:

1 If you have a computer with a webcam and Adobe Flash 9 or higher installed (and internet connection), click here. Your camera may work straight away. If so, skip to point 4.

2 Right-click (or Ctrl-click for Macs) on the large black square and select Settings.

3 Select the webcam tab and choose your camera from the list (if that does not work, try another from the list; Mac owners should select USB camera mode).

4 Show the camera the large black square in Friday’s FT (or click here to print out the square from a PDF). Adjust angle and distance until the three-dimensional animated image pops out of the screen.

Tags: advertising, augmented reality

August 28, 2009 10:48am in Digital media | Comment