This is fun: A UK company recently launched a viral advertising campaign using light augmented reality to let London commuters interact with a gorgeous angel on a bigscreen monitor above their heads:
I say "light" augmented reality, because as a BBC article about the campaign explains, "the virtual angel was just a layer of video manipulated by a human operator, rather than an independent 3D object." That aside, two things are interesting to me:
- This would probably be more effective if the angel was a fully interactive 3D graphics avatar (i.e. a Second Life avatar on a greenscreen), because then the operator could launch gestures to respond on the fly to commuter behavior.
- The commuters quickly embrace the illusion and behave as if they were in the angel's reality. (I.E., dancing with and yes, air humping her.) So I see this kind of augmented reality as a compelling way to bring a virtual world experience to a mass market.
Hat tip: Followmeimthe Piedpiper.
Simply amazing and great reactions from the different participants.
Posted by: Salvatore Otoro | Monday, May 09, 2011 at 11:30 AM
Love it...a bit of enchantment in our real world.
Give it a few years, and these angels will "rezz" in front of us, no screen required.
Posted by: Ignatius Onomatopoeia | Monday, May 09, 2011 at 02:43 PM