Augmented Reality (AR) can create different interactive experiences for different aspects of your life. When you take this sophisticated technology further than Snapchat filters you can see how there are business, educational, design and many other extremely useful and efficient ways to use AR in your everyday life. Check out these 5 ways augmented reality can be used every day in different aspects of your life.
In the world of business, everybody attempts to stand out. Separating yourself from competition can be a difficult task to accomplish in our social media driven world, but with AR built into your business cards you will leave an unforgettable first impression on potential clients and prospects. This card goes above and beyond the traditional business card, which no matter how hard you try to make unique, most likely winds up in a desk drawer.
Leveraging augmented reality as a self-promoting technology can help you leave a mark. Instead of listing your job title, phone number, and email address underneath a logo, you can create a business card that folds out into a portfolio, displays your resume, or opens your company's website in the palm of a prospects hand.
See what your business card could look like:
We have all seen them. They stand next to every table at every trade show in an attempt to draw attention and peek interest in your company's booth, but do they actually work? When every table at a trade show is using the same size banner, in the same location, with the same general layout, people grow numb to them. Instead of being interested in your banner and therefore your company, everyone seems to glaze over the banners you worked hard to design. We are so used to these banners being there that we don't find them exciting or creative. We know they have a logo and a catch phrase, and that they don't truly give us insight into a company, so we keep moving.
What if these banners could display the sole reason for the existence of your company in an interactive manner? When you take AR, and design a banner to immerse people walking by in a completely different environment, you will stand out, and you will pique the interest of new prospects and potential customers. If you are an advertising company, imagine creating a banner with augmented reality built into it. This would allow everyone that passes by to step into the middle of Time Square and when they look around at each screen they see your brand in big lights.
When it comes to internal design, Ikea is showing everyone how augmented reality can help people make design decisions from their kitchen table. Without going to the store, or opening a computer, you can see how new furniture will look and feel in your home and the best part is, everything is to scale. Leave the measuring tape behind and walk around your home with a phone, or tablet to see how a new sofa may looks in your living room, a new desk in your office, or new cabinets in your kitchen.
With augmented reality in interior design, you no longer will have to worry about buying furniture you love in the store, but dislike once it is in your actual home. You also can redecorate your home without ever leaving it.
Visa is using augmented reality to create memorable digital experiences to create an environment people will talk about long after the advertisement is gone. When augmented reality is used in marketing or advertising, you are generating more than a view, or a click, you are generating a conversation. When you are walking in a crowded public space and out of the corner of your eye you see a giraffe standing next to you in mirror, you are going to stop and look at what is going on. When this happens, augmented reality has already won. Attracting people and gaining their attention is more difficult than ever. Advertisers and marketers struggle to gain people's attention each day, so when you can find a way to do it on a huge scale and get a whole park, or city street, or mall to not only witness, but engage with your advertisement, you have just created an experience that will leave in awe. That experience you just crafted in augmented reality now will have your audience talking about your brand to their friends and family, something that is very hard to achieve through social media posts and retargeting advertisements.
See how AR can take your advertisements to the next level:
Textbooks are being brought to life. No longer will kids be bored by science or history. Now, we can create solar systems that move around the classroom and interactive historical tours with tour guides like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Augmented reality can make every teacher's class more fun, and every lesson plan just a little more interesting and engaging. With AR in the classroom teachers can make some of the hardest concepts easier to grasp. Don't get me wrong, books are irreplaceable, but looking through a tablet or phone and being able to move around the deck of either the Beaver, Dartmouth, or Eleanor while colonists throw tea into the Boston Harbor may get children a little more excited to learn about history.
In summary, augmented reality can be used in any variety of ways. This technology can elevate a sales pitch, create an immersive learning environment, or allow home buyers to tour their new house before construction even starts. This new technology is here to stay and the opportunity to create new environments with is vast. Don't wait until everybody is using it, start thinking of ways your business can attract and inspire your target audience with augmented reality now.