Digital Marketing is a fast paced industry wherein technological innovations are changing the landscape every now and then. Thus, being in this field, one needs to keep his eyes and ears open to new experiences, new technological paradigm shifts, adjust the pace in order to enhance the client offerings.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are some of the new and highly coveted technologies in the Digital Marketing landscape. I have seen people use both of them interchangeably and been frequently asked about the difference between them.
Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality
As the name suggests, Augmented reality expands the realm of reality or enhances physical reality. Virtual Reality is the use of technology to create an alternate environment. Unlike Virtual Reality, which requires you to wear glasses to enter a new world, thereby creating reality, Augmented reality adds a layer of virtual objects to the existing physical reality.
As a hopeless romantic in a long distance relationship, you may visit a romantic Sunset point and imagine your love interest to be physically present and watching the beautiful sunset with you, that is augmented reality. However, if you close your eyes and imagine yourself to be in your love interest’s city and having a stroll in the place where you are not present, that is Virtual Reality!
I request all hopeless romantics to come back to the blog content. Thanks in advance!
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History of Augmented Reality:
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first ever ever recorded reference to AR was made in the novel ‘The Master Key’ in which the author L Frank Baum described the character “character marker” on page 94. The Character marker is described as follows:
“It consists of this pair of spectacles. While you wear them every one you meet will be marked upon the forehead with a letter indicating his or her character. The good will bear the letter ‘G,’ the evil the letter ‘E.’ The wise will be marked with a ‘W’ and the foolish with an ‘F.’ The kind will show a ‘K’ upon their foreheads and the cruel a letter ‘C. Thus you may determine by a single look the true natures of all those you encounter.”
Link to the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1294222.The_Master_Key
The term Augmented Reality was coined in 1990 however, in 1968, Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull created a first head mounted display called the Sword of Damocles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwZXGprxag. For those who don’t know, Ivan Sutherland is widely regarded as “Father of computer graphics”.
In 1999, Frank Delgado and Mike Abernathy led a group of scientists to test a new navigation software that generated runways and streets data from a helicopter video!
Today, Augmented Reality has wide ranging applications in various sectors that affect mankind.
Augmented Reality in Tourism:
Tourism is an important sector for countries across the globe. Whether the tourist requires accommodation services, transport services, catering or sightseeing tours, Augmented Reality has an answer! Just imagine, you arrive from the airport in a posh area of Delhi like Greater Kailash and you scan your phone across the Greater Kailash map and all the nearby Bed and Breakfast accommodations pop up. You can see the property, amenities offered, as well as room price and reviews without moving an inch! How convenient that would be!
In a Hub Hotel- Milan, you can find an interactive wall of tourist attraction. Once you download the app and scan the interactive wall map you gather all the tourist attractions in Milan!
Isn’t that plain, convenient and simple? Instead of hiring a tour guide and burning a hole in your pocket, you just need to download an AR app and stay sorted!
Augmented Reality in Education:
Education is one area that holds immense potential for development through Augmented Reality!
Just imagine learning the abstract concepts with appropriate sounds and video effects. Elements 4D interactive blocks by DAQRI studio is one such app that aids in studying chemistry. So if you wish to know the physical or chemical attributes of Gold (chemical name ‘Au’ ) all you have to do is open the app, scan the mobile camera on top of the Au block and you get all the information you need!
Similarly, in India, Studio Trinetra has developed various mobile AR apps for children https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.StudioTrinetra.alphabetsAR .
The process remains the same when you open the mobile app and scan any alphabet through the app, an animal pops up and you can hear it, move it and see it from all angles! My 6-year-old niece loved it and gained a lot of information about animals through it.
I can go on about the uses of Augmented Reality in various facets of life, however, it is up to you to start reading more about the Digital technologies of the future!
Source of inspiration:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1294222.The_Master_Keyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwZXGprxag
