The term “Augmented Reality” (AR) has been described as everything from the future of marketing to the demise of productivity to the most useful and innovative addition to smartphones since the web browser. AR is, in fact, a type of browsing, but one that involves browsing the world around you rather than the world wide web. Wikipedia defines it as, “enhancing one’s current perception of reality” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality) which is exactly what AR is and will become even more so, in time.  Marketers have wasted no time taking advantage of this technology, applying it to everything from billboards, iPhone apps, and even magazine covers- and this is only scratching the surface.  The military is no doubt pursuing a augmented reality heads-up display for soldiers on the ground (they already use one in the new F-35 Joint Strike fighter) and we all remember the scenes from Minority Report, Terminator, and most of all, Iron Man  (short video below of the special effects and AR used in Iron Man and how it was created and built).

Even though the time when Iron Man-like interfaces occupy our garages and kitchens is a long way off, developers are already integrating augmented reality interfaces with products we use every day, and more importantly, everywhere.  Take Yelp, for example; the ubiquitous restaurant, bar, and general establishment rating service.  Yelp developed a feature in August of 2009 called the “Monocle” for their iPhone application.  The Monocle allows the user to see the locations of establishments overlayed with what the user is actually seeing through their phone’s camera (using the iPhone’s built-in GPS, compass, and accelerometer).

(Photo courtesy of Gizmodo, view their full post at: http://gizmodo.com/5347194/augmented-reality-yelp-will-murder-all-other-iphone-restaurant-apps-my-health).  As the self-proclaimed first AR app for the iPhone, Yelp integrated an already established and renowned network of businesses with a simple, user-friendly technology (and best of all, for free!).  Since the release of this feature, other applications like Layar, BionicEye, Nearest Tube, and Fire Power, which allows to you pretend to blow up cars, have been released into the App Store and have started expanding the number of ways AR can be integrated into every day use (for more on these and other AR iPhone apps, check out Technically Personal’s post: http://techpp.com/2009/10/21/15-stunning-augmented-reality-iphone-apps/).

Augmented reality marketing has also taken form in other, more indirect ways.  If anyone has the chance to walk through Times Square, check out Forever 21′s billboard, which features a giant model taking Polaroids of the actual crowd in front of the store and actually picks up specific crowd members, before dropping them into her trendy Forever 21 bag.

In my mind, this billboard certifiably establishes AR as a mass-market technology that can generate serious income for any client that utilizes it; just take a look at the crowd standing in front of this store!  Augmented reality is no longer confined to the third page of apps on an iPhone or to tech conferences.  The technology allows marketers to actively engage and incorporate the consumer into an advertisement, something a magazine or television ad will never be able to accomplish.  Pretty soon, a woman walking down the street will see herself wearing the latest styles in a window display that changes the article of clothing every five seconds, even if what she was originally wearing was sweatpants and a tank.  Victoria Secret, take note (just kidding).

Going back to the Wikipedia definition, AR is also defined as, “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.”  This indirect view is exactly what marketers have been waiting for.  Finally, the consumer will see and experience what WE want them to.  An client can skip the step of trying to get a consumer to go into the store and try on their clothing through advertisements.  The street is our dressing room and every consumer is our canvas.  An Architecture graduate student named Keiichi Matsuda made the below video for his final project and it gives us a haunting glimpse into what our world could become at the hands of AR.