3 Minute Read: What’s New in AR?

AR has never evolved quicker than it has this year. New developments in technology are opening up a multitude of opportunities that were not possible, let alone accessible to the masses a few months ago.

Web AR

The days of needing to download apps to access AR are fast disappearing. Thanks to the introduction of web-based AR we can now view augmented content simply by using a mobile web browser.

This new feature will likely become a game-changer for online retailers by allowing customers to try before they buy in a split second. Web AR is not only providing opportunities to create a more personalised shopping experience, but it’s also giving brands the chance to streamline the product preview process too.

Great For: Retail, Product Visualisation

Body Tracking

Body tracking allows us to overlay digital content and effects over user’s hands and body movements. This gives them the ability to manipulate and interact with what they see. What’s exciting about this functionality is that allows us to be much more creative in the ways we ask audiences to interact with AR experiences.

Great For: Entertainment, Apps encouraging physical activity.

FaceBook AR

Using FaceBook’s new development platform, Spark AR, we can create a range of AR filters, interactive adverts and mini experiences ready for use on FaceBook and Instagram.

Social AR is a fantastic tool to integrate into marketing campaigns due to its strong entertainment value and ‘share-ability. What gives social AR an extra advantage is that it can be integrated straight into existing social media timelines, ensuring the content gets wide exposure.

Great For: Entertainment, Marketing

Facial Analysis

Using TrueDepth technology present on the latest iOS devices we can now analyse facial features and accurately capture a range of 3D information. This is a useful tool for retailers dealing in head and eyewear. This is because customers will not only be able to visualise products in AR but also get personalised recommendations of sizing and styles that will best suit their needs.

Great For: Wearables, Product Visualisation

SLAM & Occlusion

SLAM is a technology that recognises surfaces and allows us to place AR content without the need to scan an image. This in itself is not particularly new, however, the release of Apple’s AR Kit 3 now provides the ability to improve the realism of SLAM based AR scenes using object occlusion.

We now have the ability to make 3D content intelligently pass in front and behind real-world objects and people to create a truly immersive look. Plus, this technology also allows us to create green-screen style effects too.

Great For: Entertainment, Large Scale Product Visualisations

Looking for your next great PR piece, a way to visualise new products or to improve training and staff support? Chat to us about using AR and we’ll be happy to talk through your ideas.

See more of our work here: https://new.harmony.co.uk/work/