Live Augmented Reality

By me and Rachel Kirkpatrick Boucher

Live augmented reality enhances booths and stages.

Everything we love about augmented reality—the data visualizations, the intrigue, the interaction—is coming to the event setting, transforming general sessions and booth spaces into group experiences without the goggles or devices. We’ve seen the effect in retail settings, through augmented reality dressing rooms, and through apps that let us view visuals through our screens. We’ve seen transparent displays that offer a “window” into a 3D visual. But a couple of different types of technologies worth keeping an eye on, however, are poised to remove all barriers with augmented reality.

Like Kino-Mo, the low-cost holographic-style technology that caught everybody’s attention at CES, that makes 3D videos and images appear as though they are floating in air. The company’s latest product, the new Hypervsn screen-less LED technology, boasts rotating 3D visuals generated by propellers that are crisp enough for bright environments and can be seen from a distance. Imagine suspending a 3D product animation over your booth to draw in traffic or suspending your latest product in a large-scale setting like a general session.

Another product, InAiR, a TV-based technology, transforms any screen into a new medium, pulling content from the web and social media and overlaying it on the screen in a “Minority Report” style of effect. Take this technology and overlay it onto a big screen displaying a live feed of a presenter, and you can bring data and other visuals into the live conversation, transforming a static keynote or session into a dynamic content experience. We’ve seen the technology in play in the television industry for a several years now (think: Fox Sports’ robot that dances across the live game on your television screen during NFL games).

Marketers can expect to see its implementation in events to drive content and engagement, as Ford did at the Detroit Auto Show in January when it debuted an augmented reality presentation. During three presentations about the Ford GT, 2018 F‑150 and new EcoSport vehicles, as a live presenter walked around the vehicle, spectators (and those watching the footage at home after the fact) watched a digital overlay of the vehicle in front of them on a screen above that brought the features and visuals being described in the presentation to life.

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Brent is a member of the executive team for Opus Agency, partner to world-shaping brands.
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