More in Augmented Reality

Judging by two articles that came about from creativity yesterday about AR, what it is, and what you can do to survive the flood of AR campaigns that are probably in the works.

• Need to Know: Augmented Reality
• Augmented Reality in Mobile and Gaming

Seems like the writers of these articles, as well as those they interviewed, share my sentiments about AR, what it’s capabilities are and where it’s going. However, it looks like the digital advertising big guns are churning out some pretty surprising stuff.

The USPS: Virtual Box Simulator Demo really caught me by surprise because it’s a really fantastic idea. It’s very useful, straightforward and simple idea and, judging by the demo, seems like it was implemented really well. However, since it is AR it still suffers from it’s multiple crutches. Two-thirds of the demo video is just going through the step-by-step process on how to get the app to work! So, I give this an idea rating of “awesome” an execution rating of “good” but a usability rating of “meh”.

Now the BMW: Expression of Joy demo really took my breath away. Just look at it. Straight up sexy. It’s even tied in with the Expression of Joy commercial, which is probably the only commercial I didn’t mind watching in a movie theater. I give this an idea rating of “amazing” an execution rating of “badass” and a usuability rating of “rock n roll”.

Based on all things AR that I’ve seen, it seems like products and advertising campaigns are really going to be its beating heart in the near future. I’m really excited to see what happens with the iPhone 3GS, if only people would start opening up their AR code libraries for the rest of us.