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While AR devices are relatively new, they do have a history outside their use in mobile phones. They can
and have been used in medicine (superimposing surgical information onto a patient’s body), in
architecture (superimposing virtual buildings into a space where they are yet to be built), or for cross-
continental collaboration where participants can’t be in the same room.
Ronald Azuma defines AR as involving three characteristics:
- It combines the real and virtual.
- It is interactive in real time.
- It is registered in 3D. [1]
Technical components generally necessary for AR include a CPU (central processing unit), a camera, and
accelerometer and GPS (global positioning system)—all things that are present in the conveniently sized
mobile phone (especially smartphones). It’s no wonder that AR through mobile phones presents such
exciting possibilities for communicating with people.
Augmented Reality in Brand Communications
The first use of AR in advertising was by HIT Lab NZ and Saatchi & Saatchi in 2007 for an application for
the Wellington Zoo, which allowed users to view virtual animals by pointing their phone cameras at
printed bar codes. [2]
At present, applications have been interesting but often more gimmicky than useful. Some of the
examples include an Ikea campaign that allowed people to view virtual versions of their furniture in their
homes through their phone cameras.
Various applications suggest other uses, though. Tweetmondo is an application that lets you see what
Twitter “tweets” have been sent from the area you are in at any given time. In Japan, users of the Sekai
mobile application can leave messages about particular locations for other users to view when they arrive
in the same location. [3]