Augmented Reality: Contact Lenses

Without a doubt, Augmented Reality has captured my attention this year in a big way. I've blogged about AR Business Cards, an AR Museum Guide, AR Games and even an AR Music Video. For me, Augmented Reality technology represents the first major technological convergence with serious potential for both entertainment and real world application. So here I present to you the most cutting edge use of Augmented Reality I've seen to date - Augmented Reality Contact Lenses.

Our eyes are one of the most astonishing organs in our body. They allow us to see millions of colours, seamlessly adjust between shifting light conditions, and they can transmit all this information to your brain at a faster speed then your broadband internet connection. Your retina has a static contrast ratio of approximately 100:1, however your is capable of adjusting its exposure both chemically and by the iris. In this way your eye can achieve a dynamic contrast ratio of about 1,000,000:1. Even more phenomenal is that the process is non-linear and multifaceted, so even if your field of vision is exposed to bright light, the process simply starts again, without any ill-effect.

So what if you could do even better? What if you could augmented this incredible organ?

Imagine a world akin to the novels of Vernor Vinge, in which characters utilise contact lenses that allow them to access global information banks through graphic interfaces right before their eyes. This is the world of Augmented Reality Contact Lenses, and it's a world that may not be too far away.

Consider what would be necessary to achieve such technologies - microelectronics, nanocomputers, transparent synthetic conductors. The truth is, these things are not science-fiction and are already being not only developed, but tested, in labs around the world. One such lab at the University of Washington is at the forefront of what may be the next giant leap in mobile computing.


Admittedly the lenses that they have so far developed are quite limited, but they have achieved building a lens with a micro-LED powered wirelessly through RF. The team there are taking conventional contact lenses and turning them into functional AR systems with integrated control circuits, communication circuits, and miniature antennas. there next step will eventually be to include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of your eyes. These could be anything from words to photographs.

So how close are we? Well, I may have exaggerated slightly, being able to pop in your AR Contact Lenses that allow you to fully access the web is a bit of a way off. Don't despair though, there are a number of extremely practical applications that are likely to happen long before that. Firstly, the technology does have the potential to provide vision enhancement to those that suffer from vision impairments, and it could even act as a simple warning system for those that are hearing impaired giving directional information about loud noises etc. Of course in the beginning the most likely situation is that the display and interface lenses will rely on a wearable portable-device that would feed the actual information through to the lenses.

Anyway, this is seriously exciting stuff in my opinion both in the short term and long term.


For further information see here

Wispa Gold Where Have You Been?

Cadbury are bringing back Wispa Gold! That right folks, on the back of user-generated ad campaign, Cadbury are relaunching that oh so delicious caramel cousin of the Wispa. Having been off the market for so time now, Cadbury have teamed up with Fallon to bring Wispa Gold back in some serious style. Through the wispagoldmessages.com microsite, users have the chance to put messages up on billboards around the UK.

The campaign, which goes live on the 7th September, will give the public an opportunity to create custom messages that can be submitted for the chance to sit on one of hundreds of 48 sheets that have been specially purchased just for this campaign. The website itself boldly declares that "We've decided to give our advertising space to you guys as a thank you for all the love you've shown to Wispa. We have bought thousands of billboards all over the UK and Ireland so that you can share your special messages with the world. Yes, that's right, you let us know your special message and if it gets selected we will post it on a real billboard in the location of your choice. So if your mum lives in Birmingham you could post her a special message, say a poem, and we'll try to give you a site as near to her as possible."

The 48 sheets in question are located in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, Belfast, Plymouth, Brighton and Norwich.

Fallon have said that the whole idea for the campaign stems from their 2008 social media campaign that brought back the Wispa. The campaign in question resulted in the following TV ad starring hundreds of Wispa fans:



For your message, Cadbury want you to do anything except hold back. As they put it "If you want to do the creative bit yourself, that’s great". However, even if you're not the arty type, they have a team of people ready to take messages and turn them into lovely posters.

Entires can be submitted via email or online, but all entries must be in by 19th October.

Cadbury Wispa are also on Facebook and YouTube

Nokia and Mobile Banking

I recently noticed a lot of mentions about Nokia coming through on Google Alerts, and following that I've found that I've been spending quite a bit of time trying to figure out what happened to them and where they're going. It wasn't that long ago that Nokia were the Coca-Cola of the phone industry - they were the first choice of almost everyone and that did what they were meant to do brilliantly. Then something changed. Now Nokia seem to have slid quite a bit and many of their advocats have jumped ship to Apple or LG, or anyone of a host of alternative mobile phone manufacturers.

Having said that, they may just be on the verge of something really cool.

Nokia has announced that it will enter the mobile banking market. Following Nokia's recent purchase of a stake in mobile payments company Obopay, the mobile giant have confirmed they are ready to launch Nokia Money. The new service will allows users to access their finances in a number of innovative and convenient ways, while on the go. This will range from the ability to pay for products to checking balances, all using their mobile phones. In addition, the service will inable customers to make money transfers just by using another person's mobile number.

Initially the service will rely on traditional banks to provide the interface for customers to deposit and withdraw actual money, however Nokia have confirmed plans to build a network of Nokia Money agents. These will essentailly become banks, allowing customers to deposit or withdraw cash directly from their Nokia accounts.

While this may seem like a move completely out of the blue by many people, mobile banking is a concept that is actually relatively old in terms of mobile communication. Following the boom of digital networks in the early 90's, many futurologists predicted that mobile banking would be common place by the end of the decade. While they may have been slightly off in their predictions, Nokia now predict that mobile payments are key to bringing accessable banking to hundreds of millions of people in urban and rural locations, who are restricted by current payment systems that necessitate credit facilities (especially in emerging economies). Nokia say this is the next big thing in the financial services industry.

Mary McDowell, Nokia executive, said: "In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money."

The service will be rolling out in Germany this month (September), with a full launch planned for 2010 (depending on operators and markets).

YellowBird

Prepare to be seriously wowed! This is just about the most exciting, spine-tingling, stop-you-in-your-tracks visual technology I have seen EVER! I know 3D has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, but this for me just blows 3D away.

You'll be forgiven for thinking this looks similar to Google Streetview, because it does. However, the big difference with YellowBird is that it records video instead of photographs. Utilising six cleverly divided lenses, the camera can capture every possible viewing direction. The system doesn't hold anything back either, and through a double glass-fiber connection, it streams 1200 Mbit of information per second in raw uncompressed format. Of course no video is complete without sound so the system uses a surround sound microphone recording audio at 96 khz.

What makes the system even more remarkable is that, unlike the Google Car, the equipment can be worn on a person's back as the roam around your location. This opens up so much potential it's scary. Alternatively the system can also be mounted on a static or mobile tripod, mounted on a car or helicopter.

Now just hit play and enjoy...

apologies that the video is flowing over
unfortunately this is a non-scalable file format

YellowBird is a Dutch company founded by Marc Groothelm and Rafaël Redczus in March of this year (2009). The story, however, begins way back in 1999 when Rafaël launched a technology that allowed for the creation of still 3-D images. The technology was revolutionary to say the least and immediately attracted the attention of global brands such as Volkswagen, ABN-AMRO, Center Parcs, Big Brother and the Netherlands Railway.

Then 2 years later in 2001, Rafaël learnt about a new technology that could capture a moveable 3-D image as a spherical shape. Unfortunately the systems were expensive and required computers beyond the reach of your average person at the time. However, with the arrival of Flash 9, online video and 3-D exploded.

A short time later Marc and Rafaël met at Groningen University. From here the pair formed a dynamic partnership with Marc adding Strategy & Innovation to the mix, allowing them to drastically improve and couple these existing technologies.

The result is "a technologically advanced business that aims to claim a strong position in the international world of film, working directly for clients, and in partnership with advertising agencies and film production companies, offering the most intense film experience online today."

Audi Crowd Sourcing

Yesterday I wrote about Unilever's move with Peperami towards a full crowd sourcing model. In that case, Unilever went as far as to end a 15 year relationship with Peperami's advertising agency, Lowe. That was perhaps an extreme example of brands/businesses that are moving to a crowdsourcing model but it's certainly not an isolated occurance. Aside from Doritos and Pringles who were also both mentioned yesterday, Audi are the next big brand to step up to the table and call on their fans and customers to drive their coming developments.

The whole campaign has grown off this year’s Los Angeles Design Challenge, which is titled 'Youth Mobile 2030'. Design design studios from all over Southern California have been called on to submit their vision of what a 2030 customer will want.

Audi, who currently have more than 324,000 Facebook fans (making them one of the highest among auto brands), have partnered up with TurnHere, to create a video based campaign asking fans for their input on what features they want to see on future models. TurnHere produced videos profiling Audi's participation in the "Youth Mobile 2030" design challenge for its Facebook fan page. The videos show the overall participation that Audi have had in the design challenge. Essentially, they present a showcase of actual Audi designers sharing their own design philosophies and visions of the future, and describe how Audi wants to consider lifestyle, form and function for future designs.

The campaign will primarily be run through Facebook, and shows a real hands on application of the massive fanbase that the company have developed. This not only shows great use of an extremely valuable resource but also goes to reinforce the ideals of Social Media, as a brand goes back to its users and asks them what they want (ref. Vodafone Mission Red for a current Irish example of this).

“Video is a powerful way to experience the Audi brand and the passion of our design team. We wanted to show our Facebook fans that we’re committed to creating automobiles that fit our changing lifestyles; and having this conversation with them is a critical part of that process,” said Brad Stertz, Manager of Corporate Communications for Audi of America. “TurnHere did a great job of capturing that passion and desire in an authentic way that lets our designers start the conversation online among our fans."

Through the videos, fans are encouraged to participate in Team Audi's efforts by participating in the live discussion, giving feedback, and helping to answer the question 'How will your car play a role in keeping you connected to your digital world in the future?'

"Audi is using social media to excite its community and engage them in their brand and design process. Video is an integral element to showing the human side of any brand and creating a personal connection," said John McWeeny, COO at TurnHere. "Online video production is now very affordable, and more brands are able to use video to engage people on the social web."