Augmented Reality: “I am Iron Man 2″

As far as Augmented Reality experiences go, this is one of my favourite to date. Based on Total Immersion’s technology, the AR uses a number of functions like Face Tracking and Movement Detection to let you experience the Iron Man HUD (Heads Up Display) used by the Marvel hero. You can also capture the video stream of your experience and share it out through your Social Media channels.

Google Goggles: Translation

I'm sure you've heard of Google Goggles at this stage. What you may not have heard of is Goggles new translation feature. Plain and simple, anyone who is traveling to another country will find this invaluable. Imagine sitting in a café in France but not having a single word of French. With the new Goggle service all you need to do is aim your phone at a word or phrase on the menu, use the 'Region of Interest' button to draw a box around specific words, take a picture, and if Goggles recognises the text it will give you the option to translate it. Then just press the 'Translate' button. Brilliant!

The first prototype of the service was unveiled at the beginning of the year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona but it only worked with German. The service has now been upgraded to read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and can translate these into many more languages. All in all the service is still limited to Latin-based languages but Google's goal is to eventually provide a service that will read non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) too.

Google Goggles is currently available on devices running Android 1.6 and higher.

Carlsberg: The Secret - The Music

Back in December I posted about the launch of the Carlsberg ad, The Secret. The ad premièred on Facebook and proved to be hugely popular. What was particularly interesting was the buzz that sprung up around the ads music. Well I am delighted to announce that I have been able to get a clean sample of the tune!

Either play it below or download it here...

In case you can't remember it, this is the ad itself...

Vodafone Italy Domino Effect

A fantastic ad from Vodafone Italy to show their latest 'Smart' tariffs. Using a very elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine mechanic, the ad uses a brilliant domino effect to show a variety of cool apps interacting to bring the campaign tagline to life - 'piu smart conVodafone' (Smarter with Vodafone).

Calvin Klein & Chatroulette

Chatroulette, the online chat platform developped by Russian student Andrey Ternovskiy, has spurred a number of high profile 'virals', all equally hilarious. however, the platform is also widely seen to be bursting with sex and nudity. So in a fun advertising campaign Calvin Klein now offers a small program that scans for nudity on Chatroulette and then hides it with Calvin Klein underwear. Brilliant!