Augmented reality - trends for 2012
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

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It’s the time of year for lists! Analyses and summaries of the past year and predictions about the upcoming one. One of my favourite lists is from Trendwatching.com which lists 12 top trends for the next year. Number 12 for 2012 is Point and Know – the prediction that the year will be all about "instant visual information gratification”.  It’s augmented reality at its most creative.

We’re pretty much already used to instant gratification in what some view as the See-Hear-Buy world – the capability to buy everything you see or hear easily whether it be music, that “cute pair of shoes” or the newest business book you just heard about on the radio. Trendwatching.com believes that 2012 will continue see a mix of what we’re used to already, Apps, QR codes and smartphones, but with additional enhancements in the augmented reality technologies to provide some very practical business applications. 

A few examples include:

• Google Goggles - an image recognition app allowing users to access information about an object, place or product barcode from a photograph they’ve taken.
• Amazon Flow - an app enabling users, through image recognition, to access information about products and then ultimately buy them. Household products, books and music are so far all recognisable.
• Starbucks - which has created an app where a customer can point their camera phone to a QR code on the special holiday cups and selected merchandise and view animations of the holiday season (ice skater, sledging) on their phone’s screen. In addition, coffee drinkers can share an ecard and participate in other social sharing.

Information providers might well be able to be part of this trend as art galleries and other visually centric groups have already done. Common Craft provides some basic information on Augmented Reality and QR codes that help ties these concepts together if you'd like more details on both.

While augmented reality is not new (see Mashable’s 2009 list of 10 iPhone apps) it does now seem to be trending – something that will allow some of us to spend even more time in the grey space between reality and the virtual world.

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