Recently we’ve seen AR business cards from both James Alliban and Jonas Jager (via Rouli). My purpose is not to debate which AR business card service is better–they’re both proof of concepts at this point–but to point out there is a real market need for simple AR services. Consider that James has seen his website explode due to the interest in his video.
This proves the point that simple AR service businesses are ready to take off. In a post a month ago, Haz stated his desire for a product that:
What I would like:
1. Upload 3D image / avi movie into the program.
2. Upload marker into the program.
3. It spits out a flash file you can put on your website which loads the 3d image/avi upon recognizing the marker.
I think he gives a good breakdown on what’s needed to make an easy-to-use AR service work for the masses. Business cards and billboards are only a few possible applications of a product like this.
I’d also like to go a little further and say the product should have the capability of being seen on a smartphone if a free app is downloaded. This would make the product more portable and thus, more accessible. An easy AR product could be in a service or program format, depending on if you wanted to carry the infrastructure.
Personally, I have interest in these services as well, beyond the simple AR business card. The key is a simple and easy way to create AR products could help unleash the capabilities onto the market beyond what is capable now. To really use AR now, you have to have experience in programming AR and the time to develop your idea. But if those services can be used by anyone, we’ll find lots of interesting new ways that AR can be applied that we’ve never thought of before.
I realize this is a product that is probably being worked on as I write this post. The folks of Metaio have hinted to me as much, though I’m not sure exactly the format of their product. I would assume the other major players like Total Immersion or even the dreaded Apple might jump into this market, but until they do I’m going to assume its not coming.
If you are working on something and would like to share your progress, or express your desire for these products, please comment. I’d love to hear how the market is progressing in this area.
