Year after year, augmented reality gradually becomes a part of our lives. Whether it is entertainment, sales, or even the military, AR solutions get increasingly versatile and effective. As technology evolves, so does the quality of these solutions. AR apps with gimmicky features that could be barely passed off as augmented reality are a thing of the past now.
Today, AR apps transform how we solve daily issues, AR mirrors and displays serve as impactful marketing tools, and augmented reality eyewear is bound to save soldiers’ lives.
See the technologic wonders of modern AR in our selection.
Timberland’s AR Mirror & Application Tandem
Not everybody likes dressing rooms, but most people will play a game or try something exciting and new. Timberland knew this well. The company put an AR mirror on selected storefronts to drive foot traffic. A Timberland employee would use an accompanying AR application to create a virtual copy of a customer, which they can dress up using gestures (enabled by Kinect technology) to see how items fit — without entering the store.
The combination of AR mirror and application sounds overly complex as something you would casually stop by at the mall. Still, the people liked it: they engagingly dressed their virtual copies and enjoyed it as a game, prompting other people to join.
See the video below.
Streem AR App for Remote Maintenance
Streem shows how effective even the simplest AR apps can be in solving critical issues. In this case, fixing home appliances. For example, your dishwasher stopped working in the middle of the workweek. You contact a repair services provider, and they establish a video chat in Streem with a repair expert. As you show your appliance, the repair professional uses the AR app to pre-evaluate the problem with a range of tools: arrows, annotations, and laser pointer. They can also use Streem to record the video, take pictures, communicate with you directly, and give a quote. As a result, the service expert will arrive prepared and with the right set of tools, saving them a lot of time and effort. For the customer, Streem removes a lot stress or allows to fix the problem remotely with the expert in short notice, if possible.
Streem partners with HomeAdvisor and works with a great many professional companies in the US. The creators claim the potential of their AR app is limitless and goes beyond fixing home appliances, mentioning chefs training home cooks as an example. The application uses both Apple ARKit and Google ARCore.
AR Eyepiece for the US Army Soldiers
The United States Army is developing an equipment suite for soldiers with an AR eyepiece at its core. Called Tactical Augmented Reality (TAR), the device helps soldiers locate the positions of foes and squadmates, significantly improving situational awareness and thus safety.
The eyepiece is paired with a soldier’s waist tablet and connected to thermal site on their weapon. When a soldier points the weapon, they can see the image of the target and details like distance to it with the AR eyepiece.
The AR-driven equipment suite is bound to become a universal tool for soldiers, replacing night-vision goggles, as well as the handheld GPS system American soldiers use to approximate their positions. Other possibilities would follow suite. For example, the waist tablets could monitor healthcare conditions of squadmates and then display it on a soldier’s eyepiece when any squadmate is in sight. Or, the device could simply provide navigational tips in unknown terrain right before soldiers’ eyes.
Lacoste AR App
The legendary apparel retailer was looking for a way to promote their new LCST shoe, created for a younger audience living in urban areas. Augmented reality seemed a fitting option for our tech-savvy times.
Remember Converse’s pioneering Sampler app, which allowed users to try new shoes on by using their smartphone cameras? Lacoste was inspired by the concept, elevating it several steps higher. With their AR app, a user points the smartphone camera to their feet and browses available modifications in the same way, but the space around the shoe is also augmented with crisp and colorful backgrounds that change with the modification. In short, the app is simple but visually stunning.
See the video below.
Aiming to bring more color to the image of their new product, the Lacoste AR app proved to be a success, engaging as much as 30,000 users.
Trying shoes on wasn’t the only feature still. With AR experience involving window displays, in-store signage, and promotional postcards, Lacoste has given a lesson on how to create impactful AR mobile apps.
Pepsi Max and AR Display Stunt
Commute is not the most memorable part of the day. That is until you encounter aliens, tigers, and monstrous tentacles that snatch passerby while you wait for your morning bus. These and other surprises were part of Pepsi’s fresh and exciting marketing stunt in London. The beverage brand installed an AR display in one of the bus stops, which displayed a number of high-quality visuals that gradually caught the attention commuters, taking them by surprise. In a spot-on decision, Pepsi took the premise of simple AR applications and to took it to a bigger scale and screen. The result is a morning to remember for people and a successful marketing move for the company.
See more examples of versatile AR apps in our list of the best AR apps in the history of mobile, which includes developments by Nike, IBM, and The New York Times.
If you need a consultation about AR applications, get in touch with our experts. Intellectsoft offers comprehensive, industry-specific augmented reality solutions.