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AR s Greatest Hits

Four smart augmented-

reality projects th at rnade

a bigsplash-an da big

return on investmen t

Londo n 2012 Olympics

Developer: Xomo Digital/wikituoe

How it worked:One of AR s first big

smashes, tiie officiai London 2012 app

displayed nearby transporta tion and

scheduiing information for more than

40,0 00 iive events based on where users

cameras happened to be focused.

Result:Miiiions of fans used the app to

navigate the Games,

Tip Sheet

ANew (Augm en ted )

Several augmented-

reality start-ups are

turninga gimmick into a

serious business tool

IT'S COOLTRICK Aim your sm artphone

cam era at a buildin g or an object, and

onscreen, anywayother things seem to

suddenly materialize o ut of thin air.

The idea of augme nted reality, the

layering of com puter-gene rated infor-

mation over real-world scenes, has been

around for a while, but recently, some

new companiesDaqri, Blippar, and

Layar, to nam e a fewhave b een

transforming th e technology from a

novelty into a serious business tool. And

with the creation of wearable devices

such as Google Glass and the ubiquity

of camera-enabled smartphones and

tablets, the AR industry is poised to take

off. Juniper Research estimates that by

2017,

more tha n 2.5 bill ion AR apps

will be downloaded to devices annually.

Another study forecasts that annu al sales

in the space will nearly double every year

to hit 5.2 bill ion by 20 16.

Some retailers have been using

AR

technology to bring the showroom into

consumers' homes. Swedish furniture

maker Ikea introduc ed an ap p last year

that lets customers see wha t a couch or

chair would look like in their living rooms.

Developed by Mun ich-based M etaio,

whose projects can run from about

10 ,000 to 500 ,000 , the app has been

downloaded some eight million times.

Product manuals and maintenance

instructions are getting an AR makeover

to make repairs m ore intuitive. Metaio

recently developed an AK-enabled car

ma nual for Audi. In addition to offering

basic information about the car, the app

can give instant troublesho oting feed-

back wh en a service light comes on.

Some com panies are starting to build

physical products with AR technology

bald in. For instance, Daq ri, a Los

Angeles-based start-up, is developing a

set of AR-enha nced educa tional wooden

blocks that display the periodic table

elemen ts. W hen viewed throu gh a tablet

app, tbe blocks appear to chemically

react with one another. Push the sodium

MORE TH N MEETSTHE

NAKED EVE

ii

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Heinz Ketchup

Developer:Blippar

How it

works:Open the Blippar app on a

smartphone or tablet and pointitat a bottle

of Heinz ketchup. Onscreen, recipes and videos

appearto emerge from thelabel.

Result:Consumers have

used the app more

than 650.000 times

(and counting).

Cadillac

Developer:Daqri

How it

works:On the stree ts

of

New York

City,Miami.Chicago,andSan Francisco,

artists made chalk murals of the Cadillac

ATS.When viewed througha smartphone

app,

th escenes appeared to come to life.

Result:Some 56,000 people used the

app to view the murals, andanother

900,000 mentioned the campaignon

social media.

Mitsubishi Electric

Developer:Metaio

How it

works:M itsubishi's sales force

comes armed with a tablet app that

allows poten tial customers to see

onscreen how its sleek wall-mou nted

airconditionerw ould look in their

homes or offices.

Result:The app contributed

toaS3Q mil l ion uptickin

2013 global AC sales.

Reality

industrial setting. AR technology could

eventually be deployed for things such

as warehouse management and employee

training, says Brian MuUins, CEO of

Daqri. He imagines a facility where,

rather than spending several minutes

finding and counting inventory, an em-

ployee wearing a head-mounted device

simply looks at a bin, scans it, and then

is directed to the next bin. Multiply

that out over the course of a year, he

says,

and you're talking significant

savings. -RYAN UNDERWOOD

SCAN HERETO SEE DAQRI S PERIODIC

ELEMENT BL0Ci

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C o p y r i g h t o f I n c . i s t h e p r o p e r t y o f M a n s u e t o V e n t u r e s L L C a n d i t s c o n t e n t m a y n o t b e

c o p i e d o r e m a i l e d t o m u l t i p l e s i t e s o r p o s t e d t o a l i s t s e r v w i t h o u t t h e c o p y r i g h t h o l d e r ' s

e x p r e s s w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . H o w e v e r , u s e r s m a y p r i n t , d o w n l o a d , o r e m a i l a r t i c l e s f o r

i n d i v i d u a l u s e .