AR Foundation and Social Games
AR Foundation has incredible potential, limited only by the processing power of our phones. If the processors keep improving it’ll be a challenge to keep up with the possibilities. Here are a few applications.
AR selection of digital products on physical store shelves.
Dilmer Valecillos is an indie game developer who is posting free tutorial videos for AR Foundation, and watching him go through the source code for a basic application of the raycasting function gave me an interesting idea.
There’s a problem physical stores have had forever, and that’s the inefficiency of stocking store shelves during busy periods. If customers can’t see what’s on the shelves, how are they supposed to make the right choice?
Alibaba has made an attempt at this, and it’s already pretty successful:
There’s just one place for improvement. If the fresh food on the shelves needs to be restocked, or a package is missing, you’ve got to go to the trouble of scanning a barcode and run through a menu. AR can speed this process up.
If the store has it’s own Wi-Fi server, the placement of AR objects can be sent directly to a customers phone. All the customer needs to do is download the store’s app and then point the phone at an empty shelf to see a physical representation of what’s on it. If the customer is interested, they don’t have to place an order to have the item delivered to their home, they can place an order to have that item, or a set of items currently needing to be restocked, near a pick up spot next to the cashier.
Because this is AR, once an item is identified a canvas can display any amount of information the user needs about a product, and because the experience is personalized, a user can find out if they have any allergies or other issues with a product quickly.
We’re not just saving a user, and the staff, time, we’re saving an extra journey via car for the same amount of shopping convenience. Because the staff don’t need to make deliveries, we’re also allocating their effort more efficiently, helping more people with the same amount of employee’s.
Image recognition and replacement.
Image recognition and replacement is another thing AR Foundation is working towards, particularly facial recognition, but simpler images are perhaps more workable.
Imagine an AR windscreen on your car that replaced busy and complex airport intersection directions with simplified driving instructions tailored to your chosen route, so you never needed to look down at your phone.(I’m looking at you, Musk)
Imagine street signs tailored to your personal needs via a combination of google maps and image recognition. (You’re on the correct street, the restaurant is three door’s down on your right).
And lastly, imagine your least favorite teacher from middle-school. Now imagine you and your friends tracking and replacing that teacher’s face with an AR image of Emperor Palpatine, or your least favorite historical figure/politician/Rick Astley. Who will Mr. Brimstone looklike today?
AR, if we can get the right design for it, is going to be a wild ride.
