Augmented Reality (AR): Benefits and Examples
Augmented reality (AR) is the technology that overlays digital content onto the real settings. By blending virtual elements with the physical world, AR offers various benefits in a wide range of fields. In this article, let’s explore the benefits of augmented reality and its examples.
Benefits of Augmented Reality
AR provides value and varying benefits across different industries.
1. Create Immersive Experiences in Education
Providing immersive experiences that may be difficult to experience in real life is one of the benefits of augmented reality. Imagine that learners can learn about Seven Nature Wonders of the World right in the classroom by taking virtual tours powered by AR technology. AR helps create engaging and interactive lessons, making the learning process more effective.
Additionally, it’s easy for instructors to illustrate abstract concepts, conduct hands-on training in fields like medicine, aviation, allowing learners to practice in a safe and controlled environment.
2. Boost Entertainment and Gaming Experiences
AR can enrich reality, making gaming and entertainment more interactive, enjoyable, and memorable. In gaming, AR allows players to interact with virtual elements overlaid on their real-world environment, enhancing engagement and adding a layer of interactivity that traditional gaming cannot match. For entertainment, AR can bring stories and characters to life in the user’s own space, creating personalized experiences. It also opens up new possibilities for interactive marketing and live events, where audiences can experience enhanced visuals and information in real-time.
3. Enhance the Shopping Experience of Customers in Retail Settings
Augmented reality also benefits the retail sector by enhancing the customer shopping experience.
- Virtual try-ons: AR allows customers to try on virtual items like clothes, eyeglasses, shoes, etc to see how they look. Customers don’t need to touch any physical product.
- Virtual sampling: AR can overlay certain furniture or decor, so customers can see how they look in their homes.
- Enhanced product information: AR can add product details, reviews, and features on the physical products helping customers make the right decisions.
When brands use AR-based tools, they give customers a new way to approach and assess products. It allows customers to interact with products virtually, providing a better understanding of features and benefits. So, it may help increase conversion rates and reduce returns.
4. Make Marketing and Advertising Campaigns More Effective
In marketing and advertising, AR revolutionizes how brands interact with consumers and enhances the overall customer experience. The interactive element of AR campaigns tends to make them stick in people’s minds more effectively than traditional ads, leading to higher brand recall and recognition. Moreover, innovative AR experiences are more likely to be shared on social media, increasing organic reach and brand visibility.
5. Provide Better Visualization in Design and Construction
Another benefit of augmented reality is that it can provide better visualization in design and construction. AR technology allows architects to present the design engagingly and interactively to the client before construction. By visualizing the design, architects can detect errors. Also, clients can find out whether the design is satisfying or not. It helps save time and money.
6. Enhance Navigation and Wayfinding
AR can enhance navigation and wayfinding by providing real-time guidance, making getting around a lot simpler. It’s like having a smart helper that shows you where to go by putting arrows and directions right in front of your eyes, either on your car’s windshield or on your phone. Plus, it can point out important places and street signs along the way, so you can get to where you’re going without any confusion.
Augmented Reality Examples
Here are some augmented reality examples in our life.
1. Anatomy 4D by DAQRI
Anatomy 4D is an AR application that helps students learn about the human body in a detailed and interactive manner. Students can explore a highly detailed 3D model of the human body, complete with various anatomical systems like the cardiovascular, skeletal, and muscular systems. This app allows students to visualize and interact with complex anatomical structures in ways that traditional textbooks cannot.
2. Pokémon Go
Pokémon Go (released in 2016) is considered as a typical example of augmented reality in gaming. This mobile game captivated millions of players all over the world at that time. By overlaying a digital creature called Pokémon , this game turns millions of people into Pokémon hunters. Players use their smartphones to detect Pokémons, then follow the real-world map to capture them.
3. IKEA Place
With AR integration, IKEA Place can dispel worries and concerns when buying new furniture for your house. This app includes 3D models of products and provides you with their size, design, and function. You can see how furniture will look in your house but also notice whether it fits your place.
4. Pepsi Max
Pepsi Max launched an advertising campaign that uses AR technology to transform a bus shelter into a window that augmented unbelievable scenarios into the real world. People who pass by or are waiting for the bus were surprised by a giant robot shooting lasers down the street to tentacles rising from the sidewalk and capturing commuters within its grasp. Then, this innovative PR campaign had succeeded in attracting customers and gained an increase in sales.
5. GAMMA AR
GAMMA AR is an augmented reality example in construction. It is a mobile application that overlays BIM (Building Information Modelling) onto the physical construction site. This app enables engineers to compare the planning with the reality on the jobsite, track construction progress, and ensure that the project is being built according to plan. It allows for on-site verification and quality control, helping increase accuracy, then reduce rework, and enhance project management.
6. Google Maps
Google Maps also uses AR technology to enhance the wayfinding experiences of users. To use this feature, users must turn on the live view mode while finding the way to a destination. Then, hold their smartphones to scan buildings, street names, and direction sign boards. Arrows and directions will appear on the phone screen to show users where to go.
Conclusion
In conclusion, augmented reality stands as a transformative technology that bridges the gap between the digital and physical worlds, enhancing our perception and interaction with our surroundings. AR has proven to be beneficial in various sectors.
As we look to the future, the potential of AR is boundless. It promises to revolutionize how we learn, work, shop, and play, making our interactions with technology more intuitive and immersive. The continued advancement of AR technology will undoubtedly lead to even more innovative applications that will further enrich our daily lives.
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