How Brands And Retailers Are Utilizing Pokémon Go

Ralph's Pokemon Go Augmented Reality Challenge

We wanted to take a look at how brands and retailers are utilizing Pokémon Go to drive in-store Augmented Reality and geolocation engagement with their customers.  For starters, if you’re not aware of Pokémon Go or why it has become a global phenomenon, you can view our previous post on the Pokémon Go Augmented Reality game here.  Since that post and in the last month, Pokémon Go has:

With those types of numbers, it’s easy to see why brands and retailers are jumping on the Pokémon Go and Augmented Reality bandwagon.  But we wanted to take a closer look at the different ways brands and retailers are utilizing Pokémon Go to drive people to their store and what types of promotions they are using for users while in store.

DRIVE TO STORE – SPONSORED LOCATIONS

Pokemon Go McDonald's Japan

A few weeks after the Pokémon Go launch, Niantic announced that McDonald’s Japan would be one of the first Sponsored locations in the Pokémon Go virtual world.  Of 2,500 McDonald’s stores, 400 would be deemed gyms while the remaining 2,500 locations would act as Pokéstops. In short, Gyms and Pokéstops are physical destinations for the Pokémon Go player to visit to charge up or battle others.  You can view more detailed info on Pokéstops and Gyms at a Pokémon Go wiki here.

Shortly after the Pokémon Go sponsored locations announcement, McDonald’s Japan announced a 27% jump in sales.

DRIVE TO STORE – IN-APP PURCHASES (LURES)

Pokemon Go Retail Promotion

While larger brands and retailers will have budgets necessary to sponsor a large amount of Pokéstops and Gyms, smaller businesses have also been having success using other features within Pokémon Go. One feature is the ability to purchase “Lures” for use in a Pokéstop. Lures are time limited and attract wild Pokémon to the Pokéstop location. This in turn, drives more Pokémon players to the Pokéstop area to catch the Pokémon. This allows small businesses to strategically use lures to drive people to their store or highlight a promotion near the Pokéstop area.

Anime Pop, while being selected as an original Pokéstop, saw 57% of new, game playing customers to their retail location make a $40 average purchase. You can read more about the Anime Pop experiment and use of Pokéstops and Lures here.

DRIVE TO STORE – LOCAL PROMOTION

T-Mobile Pokemon Go Promotion

Other business are taking advantage of old fashioned physical signage to attract nearby Pokémon Go players. While some retailers have been frustrated with people in their stores there to only catch Pokémon, other retailers have tried to capitalize on the growing and nearby foot traffic (see T-mobile image above).

Some small businesses have gotten lucky based on their location. Mad Hatter’s Ice Cream saw an increase in sales due to their proximity to multiple Pokéstop locations. This isn’t surprising given a recent Slant Marketing survey that found 82% of Pokémon Go players had visited a business while playing the game.

IN-STORE + SOCIAL PROMOTION

One other method brands and retailers have been using to leverage the Pokémon Go craze is to promote the game on their social media channels. Ralph’s (part of Kroger Grocery Stores), utilized a promotion on it’s Facebook page to offer gift certificates for shoppers that played Pokémon Go while shopping in their stores. Shoppers are uploading Pokémon Go screenshots from inside Ralph’s stores to help drive further awareness of the promotion.  Embedded below is the Facebook post promoting the Ralph’s Pokémon Go promotion.

While Pokémon Go itself might turn out to be a short term fad, the game is showing retailers and brands the power of geolocation and Augmented Reality. Other mobile augmented reality and geolocation games such as the Hungry Jack’s Protect Your Whopper game, show how localized location-based Augmented Reality can also promote a brand experience and engage customers both in-store and remotely.  Pokémon Go though has shown how powerful geofencing and geolocation can be for small businesses to attract new customers. As GPS and Augmented Reality technology improves, Augmented Reality companies will offer even more advanced location-based AR experiences that might very well become the new normal for small business promotions.

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New Zugara Computer Vision And Augmented Reality Engines

Zugara Computer Vision and Augmented Reality Technology

We’ve updated our website with a section featuring new Zugara computer vision and Augmented Reality engines. Our Technology page lists the latest engines we have available for Gesture Recognition, Facial Recognition and Mobile Augmented Reality and Geolocation functionality.

IVO GESTURE RECOGNITION ENGINE – COMPUTER VISION AND AUGMENTED REALITY

On the computer vision side, our new IVO Gesture Recognition Engine was developed for the Xbox One Kinect. IVO allows you to use gestures to interact with and manipulate 3D virtual objects in Augmented Reality space. In the IVO demo, you can grab, position, scale, rotate and animate various 3D virtual objects using gestures. The demo engine is available with the demo 3D planet assets. A demo video of IVO is embedded below and you can view more information here.

FACIAL RECOGNITION ENGINE – COMPUTER VISION AND AUGMENTED REALITY

Our facial recognition engine was recently updated to support iOS. The engine can detect different facial expressions including smile, wink, kiss, open mouth, tongue, and various head movements. The engine also supports synchronizing and overlaying 2D and 3D virtual objects to the facial area through Augmented Reality. A demo video of our facial recognition engine used for a recent Pepsi Emoji exhibit is embedded below. You can view more info on our facial recognition engine here.

MOBILE AR ENGINE – AUGMENTED REALITY AND GEOLOCATION

Our mobile Augmented Reality and geolocation engine is also now available for iOS and Android. The engine can display both 2D and 3D objects in an Augmented Reality view and allow for various user interactions. The engine also supports gyroscope and accelerometer functionality for placement of the virtual objects in your immediate environment. A demo video of our mobile Augmented Reality and geolocation engine used for the Hungry Jack’s Protect Your Whopper game is embedded below. You can also view more info on the mobile AR and geolocation engine here.

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Pokemon Go Is Driving Augmented Reality And Geolocation Adoption

Pokemon Go Augmented Reality Geolocation

It’s official – Pokemon Go is a massive hit and driving Augmented Reality and Geolocation adoption.  In less than a week, Pokemon Go has:

More importantly, news articles are heralding a new era of location-based gaming where people are actually going outside again and exercising more. So while Pokemon Go is the latest cultural phenomenon, what are the triggers creating this massive mobile hit?

The Pokemon Brand

Pokemon is a 20 year-old brand from Nintendo and has multi-generational appeal.  Furthermore, the nature of Pokemon gameplay is perfectly suited for location-based activities in a mixed physical and virtual world. It really is lighting in a bottle with a perfect mix of brand gameplay + augmented reality + geolocation.  You can read a primer on everything Pokemon Go related here.

Augmented Reality Integration

While the current hype (and investment) has been centered around Virtual Reality over Augmented Reality, it’s clear that Augmented Reality is playing a major role in Pokemon Go’s success.  Augmented Reality and geolocation gaming has been around for over 8 years and Ogmento was one of the early pioneers in the mobile AR and location space. More recently, brands have been utilizing mobile AR and location for promotional efforts. The Hungry Jack’s Protect Your Whopper mobile AR game is one variation of interacting with virtual creatures in your physical environment from a mobile device.

Basic Augmented Reality Tech

Pokemon Go isn’t using any type of advanced Augmented Reality.  The virtual objects are only displayed in your mobile viewfinder and object recognition and advanced geo positioning are not being used for more accurate placement of the Pokemon characters in your physical environment. However, it’s precisely this basic type of AR experience that people are engaging and interacting with. While devices like HoloLens show the future of Augmented Reality and more advanced functionality, simple AR experiences matched up with geolocation are introducing consumers to the potential of Augmented Reality.

Geolocation

Pokemon Go uses a brilliant placement of virtual objects in relation to your location.  Similar to geolocation game Ingress (and created by the same company Niantic), virtual locations are often tied to physical locations that game players can interact with. Having the foundation of Ingress to work with, the Pokemon Go world is a similar yet more interactive experience given the element of capturing virtual ‘objects’ in physical locations. This creates a unique social effect where game players can often identify each other through proximity and interactive gameplay.  This can have unintended results, however, such as one man’s physical house being virtually designated as a ‘gym’ with Pokemon players showing up at all hours of the night.

It’s Pokemon’s World…We’re Just Living In It

While wearables devices like HoloLens will comprise a large Augmented Reality segment in the future, we have often argued that mobile-based Augmented Reality coupled with geolocation will be an even bigger segment.  With 3D cameras coming to the market now, not only can geolocation be used for virtual placement of objects in your physical environment, but 3D cameras will allow for real-time mapping of the physical environment for more stable positioning of the virtual objects. Once we arrive at that stage, this new virtual world (based on the physical) will become the largest virtual gold rush the world has ever seen.

 

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Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Software Market Projections

Statista recently posted a chart outlining Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Software Market Projections. The chart is based on data from Goldman Sachs and is one of the first Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality market projections to solely focus on AR/VR software.  You can view the chart below.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Software Market Projections

Over the last few months, there have been numerous Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality market projections coming out from Goldman Sachs, Digi-Capital, and ABI Research.  These market projections tend to range from the Goldman Sachs low end of $80 Billion to the Digi-Capital high end of $120 Billion.  You can read more detail here.

We tend to agree with the high end of Digi-Capital’s Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality market projections.  As objective as we can be in this matter (as an Augmented Reality company), we think most analysts aren’t seeing the ‘forest for the trees’ with respect to all the different areas that will be impacted and disrupted by both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.

Taking retail as example, the chart above projects a best case scenario of a $1.6 Billion market for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality software for retail by 2025.  In comparison, Digi-Capital projects an approximate $10-$20 Billion market alone for Augmented Reality Commerce by 2020.  The reason we agree with Digi-Capital’s projections is due to all the areas that Augmented Reality (and to a lesser extent Virtual Reality) will impact for the retail purchase funnel.

At the recent SAP Augmented Reality for the Enterprise event, we presented a slide showing key areas in the retail purchase funnel that will be impacted by Augmented Reality.  The slide is below with more detail on the purchase funnel and where different types of Augmented Reality technology will enhance or disrupt areas such as product discovery, trial and retention.

Augmented Reality Commerce Purchase Funnel

The 4 key areas we highlighted include:

  • Product Discovery & Drive to Retail – Augmented Reality utilized on mobile devices will help expose potential shoppers to virtual retail items.  While also leveraging geolocation, you can activate AR content in a geofenced area and geofence those areas specific to a store (driving people in-store in the process.)
  • Virtual Product Trial & Personalization – Virtual Dressing Room technology will be a key area here where mobile to display synchronization can turn a display into a personal shopping assistant for a shopper – anywhere and at anytime.
  • Advanced Biometric & AR Content Data – This is one area we feel the analysts are grossly underestimating or overlooking when it comes to Augmented Reality and Retail.  Kinect and other 3D cameras can capture biometric data and physical attributes of a shopper such as skin tone, hair color, body shape, etc.  This data can then be used twofold.  For the shopper, they can now get personalized recommendations based on how they react to a certain item or receive recommended items based on similar physical characteristics.  For the retailer, they can now get real-time feedback on products based on biometric data.
  • AR Object & Shopper Persona Profile – With Virtual Product Trial & Personalization combined with Advanced Biometric & AR Content Data, retailers can now offer a more advanced AR-based social shopping experience.  Friends can connect from anywhere to virtually shop together and have personalized recommendations. Retailers can also further enhance the Augmented Reality ecommerce experience with stylists that connect with shoppers and view or suggest virtual items in real time.

We only covered 4 specific areas of the retail purchase funnel that pertains mostly to apparel and accessories.  But there are other retail areas you could dive deeper into such as using AR for placement of retail display stands or even using mobile augmented reality with 3D cameras to plan and purchase items in a grocery store.

Regardless of the variance in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality software market projections, we believe that Augmented Reality will have a significant impact on multiple areas in retail.  Some of these areas are closer than others to retail adoption, but by 2020-2025, it would be a shock not to see all of these Augmented Reality for Retail areas fundamentally changing the retail shopping experience.

A modified version of this blog post was featured as a recent VentureBeat Op-Ed entitled, “Analysts are overlooking how much AR and VR are about to change our lives.”

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B2B Augmented Reality: App für den Außendienst

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Mobile Augmented Reality: in 5 Jahren 200 Mio. Nutzer

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Augmented World Expo 2013: It’s a wrap!

Augmented World Expo 2013 was really an amazing experience. I’m co-founder and co-organizer of the conference, along with Ori Inbar, so it has meant a lot to me to see our event grow over the last four years, and thrilling to make such a big splash this year.  There were 1,163 attendees, and the expo show cased an ecosystem of emerging technologies – augmented reality, gesture interaction, eyewear, wearables, and connected hardware of  many stripes, that mark the beginning of natural computing entering the mainstream. It was a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with what it feels like to be an augmented human in an augmented world!

Videos of AWE 2013′s 35 hours of educational sessions and inspirational keynotes are now available on our YouTube channel. I am sharing my own talk (my slides are also up on slideshare here), and a few of my favorites in this post, but there are far to many to post here, so please browse further on the Augmented World Expo youtube channel.

One notable high point of AWE2013, for me, was the showcase sponsored by Meta, a startup developing the first device allowing visualization and interaction with 3D virtual objects in the real world using your hands. It was made possible by the generous contribution from the private collections of Paul Travers, Dan Cui, Steven Feiner, Steve Mann, and Chris Grayson, and passionate volunteers who are helping advance the industry. Sean Hollister of The Verge did this excellent report on the eyewear showcase 35 years of wearable computing history at Augmented World Expo 2013
Also for more on Meta see this article by Dan Farber.

My colleagues at Syntertainment, Will Wright, Avi Bar-Zeev, Jason Shankel, and LaurenElliott all gave great talks. Ironically, we’re not building augmented reality apps or H/W. We all just happen to continue to be very interested in the field.  

Thank you to everyone for supporting the event!

The press coverage was truly extensive:

In the shadow of Google Glass, an augmented reality industry revs its engines
The Verge, Sean Hollister, June 9, 2013, 271 Tweets

The next big thing in tech: Augmented reality
CNET, Dan Farber, June 7, 2013
Pick up on Current News Daily
350 Tweets

AWE 2013 Conference Report: Augmented Reality and Marketing
The Persuaders Marketing Podcast on Dublin City FM, June 23, 2013

AR Dirt Podcast – Ori Inbar AWE2013 Extravaganza Recap
AR Dirt by Joseph Rampolla, June 18, 2013

35 years of wearable computing history at Augmented World Expo 2013
The Verge, Sean Hollister, June 9, 2013
7 Tweets

Augmented Reality: Bruce Sterling, keynote at Augmented World Expo 2013
Wired, Bruce Sterling, June 9, 2013
9 Tweets

On the road for VR: Augmented World Expo 2013
Doc-Ok, Staff, June 7, 2013
3 Tweets

My Interview from Augmented World Expo 2013 [VIDEO] Wassom.com, Brian Wassom, June 7, 2013

Augmented World Expo
ZenFri, Staff, June 7, 2013

AWE2013: Hardware for an augmented world
FBNSantos.com, Felipe Neves Dos Santos, June 6, 2013

Augmented Reality Will Be the New Reality
InvestorPlace, Brad Moon, June 6, 2013

Wearable computing pioneer Steve Mann: Who watches the watchmen?
TechHive, Armando Rodriguez, June 6, 2013

Expo puts augmented reality in the limelight
ABC 7 News, Jonathan Bloom, June 5, 2013

These OLED microdisplays are the future of augmented reality
DVICE, Evan Ackerman, June 5, 2013

Visualized: a history of augmented and virtual reality eyewear
Engadget, Michael Gorman, June 5, 2013

Wikitude announces Wikitude Studio and in-house developed IR & Tracking engine
PapiTV, KC Leung, June 5, 2013

Augmented reality expo aims for sci-fi future today
USA Today, Marco della Cava, June 5, 2013

Augmented Reality: High Dynamic Range (HDR) Video Image Processing For Digital Glass
Wired, Bruce Sterling, June 5, 2013

Will Wright at Augmented Reality Conference: Don’t Augment Reality, Decimate It
AllThingsD, Eric Johnson, June 4, 2013

Philip Rosedale’s Second Life with High Fidelity
CNET, Dan Farber, June 4, 2013

Google Glass competitors vie for attention as industry grows
PC World, Zack Miners for IDG News Service, June 4, 2013

4D Augmented Reality Leader Daqri Announces $15 Million Financing
Press Release, June 4, 2013

CrowdOptic Powers Lancome Virtual Gallery App, Crowd-powered Heat Map
TechZone 360, Peter Bernstein, June 3, 2013

Augmented humans, enhanced happiness?
Crave Culture, Angelica Weihs, June 2, 2013

Metaio & Vuzix to Showcase AR-Ready Smart Glasses at the 2013 Augmented World Expo
Press Release, May 30, 2013

Four ways augmented reality will invade your life in 2013
Quartz, Rachel Feltman, May 30, 2013

Augmented Reality: Augmented World Expo™ is next week
Wired, Bruce Sterling, May 28, 2013

Strike it Rich with Cachetown and AWE 2013 Playing the Gold Rush 49’er Challenge In Augmented Reality
Press Release, May 24, 2013

Local Community College Student Headed to Silicon Valley to Learn More about Augmented Reality
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Staff, May 24, 2013

Explore an intricate labyrinth with smartphone AR
CNET Australia, Michelle Starr, May 21, 2013

Dartmouth firm lands super app
Herald Business, Remo Zaccagna, May 21, 2013

Augmented World Expo 2013–The Future of Augmented Reality
Silicon Angle, Saroj Kar, May 17, 2013

Shaping Play with Connected Stuff: IoToaster a prize winner in the YCombinator Upverter Hackathon!

We had so much fun at the YCombinator Upverter Hackathon. I was honored to be part of “the beatles” team  (Sam Cuttriss, Josh Cardenas, Jason Appelbaum, Lauren Elliott, Tish Shute, Otto Leichliter III & IV) that produced the prize winning IoToaster. Rick Merritt did an awesome write up in EE Times, Slideshow: Y Combinator hackathon’s prize-winning designs. If you want to hear more about hardware startups shaping play with connected stuff, I hope you will stop by, Parsing Reality: Shaping Play with Connected Stuff, Tuesday March 12th, 12.30pm -1.30pm, Raddison Town Lake Ballroom, Austin, SXSW 2013. I’m delighted to join, Adam Wilson Founder, Chief Software Architect Orbotix, Dave Bisceglia Co-Founder & CEO The Tap Lab, Phu Nguyen Founder Romotive Inc to talk about shaping play with connected stuff – more details here.

Meanwhile enjoy Rick Merritt’s great write up of IoToaster (reprinted from EE Times).

“Y Combinator hackathon’s prize-winning designs”

“An Internet Toaster, two pair of faux Google glasses and two novel electronic gloves emerged from a hackathon organized by Upverter and hosted by Y Combinator. SAN JOSE, Calif. – Imagine sending an Instagram to your Internet toaster and printing it—on whole wheat or white bread. Imagine creating your own vision for a variant of Google’s Project Glass.

Those were among the 32 projects from more than 130 designers at a recent all-day event organized by Upverter.com and hosted by Y Combinator, a startup incubator in Mountain View, Calif.

Winners took home iPads, Pebble watches, Arduino kits and Raspberry Pi boards after dedicating about 10 hours of their Saturday to hacking on their best ideas. Some took with them hopes of products that could make it to the market or new-formed teams that could be the heart of a new startup. Others just had a good time.

Here’s a look at some of the winners.

Two teams worked on variants of Google’s $1,500 glasses-mounted computer. One team (above) used laser-cut medium-density fibreboard and embedded LEDs that could indicate when the wearer faced north. Another team (below) created Prism, a more thorough knock-off of Google’s concept complete with an embedded display and gesture recognition.


Photos courtesy of Kuy Mainwaring and Sam Wurzel of Octopart.

Printing on whole wheat or white

The IO Toaster (above) is sort of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of social electronics. It’s an Internet-connected combo toaster/printer that creators say can “bring the cloud to your breakfast.”

The team adapted code from an LED matrix to control heat transmission down to the pixel level. They hope to present the device at the Augmented World Expo at SXSW as well as at other hackathons and hardware meetups.

The team included Sam Cuttriss, Josh Cardenas, Tish Shute, Lauren Elliott, Jason Appelbaum and both Otto Leichliter III and IV.

Peripherals and apps for the IO Toaster

The potential for the IO Toaster is great, said team members who brainstormed spin off products including:

  • FaceToast: Your friends’ Facebook status messages pop up automatically at breakfast.
  • Instagram Toast: Patented sepia tone filters add artistic textures to photos (above). Too grainy?
  • Toasted, Augmented Reality: Toast revitalizes boring QR codes (below).
  • Pop Tweets: Twitter toaster pastries. Follow your favorite fruit flavor.
  • FlipToast: Create an edible FlipBook with a carb-hinge technology in development.
  • Angry Toast: A hyper sling and gimble add on hurls slices at kids trying to leave for school without breakfast.


Touch screen toaster displays

Designers of the IO Toaster created this animation to show the romantic possibilities of their product.

Grand prize was a real grabber

The Tactilus is a haptic feedback glove for interacting with 3-D environments. A series of cables applies pressure to the wearer’s fingers to resist their motion in response to pushing against a virtual object.

Meet the Tactilus team

Jack Minardy had the idea to create a haptic glove. Five strangers who stopped by his table and liked the idea became a virtual team for the day, bringing Tactilus to life. They are (from left) Matt Bigarani, Nick Bergseng, Jack Minardy, Neal Mueller and Tom Sherlock. Not pictured: Oren Bennett.

Fitness glove has something up its sleeve

The Body API is a comprehensive metric-gathering device that gives the sports enthusiast a big data boost.

Baby gets a robo rocker

One team prototyped its invention for an automatic baby rocker using an electric can opener. Parents can control it visa a mobile app.

And other winners were…
At the end of the day, 30 groups took two minutes each to pitch their hack (below), some of which judges pitches in the circular file. A handful of others got various levels of recognition.

The winner in the most marketable category was the DIYNot, a plug that fits between your recharging device and the socket to turn off the two amp energy flow anytime you want. The Window Blind Controller, a clip on device that keeps streetlight out in the night and lets sunlight in during the day, got a nod from judges.

Judges also liked the Walkmen, an ultrasound virtual walking stick with haptic feedback for guiding disabled people. A team from Electric Imp got the Corporate Shill Award for a networked dispenser that spits out M&Ms in response to tweets. Another group added Wi-Fi links to home switches opening a circuit for new kinds of remote controls—and pranks.

From here to China and back

Zack Hormuth of Upverter.com (left), organizer for the event, helps hacker Matt Sarnoff. Upverter led a hackathon at Facebook’s Open Compute Summit. It also has hackathons in the works for New York City and Shenzhen.”