What do you think of the application of Augmented Reality in Business and Manufacturing line? Will it be a success to firms and also to the society? Or simply the other way round?
What deal can augmented reality give to the businesses? It is the deal that locations, devices, even the human body are to be “augmented” by linking and overlaying additional information on top of “regular” reality (John Sviokla 2009).
First of all, in business field, it is very important for company to build up their strong brand name by promoting their products that can create awareness to the public. One of the ways that the company can achieve this is by advertising. It may be a great advantage in applying AR to businesses that requires massive advertising. Take for example, Hearst Corp.’s magazine which took advantage of augmented reality which mixes real-life images with graphics and other effects. With AR, Hearst Corp. can now market their magazine via an interactive, web-based AR application. If business nowadays uses the application of AR to their product, consumers may be able to experience and enjoy a higher standard of living and perhaps a beginning of a revolution. For example, if consumers glanced through an interesting article in a magazine and there is an advertisement with visual code on it, they may actually scan it with their phone, e.g. blackberry or iPhone and order it immediately. This may change the way that the society deal with buying and purchasing things. Hence it may bring a better standard of living for the society. What do you think? Do you think that it is a technology that can lead to a better standard of living or it is simply just an invention that will lead to nowhere?
Despites the benefits that AR can bring to businesses, we should also look at the cost that it may bring to business. The price, the cost that firms or maybe the society have to pay? We have to take all these consideration into account in evaluating AR. Augmented reality projects rely on specific or customized hardware, and thus the mechanism is actually often very complex and sophisticated. Therefore, the augmented reality projects are actually quite expensive to be developed and not to say, maintain. It may help to boost sales, but as for the return on investment point of view, it may actually take a longer period because the cost of developing and also maintaining is too high and are actually difficult to cover. Take for example the luxuries brand – Tissot. Tissot had actually increases their in-store sales by up to 85% with Holition augmented reality. This can be seen in a survey where an average of 190 shoppers per day tried on watches and directly interacted with Tissot using AR. However, a problem arises with this technology is from the high costs associated with AR campaigns actually limit sales ROI potential. Therefore it is actually worthwhile for firms to think whether it is proper for them to invest in this technology. What do you think?
In applying AR to manufacturing line, it may actually help some firms to increase productivity. Take for example, BMW in developing a concept for AR glasses that can assist their own mechanics in performing maintenance on the company’s high-performance cars. This can be illustrated in the video below:
Despite the potential that AR can make human’s life easier and better, but however, we should also consider some irregularities that sometimes technology is unable to solve. Technology, in our opinion, is only some sort of basic human knowledge. For example in this case, AR applications can only aids with a step-by-step audio and visual instruction. Therefore, what is something goes wrong in between? Such as a component went missing? Such irregularities would still need the work of human to solve.
Nonetheless, application of AR can indeed help increase the lifestyle of the society despite the cost. Try to imagine, an augmented reality glasses that could turn your surroundings into a zombie infected map and you can run around and play as a first person shooter. Wouldn’t that be cool? Perhaps one day the society will use this application as a way to exercise. Who knows?
References:
How will “Augmented Reality” Affect Your Business?, John Sviokla 2009, Harvard Business Review, last viewed 5 October 2010, http://blogs.hbr.org/sviokla/2009/10/how_will_augmented_reality_aff.html
Esquire Experiments with a Digital Reality, WSJ.com 2009, last viewed 5 October 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704222704574501122991439500.html?mod=article-outset-box
7 things you should know about Augmented Reality, EDUCAUSE September 2005, last viewed 5 October 2010, http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7007.pdf
Augmented reality boosts retail sales, but where is the ROI?, Christine Bardwell, June 2010, Last viewed 5 October 2010, http://mis-asia.com/opinion__and__blogs/bloggers/augmented-reality-boosts-retail-sales,-but-where-is-the-roi
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