If you do nothing else today spend 5 minutes and go to this site. You’ll need a printer, a pdf viewing application, a computer with a webcam (new Macs come with these by default), and a web browser with Flash 10 installed (you will get a prompt to install if you don’t have it).
- Go to this link: http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/?c_id=Huff#/augmented_reality
- Print out the PDF linked here: http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/ar/printme.pdf
- Click on the “Launch Turbine” or “Launch Solar” link and permit Flash to access your camera (you’ll get a dialog box)
- Hold up the printed PDF so it shows up in your camera view and prepare to be amazed.
This demo begins to show the promise of Augmented Reality on embedded display technology. What I mean is as displays get cheaper it will be more common for them to be placed in public or even private areas for your benefit. Imagine dressing room mirrors that can show you what you will look like without changing cloths. Imagine wearing digital accessories visible only to those who view you through a screen or through a Head Mounted Display (HMD). The possibilities are endless as we start to embed virtual objects in our reality.
If you don’t want to spend the time or don’t have all of the gear, hear is a video that is almost as good (and NOT fake).
Note: Tanagram has been awarded (we’re in the ‘negotiation’ phase) a grant to design a user interface concept for Augmented Reality. More on that soon!
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on February 25, 2009
If this isn’t a testament to the future of Rich Internet Applications (RIA), then we don’t know what is. Sumo Paint is a robust, feature rich, easy to use (relatively), illustration tool created using Adobe Flex technology. It runs exactly the same in Windows as it does on the Mac. We haven’t heard of anyone using it as a production tool yet but it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities. It is FREE after all. Given Google’s full-court-press in the RIA document space we don’t think it will be too long (minutes?) before they are acquired. We’re taking bets… share yours.
P.S. The picture above was created in 5 clicks. We know you’re impressed. 
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on February 4, 2009
How many times have you mentioned Facebook, Twitter, or Boxee (shout out to Avner and crew!) and gotten the an eye-roll? There seems to be a stigma developing in the industry because everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is attempting to build community components into their application offerings. The bad news is it’s not going to stop anytime soon. The good news is that providers are getting better at implementing these systems and consumers are starting to experience real value.
So, why is the online community not a fad and/or evil? At its core, the online community is designed to build closer relationships between the consumers and the product/service provider. It’s important to distinguish that online community does NOT always have to build relationships between consumers and other consumers. Social networking focuses on connecting people in online communities. Online community is a higher level concept that is simply about the building of a body of active and engaged individuals.
Why do providers need to build customer relationships? In the early 1900′s it was common to buy soap directly from a human being that ran a local soap store. Customers would go to this person’s store and buy soap, share feedback, make feature requests, and hopefully deliver praise for the proprietor’s products. The proprietor would in turn make products that the customers desired. Today’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant Proctor & Gamble needed to reinvent this system because they could not afford to place an individual in every town they wanted to serve and they could not afford to manufacture an infinite number of variations on their product. Instead they created the first Brand and marketed their products (a small subset) using their brand promises to replace the direct connection that existed prior. As America endured it’s industrialization more and more companies chose to use brand instead the more costly direct representative approach to representing their products and today product sales reps don’t really exist except for big-ticket items like cars (oh and we all love car salesmen!). What companies like P&G failed to see was that the cost saving brand approach was also stripping them of their consumer feedback. They, like most other businesses following their model, became disconnected from their consumers who in turn became less excited about their products. They also found that they had to use manipulative marketing messages to persuade customers to buy their products. They had to lie.
Today the world is changing, or in a small way reverting back, to the direct connection model. People are media-saavy and see right through manipulative marketing/advertising attempts to persuade their purchases. To overcome this, smart providers are using online community to reverse the system. Instead of convincing consumers to buy their products they are letting consumers tell them what products to make. Providers are finding that watching customers using their products gives them incredible insights. Listening to them talk about their products does as well. Building systems that facilitate these observations and discussions is what online community is all about.
Google is a perfect example of well implemented online communities. While no one really thinks of Google as a community platform, their free applications connect us (search, email, document sharing, maps, etc) and in turn inform them about our desires, needs, and behaviors. They use this information to make their products better and sell other products to us. In return we love them.
Stay tuned… BT2 is coming next week. We’ll be talking about the “R” word, relevance.
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on February 3, 2009
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