Augmented reality has always seemed like a very cool, untapped technology. Now that Google Glass is picking up steam, so are augmented reality applications.
For the most part, augmented reality applications are being used as advertisements for big companies, but could also soon branch out into gaming and interactive, multimedia experiences. One of the coolest augmented reality advertising apps is Blippar. Blippar has been available for iOS, Windows, BlackBerry and Android devices for a while now, but Blippar announced at MWC 2014 that it will finally offer an app for Google Glass.
Image recognition technology allows Blippar to recognize ads that are compatible with Blippar and once a user scans the image on the ad, an augmented reality sequence appears in their line of vision. Sometimes the ads include games that you can play, quizzes that you can take or other fun promotions. Blippar has done a lot of campaigns for everyone from Covergirl to Wheaties and Heinz.
Blippar CEO Ambarish Mitra believes that augmented reality has huge potential and that Google Glass will help move it forward, even though the technology is still in its infancy.
"Glass today can be likened to what mobile phones were in early nineties," said Mitra. "We at Blippar anticipate that if Glass reaches a couple million users in its first year of launch, it will be a good business opportunity for us to develop in the space. We are investing in the potential of Glass."
Blippar showed the new app off at MWC 2014 on a pair of Google Glass. In the demo, the augmented reality sequences looked even cooler on Glass than they do on smartphones or tablets. Augmented reality is only so convincing when you're looking at it as a detached observer on a screen, but when you look through Google Glass, it's just like looking at a 3D mirage right in front of your eyes. Needless to say, it's quite cool.
Since the demo shows the Glass user playing a game from an advertisement, it gives us a hint of things to come from the augmented reality industry. AR gaming would be pretty incredible and you can bet that Google Glass will start tapping the huge potential of the gaming industry sooner rather than later.
Blippar has not yet said when its app, called Blippar Glass, will be available for download.
