Lately there's been a lot of talking about Augmented Reality, even Martina dropped some thoughts about that a couple of weeks ago, which i agree almost completely, being the most of these AR things going on right now pure eye-candy; i also even remember Dare's Flo Heiss writing something funny about this a while ago.

So, maybe, that's why when you find something that uses the technology adding usefulness to the user experience it stands out that much, like in this app developed by AKQA for United States Postal Service.

I've written a lot about augmented reality (http://thefutureofads.com/tag/augmented-reality/) and tend to agree that for a while, the AR apps were mostly just eye candy. However, I think that's the case with most new technologies, and it works because it's so new. After people get used to it though, that's when the real innovation begins, because companies need to actually do something with the technology instead of just wow people with the new-ness. This USPS app is a great example of the useful things that can be done with AR, as are apps like the LEGO box that shows you what the finished model will look like, and the Ray-Ban app that let you preview their sunglasses on your face. Hopefully we're just in a transition from 'look how cool that looks' to 'look how useful that is' and AR gets put to good use.

Posted by: Cory O'Brien at June 8, 2009 01:17 AM

i agree Cory, thanks for your feedback :)

Posted by: Daniel Granatta at June 8, 2009 06:10 PM