Augmented Reality | What's the story? (part 1)

There's a lot chatter about Augmented Reality at the moment. But what exactly is this enchanting new technology, that a recent a Juniper Research report suggested will yield annual revenues of $732million by 2014? 

How does it work? 

Does it have a real future and how can you begin to explore it for your brand? 

Read on…

What is it?

Like all new communication tech platforms, early adopters tend to get carried away and too technical with their lofty descriptions. So for the purpose of clarity,  let's define Augmented Reality simply as: 'the process of overlaying digital content onto a real life, physical environment, when viewed through camera enabled communication devices (CECD) : laptop, tablets and of course, smartphones.

How does it work?

There's 3 basic elements to an AR experience:

1. The Real Life Physical (RPE) environment: This is wherever you're standing in the world, and what ever you are looking at through your CECD. This could be a press or magazine ad, a building, a car, a sign, a person or even just a random 'space'. It doesn't matter, it can all be brought too life.

2. The Trigger: This is the 'agent' that talks to the application software and instructs it to pull the relevant content from the Cloud or Server, and place it over the RPE  in whatever way it has been created. The Trigger traditionally took the form of a Marker; a unique black and white shape that can be easily identified by the camera. However more recently, and more frequently, GPS and GPRS coordinates are being used as The Triggers. This development is behind the AR's quantum leap, from adolescence, to alpha-adult.

3. The Digital Content: This is the content that gets overlaid onto to RPE, and so 'augmenting' it as an experience. This content ranges in complexity from animated text, still photography and video files, through to 3D animated graphics, and interactive 3D content. 

Where is it being used?

The question should perhaps be, 'where isn't it being used?'. Such is its versatility. AR is predominantly a marketing and communications tool; used at POS, direct marketing, collateral, events, exhibitions, presentations and increasingly to add a new level of engagement in advertising. 

Yet with exciting frequency, the technology is now being franchised to improve and solve much more diverse problems such as customer service, out of home sampling (see virtual shopping video), out of store trial, gaming, travel and tourism services (see Olympic navigator video) and perhaps most important of all, medicine and health care. 

The more the businesses and brands start to understand how to use the AR formula, the more we are going to see its presence in all areas of our lives

Why is it being used?

The million dollar question. The why? In it's early days, AR solved the challenge of delivering a fresh and seemingly break thru experience to consumers. It didn't need to be clever or solve a real problem. The magic was in the newness. But as the tech curve starts to flatten out, that space has shrunk, requiring those committed to using AR to adopt a much more creative and strategic approach. 

Having created several AR projects over the last 2 years, I've always worked very closely in the planning stage with my clients to ensure the solution achieves at least one of the following:

1. solves a problem of complexity for the brand or for the consumer: (see the lego video)

2. solves a problem of scale: (see the Alstom video below)

3. Make the impossible, possible: (the Nat Geo video)

4. Stimulates a point of sale motivation in a way that no other media can (see the the Tissot/Selfridges video)

5. Makes a 2D communication experience 'genuinely' more engaging and impactful (see the Audi example)

Not forgetting of course, that any AR solution should always be built around the central themes of your brand, in 'ALL' its aspects. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a clever AR idea that has little relevance to the brand. We call that the jelly at the party syndrome: it might look nice, but no-one ever touches it.

Here's some examples to help illustrate the 5 drivers:

1) Lego: Genius POS application that answers 1, 4 and 5. 

2)  Alstom: Remains one of the most epic examples of AR, especially it's example of smashing through the scale barrier!



3) The famous National Geo. Some might argue that this is not pure AR, but I disagree. It's magical, enchanting, and certainly makes the impossible, possible.



4) Tissot and the virtual sampling window. Add a whole new layer to out of hours shopping and competitor free trial.



5) Always ahead of the game, VW prove how much 'more' a press ad can become with AR. 



6) Calling all retailers...the potential of this needs no explanation!

7) Clever navigation app for the Olympics. For travel and tourism in general, the possibilities are phenomenal




Part 2 coming soon to address:

1) price vs value
2) creative development and planning tips 
3) The future of AR and why you need to be exploring it now 

To make sure you don't miss the follow up article, why not subscribe to our blog now, at the top right hand corner of the page.

C73 provides complimentary AR consultancy and planning sessions. If you'd like to talk to us and a get a more intimate low down of this technology and how it can be applied to your brand, then we're here to help. Contact us here.

To subscribe to The Stream, the C73 newsletter, and regularly receive free advice, tips  and ideas to keep your brand and digital comm's at the edge of the curve, click here

The Innocent Folly of Positive Thinking

The other night I chanced across a video on Youtube, featuring a very erudite and articulate scientist called Bruce Lipton. Normally one watches this type of content, get's mildly inspired but then quickly forgets the information as they click off down another digital rabbit hole.

But on this occasion, what - or perhaps how - Mr Lipton delivered his spiel, proved very enlightening. So much so that I thought it worth sharing the main points, with the intention of helping people 'get' a very important part of personal and professional self-development. 

The central theme of the good Dr's delivery was Positive Thinking. More specifically, how dangerous -  and a little tragic  - it is that so many people have been swept up by the great PT movement without knowing the full story. Canonised by The Secret and the central tenet to perhaps every form of personal development content, Positive Thinking seems to have defined a large part of the last decade. Yet for many people, myself included, when used as tool to intentionally create/manifest/acquire certain 'things' we want, PT often proves to be the proverbial chocolate fire guard. 

Before I break down Mr Lipton's explanation of this, let me affirm that I'm all for PT, and am in no way mocking it. It's actually common sense that one should spend his days thinking good, positive things. Especially when working towards a goal or intentional acquisition. But the disappointment and frustration arises when we use it in isolation, and expect the skies to rain money (cars, houses, careers etc..) on us. 

So, here's the rub on why positive thinking is not enough to create the things you want in life, and what we can do really make the changes we want 

// 2 minds are not equal to one //

When we're exercising PT, we're using our mind. Modern physics now proves that those thoughts create energy patterns that affect physics and biology: our inner and outer environment. In other words, it is now scientifically proven and accepted that the world inside and outside of us, at an energy level, moulds around the shape and texture of our thoughts and intentions. 

But there are two parts to the human mind. The conscious and the subconscious. And whilst many people consider these one and the same, the fact is they are two very different entities working on two very, very different levels. 

The conscious mind is what we use to think. Discern. Reason. Choose. Create. Analyse etc. It's what makes us Human. Individual. We are directly connected to it, and can control it at will. Some better than others.  Our subconscious mind however, is quite different. Although it belongs to us, we are only connected to it by association, and in fact it can be most accurately described as a tape player.  

// And this is where it gets very significant //

The subconscious essentially records experience, beliefs and patterns and plays them back, on loop, relentlessly. So we have a thinking mind, and a tape player mind, and the difference is very profound. Firstly, the subconscious is a million times more powerful at processing information than the conscious mind. Second, the subconscious is running our biology 95  - 99% of the time. So regardless of how actively we exercise our conscious mind, its the subconscious that's running the show, 95% of the time. And here's the thing; the subconscious is neither good nor bad. It runs on programs. And its these programs that are either good or bad. It's the programs that this machine is running on that are taking away, or indeed giving, us our behaviours, powers and abilities.

So what is the relevance of this to Positive Thinking?

Positive Thinking is a creative process that comes from the conscious mind . But whilst you're creating and visualising all these wonderful thoughts from the mini processor of the conscious mind, you're competing with the super computer and the programs of the subconscious mind. Which is a million times more powerful, and running the show 95 - 99% of the time!! So if your conscious thoughts and intentions are not supported by equivalent programs in the subconscious mind, which one do you think is going to win?

For example: if you want to have that perfect body and have created HD visualisations and powerful thoughts of you in possession of that body, but your subconscious is running on a program or belief system that doesn't support your ability to active that. It simply isn't going to work. You behaviour will quickly support that program and before you know it you're back where you started, staring down at the scales, laughing back at you.

Now here's the thing; to free up our conscious mind so that we are able to be the creative, pioneering race that we are, the subconscious has learned to run the show automatically. And if we aren't paying attention, which we very rarely are, we don't notice it when the subconscious mind is playing back negative, destructive and counter productive programs to what we are consciously trying to create! Ever met someone who behaves exactly like their parent, although vehemently denies it....there you have it.

So what happens when we do the all the conscious work and PT, and don't get what we want? We blame the outside world. We look for reasons and things 'out there' as the cause, because we miss, or have not been paying attention enough to the fact that its the programs 'in here', being played back by the super computer of the subconscious mind that have been causing us to sabotage and keep us from what we want. 

So once we learn to recognise our self-limiting and self-sabotage programs in the subconscious, we can start to stop blaming 'out there' and start doing the work 'in here' to change those programs, and so start changing our lives.

But here comes the next problem...

Many, if not most of us bought the idea that we can talk to our subconscious mind. That like our conscious mind there is someone directly attached to it; able to listen and reason. Which is where, like PT, the limitations of self-affirmations come in. You can no more have a dialogue with your subconscious (using your conscious mind) than you can stand over a stereo and reason with it to stop playing. The more we try, and oh have I tried in the past, the more frustrated you become, the less confident you are, and the less you believe in your ability to change. And so the sabotage loops on, getting stronger with every fail.

The 'aha...'

There is only one way to manipulate the tape player, and purposely begin to realign your subconscious programming with your conscious PT. And that is, quite simply, to engage it in 'record' mode. 

Knowing how to press record is the absolute basic foundations of intentionally changing our lives. Once we've pressed record and started the reprogramming, PT, self-affirmations and all the other creative conscious manifestation tools we have access to start to work in turbo mode. And you will change your life.

So how do we press record? That's coming next. But if you can't wait and want some immediate help with unearthing your negative programmes, and begin the reprogramming process, we'd standing by to help. 

Click here and drop us a mail, and we'll be in touch to discuss how we can help.

For now. Be Well.

The Confluence Notes 1 - 8

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7 marketing sins (by Seth Goden)

Brutally insightful as always; on this occasion delivering wisdom that sits at confluence of how we fail and how we wish to succeed.

 Seven marketing sins

Impatient... great marketing takes time. Doing it wrong ten times costs much more and takes longer than doing it slowly, but right, over the same period of time.

Selfish... we have a choice, and if we sense that this is all about you, not us, our choice will be to go somewhere else.

Self-absorbed... you don't buy from you, others buy from you. They don't care about your business and your troubles nearly as much as you do.

Deceitful... see selfish, above. If you don't tell us the truth, it's probably because you're selfish. How urgent can your needs be that you would sacrifice your future to get something now?

Inconsistent... we're not paying that much attention, but when we do, it helps if you are similar to the voice we heard from last time.

Angry... at us? Why are you angry at us? It's not something we want to be part of, thanks.

Jealous... is someone doing better than you? Of course they are. There's always someone doing better than you. But if you let your jealousy change your products or your attitude or your story, we're going to leave.

Of course, they're not marketing sins, they're human failings.

Humility, empathy, generosity, patience and kindness, combined with the arrogance of the brilliant inventor, are a potent alternative.

Your 'life' is perfect. But this might help with the journey.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

If you could just pick one or two (or seven) habits to create in the next few months — habits that will have the most impact on your life — what would they be?

We often get asked this question, because people are overwhelmed when it comes to starting positive life changes.

They ask us: what one or two habits should they start with?

It’s not an easy question. 

But here's how to Develop the Habits

• Do a 30-day challenge, focusing on just ONE habit.
• Write it out on paper, along with your motivations, obstacles, and strategies for overcoming them.
• Commit fully, in a public way.
• Log your progress.
• Remain publicly accountable — report on your progress each day.
• Have support for when you falter — either in real life or online.
• Reward every little success.
• If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again.

Here's the Seven Little Habits That Can Change Your Life

OK, so now you know how to form a habit — and remember, only do them one at a time — but you want to know the seven little habits. Here they are, in my order of preference (but yours may be different):

1. Develop positive thinking. Its first because its keystone habit. Positive thinking by itself won’t lead to success, but it certainly goes a long way to motivate you to do the other things required.

Focus on this habit first, and you’ll have a much easier time with any of the others. Start by becoming more aware of your negative self-talk — do a little tally sheet throughout the day, marking a tally each time you notice a negative thought. Soon you’ll recognize them, and you can squash them.

Read more:

• Top Motivation Hack: Positive Thinking
• Can You Spot These 10 Thinking Sins

2. Exercise.  How exactly is it life changing? Well:

• It makes you feel better about yourself, and more confident. That leads to better success with other positive changes.
• It reinforces the positive thinking habit — you need to think positive in order to sustain exercise.
• It relieves stress and gives you time to think — this leads to better mental well-being in your life overall.
• It helps with creativity. Don’t ask me to prove it, except to say that my best ideas and brainstorming sessions come from when I exercise.

Here’s how:

• 4 Simple Steps to Start the Exercise Habit
• How to Make Exercise a Daily Habit
• 7 Ways to Build the Exercise Habit

3. Single-tasking. The opposite of multi-tasking. Why is it life-changing? A couple powerful reasons:

• You’ll be more effective with your tasks and get more done. It’s hard to achieve important things if you’re constantly switching tasks and distracted by other “urgent” things.
• You’ll be less stressed overall and (in my experience) happier throughout your day.

Read more:

• How Not To Multi-task: Work Simpler and Saner
• Now Do This and the Single-tasking Philosophy
• The Magical Power of Focus

4. Focus on one goal. Just as focusing on one task at a time is more effective, and focusing on one habit at a time is more effect, so is focusing on one goal at a time. While it might seem very difficult, focusing on one goal at a time is the most powerful way of achieving your goals. When you try to take on many goals at once, you’re spreading thin your focus and energy — the two critical components for achieving a goal.

What if you have 5 goals you want to achieve? Pick one to focus on first. Break it into a mini-goal you can accomplish this month, if it’s a longer-term goal. Pick an action you can do today. Keep doing this until the goal is accomplished — do an action every day, finish the mini-goal, pick the next mini-goal to work on. Then, when your One Goal is completed, focus on the next goal.

Some goals are ongoing ones — like blogging every day, or exercising every day. In those cases, turn them into habits — focus exclusively on turning the goal into a habit, until the habit is ingrained. Then focus on the next goal.

Read more:

• A Simple Guide to Setting and Achieving Your Life Goals

5. Eliminate the non-essential. First, identify the essential — the things in your life that are most important to you, that you love the most. Then eliminate everything else. This simplifies things and leaves you with the space to focus on the essential. This process works with anything — with your life in general, with work projects and tasks, with emails and other communication.

This will change your life because it will help you to simplify, to focus on what’s important, and to build the life you want.

Read more:

• Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks
• Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

6. Kindness. Yes, kindness is a habit. And it can be cultivated. Focus on it every day for a month and you’ll see profound changes in your life. You’ll feel better about yourself as a person. You’ll see people react to you differently and treat you better, over the long run. It’s karma.

How do you develop the kindness habit? First, make it a goal to do something kind for someone each day. At the beginning of the day, figure out what that kind act will be and then do it during the day. Second, each time you interact with someone, try to be kind, be friendly, be compassionate. Third, try to go beyond small kindnesses to larger acts of compassion, volunteering to help those in need and taking the initiative to relieve suffering.

Read more:

• 18 Practical Tips for Living the Golden Rule
• Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer, and Restore Kindness
• A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life
• 25 Ways to Help a Fellow Human Being Today
• The No. 1 Lifehack You can Implement Today to Make the World a Better Place

7. Daily routine. It’s so simple, but creating a daily routine for yourself can make a big difference in your life. The best routines, I’ve found, come at the start and end of the day — both your workday and your day in general. That means, develop a routine for when you awake, for when you first start working, for when you finish your workday, and for the end of your evening.

How will that change your life? It will help you get a great start to your day, and finish your day by preparing for the next day. It’ll help you firmly root the productive habits you want to firm in your everyday life. It’ll help you focus on what’s important, not just what comes up. It’ll help you make sure you get done all the things you really want to make sure gets done everyday. And that can mean a lot.

Read more:

• Tips to Establish a Morning and Evening Routine
• 12 Ideas for Establishing a Calming Routine

This post was originally written by Leo Babauta. I 'borrowed' it to test how responsive people are to simple yet such potentially transformative instructions.

A private treaty | 7 rules for 2012

(thoughts to oneself. In Media One)


1. Clarity precedes everything good, and worth pursuing

2. 'Real' compassion lies in hearing what people mean, not listening to what they say

3. People don't get you for what you do, but rather for why you do it (good or bad)

4. Your understanding of 'culture' is linked to the scale of your potential

5. Gratitude is the most important rite you're born with

6. Do what you have to do in order to do what you want to do

7. To get something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done...

On the system, and why it's wrong (John Steel)

Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory

Read this article. It'll make you better.

http://the99percent.com/tips/7106/The-Four-Paradoxes-of-Great-Performance

Wisdom from Rapaille

Emotions are the keys to learning, the keys to imprinting. The stronger the emotion, the more clearly the experience is learned. Emotions create a series of mental connections that are reinforced by repetition. These mental connections, or highways condition us to see the world in predictable ways. They are the path from our experience of the world, to a useful approach to the world. Safety. Happiness. Well being.

 




  
  

Clotaire Rapaille. The Culture Code. 

Us from up there (very cool)

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

How to keep your juices flowing....

 "It's a wonderful feeling. You're deep in the groove of your work, and everything seems to be going even better than expected. There's a lot on your plate, but you're managing your priorities with elegance and grace, and you're doing some of your best work. In short, you're on fire. Then, just as suddenly, it ends…"

Very smart article by Todd Henry, found of the Accidental Creative . Mines into a problem most of us face - creative or not - on a regular basis.

Are you?

1. Experts tend to operate outside their comfort zone and study themselves failing.

2. Experts will try to walk in the shoes of someone who's more competent than them.

3. Experts crave and thrive on immediate and constant feedback.

4. Experts treat what they do like a science. They collect data, they analyze data, they create theories, and they test them.

New Project

Because everyone likes a picture...

http://diggablesyntax.blogspot.com/

Please share, suggest, collaborate, contribute, co-create etc...everyone has something to say.

Destination Elsewhere | Music to stare at your daughter to...

Destination: Elsewhere by The 99 Percent

Steve Jobs. 1955 - 2011.

“No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

— Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)

A Salute to Mathew Weiner (24.09)

"When a man walks into a room he brings his whole life with him.

He has a billion reasons for being anywhere. 

Just ask him. 


If you'll listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going. And how he woke up. 
If you'll listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel. Or dreamt of being perfect. 
And then he’ll smile with wisdom. Content that he's realized the world isn’t perfect. 


We’re flawed because we want so much more. 
We’re ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had."

Phoenix Rising

Out of nowhere, a decision has been made to begin ‘writing’ again.  I used to write a lot. But it got lost somewhere in the mist of too much thinking. And as is so often the case with the over-thinkers of the world, when there’s more to share, there’s less time to share it.

Actually, I believe everyone should write. Which is strange as I’ve taught myself over the years to abandon all expectations of people. Outside the accepted moral code, that is.  But on reflection I think an expectation of others to keep a narrative of their journey is a healthy one.  Writing about yourself, your life and all that play a part in your Epic, is hugely cathartic. There are no lies or embellishments in conversations with the self. It’s organic, brutal and delicate. Like sieving for gold in the soil of your existence.  And nothing bad can ever come of that.

So let the sieving begin. The highlights of which I will share up here on @Confluence.  A project that until now, I have had neither the courage nor the conviction to use in an honest and authentic way. I’ve jabbed and sparred a little with various directions, but nothing with any notable gravity. Just firing rubber bullets with other peoples’ names etched on the side. Fear of judgement and ridicule? Probably. Inverted vanity? Definitely. But, if I am ever to evolve into the benevolent and inspirational Protagonist I have been striving to become over the past few years, it’s high time one started to practice what one preaches. As the Chinese Proverb bleats: “Distant water can’t put out a fire close at hand”.

So welcome to Phoenix Rising.  I give my journals poignant and descriptive titles. I feel it gives reverence to the occasion, and collapses time should they fall into curious hands in  years to come.

Privately, it represents an important and honest record, of a truly incredible time of my life. Publicly, I hope it serves as a light hearted ‘Live’ exercise in learning how to transform real life experience and observations, into helpful and (occasionally) inspirational clues in the pursuit of your own plenitude. 

Be Well. & Good things.

CB

Desperately Seeking Self-Inspired Salvation?

I must be honest. I cannot recall when or where I read the meat of this post. Or who wrote it. Only that he/she/they inspired me enough to feel the need to pay them forward.


So for all you entrepreneurs out there, and anyone else Desperately Seeking Self-Inspired Salvation, the following 16 questions were written (by someone clearly with their finger pressed firmly on the aorta of life right now) as an alternative to getting clarity and conviction on any new business venture your might cooking up. 

1. Who are you trying to please?
2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?
3. How will the world be different when you've succeeded?
4. Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?
5. Do you want a team? How big? (I know, that's two questions)
6. Would you rather have an open-ended project that's never done, or one where you hit natural end points? (How high is high enough?)
7. Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?
8. Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?
9. If you take someone else's investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?
10. Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?
11. Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask...
12. How long can you wait before it feels as though you're succeeding?
13. Is perfect important? (Do you feel the need to fail privately, not in public?)
14. Do you want your customers to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?
15. How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we're on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)
16. What does busy look like?

Very cool. I for one, have them printed and posted up by my desk. They teach as well as shape. And avoid too much wanton sprinting into visceral and fad charged dead ends.

Be well. & Good things

CB

Selling the new cool. Great Article for a little right brain massaging...