Augmented Reality?Technology At Its Best or More Cotton Candy For Our Taste Buds?

Augmented Reality?Technology At Its Best or More Cotton Candy For Our Taste Buds? -


Esquire’s December issue screams Augmented Reality Issue, The First Ever. Well, first things first, COLORS magazine had its Augmented Reality issue on the newsstands at least two weeks before Esquire, so what gives with this First Ever business.

However, I am first to give credit where credit is due, and Esquire magazine in the last 12 months has not been afraid of experimenting with innovative ideas and mixing technology and ink on paper, so kudos goes to the folks at Esquire for not being asleep behind the wheel. That aside, both magazines are promising the readers “A living, breathing, moving, talking magazine? For instructions on how to use this thing Downey’s sitting on, see pg. 21 and visit www.esquire.com/ar” as in the case of Esquire, and “This magazine is incomplete… aim this square towards a webcam at www.colorsmagazine.com to find the full content.”

Well, I did. I followed both instructions and recorded my experiment with both magazines using my laptop and my flip camera to record the “the first ever” in what I am sure will be many other first evers. The result was fun, captivating and useless, all three in one… like eating cotton candy…eating all that hot air that will satisfy your taste buds but will leave you hungry rather than satisfied.

Later today, I am speaking at the Brazilian Association of Magazine Editors (ANER) in Sao Paulo and my topic is “Don’t promote the suicide of your print magazine.” Experimenting with Augmented Reality before giving my speech, gave me more ammunition to push even more towards creating a necessary, sufficient and relevant medium… one medium at a time. (More about the ANER conference in an another blog later).

Enjoy the two experiments and let me know what you think? One final word of caution: Focus on the experiment and not my ability to handle a Flip Video camera, a lap top, and two ink on paper magazines all at the same time. By the way, don’t you think it would have been easier on the readers and more helpful to just post those videos on the website and ask readers to go watch them… at least then, there will be nothing between your face and your lap top screen… Go figure.

Enough commentary from me…watch the two two-minute videos and judge for yourself.

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