Augmented Reality: Best Practices and Practical Applications

1. MAKING MAGIC:
BEST PRACTICES
JOSH ECKERT

2. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
WALT DISNEY
R. MILLER &
S. SPIELBERG
Walt’s favorite magic-making tactics were:
1. FAMILIAR FUTURE - Conjure an idyllic, utopian city
with extravagant landscaping next to curvy buildings.
2. WRONG SCALE - Reduce the scale of a your
environment to make you feel like a giant.
Rand Miller stumbled onto
a runaway success, Myst, when he gave his imagined world a
JULES VERNE STYLE. Spielberg too fell onto unexpected
success in E.T. for many reasons, one of which was the
visual power of a Jules Vernian style (which he mined
for inspiration again for War of the Worlds).

3. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
WRONG SCALE
Walt’s preferred balance of familiar and disorienting.
Walt played with miniature villiages, but also with scale
reduced only slightly. Something feels odd,
but you don’t know why.

4. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
JULES VERNEAN STYLE
Spielburg calls the style timeless and accessible for all ages.
A variation is Disney’s “Tomorrowland” style. Both styles favor
radial symmetry, warmly glowing spheres,
and softly curved forms.

5. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
Disorienting
Wrong Gravity
Zero-G
Indoor/Outdoor Confusion
Psychodelic Dreamscape
Familiar
Disorienting
Familiar
Disorienting
Familiar
Disorienting
Familiar
ALTERED STATES:
the sweet spot

6. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
INDOOR/OUTDOOR CONFUSION
Blurring the line between Indoor and Outdoor messes
with your mind. It feels familiar, disorienting, and thrilling
all at once. It’s the childlike joy of discovery, and the
peculiarity of this juxtaposition overwhelms you,
whether you’re alone or in a crowd.

7. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
WRONG GRAVITY
Another marriage of familiar and disorienting. While
everyone has been desensitized to the illusion of Zero-G, an
altered gravitational pull--one that pulls all objects due east or
to the ceiling--will rattle you, but in a good way. See a familiar
space from an uncomfortable viewpoint.

8. MAKING MAGIC:
USES FOR AR

9. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
Altered States
CONNECT TO
UNIVERSAL DESIRES
Virtually every culture has a
method of inducing them. Whether
by drugs, alcohol or by watching
arthouse films.
Do as the people
you admire do
Leverage advantage
over immediate peers
Grow your circle
Feel attractive, clever

10. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
Advantage Over Peers
In the real world...By age 8, kids define themselves by
whichever advantage they believe
they have over peers.
I always have
the coolest gear
before anyone
else gets it
I get to hang out
with older kids
I’m above
try-hard
postering like
the popular kids
I entertain any
group I’m in;
people think
I’m funny
People trust me;
I know that
honest men
finish first
I’m popular because
I get good grades
but I seem not
to try hard
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON’s
hero becomes the first dragon
whisperer. Everyone loves him for it.
Hero in MEET THE ROBINSONS is
beloved by all for his inventions.
PETER PARKER, science geek, goes
from zero to hero and gets the girl.
Hero’s Journey Plotline:
A disadvantaged kid finds and asserts
an advantage over peers, thus
winning social cred.

11. INSPIRATION: Tomorrowland (movie)
What Hogwarts is to magic,
Tomorrowland is to science: They are
both easy to find if you are a wizard
and very difficult to find if you’re a
Muggle.
[The hero] has seen NASA withering
from her own backyard as the shuttle
program is mothballed, exploration
ceases, and the launchpads are taken
apart. It’s closed for business. There
are no launches anymore. But she
still holds a candle, she still believes
in this amazing future, that things
can be better...
She finds Tomorrowland: She is a
Muggle who accidentally wanders
across Platform 9 ¾ and sees
something she shouldn’t have.

12. ©2015 Joshua Eckert
Follow the Leader
In the real world...Kids (age 5-6 and up) want to do
what the older, cooler kids they
admire are doing.
“Is this the kind of
content big kids
would probably
think is cool?”
Sarcasm, puns,
clever wordplay
signal content
for older kids
Nickelodeon/MTV’s
bizarre style repels
young kids and thus
attracts big kids
Marvel’s darker
content signals
to boys that it’s
a big kids’ brand
To feel older, kids 5+ distance
themselves aggressively from what
they perceive to be childish. We face
a minefield of stimuli we must avoid,
lest older kids brand us as too young.
Power Rangers fails the big-kid
test, but a Spiderman movie passes.
based on insights by Seth Godin; research by Danieil Acuff

13. USER PROBLEMS:
1.
Users struggle with
wayfinding on wilderness
trails.
They currently solve this
problem with GPS readers
(rare) or with topo-maps
(common),
2.
Aunt Meg brings her nephews
and neices to Prospect Park
and wants to keep track of
everyone.
She currently solves this
problem by calling the phone
of whomever is out of sight.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
Wayfinding with AR means
you plant a virtual beacon to
indicate where everyone
should meet at 4pm. Also, you
follow a virtual trail (as
pictured at right).
Compatible with iWatch for a
less intrusive experience.
>>
A wayfinding CMS
lets you chart or
manipulate a path.
©2015 Joshua Eckert

14. CORPORATE PROBLEM:
Jimmy Johns is scrambling to
find ways to draw new
customers into the store.
They currently solve this
problem with discounts and
traditional advertising.
USER PROBLEM:
Customers, esp kids, want to
broadcast to their friends that
they’re out and about and
enjoying rich social lives.
They currently solve this
problem with Foursquare,
Twitter, and tagged FB photos.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
A game where you plant a
ghost inside any participating
store, like JJ. You issue a FB
challenge to your friends: catch
your ghost to win points. They’ll
use points to upgrade their
ghost-hunting gear.
You enjoy taking charge and
facilitating a game among your
friends, and JJ likes that you’re
sending friends into their store.
Catching a ghost
isn’t easy. If he sees
you, you’ve lost.
Have a friend
distract him while
you attempt your
capture from behind.
>>
Plant a ghost in any
participating store.

15. CORPORATE PROBLEM:
15 thousand people will
attend the July 4th firework
show at Butler County
Fairgrounds. REI wants to
advertise or sell to these
attendees, but opportunities
to do so are limited.
USER PROBLEM:
The 15 thousand attendees
don’t have much to do as they
wait for dusk. They’re packed
together tightly and must
occupy themselves for hours.
They currently fill this down
time by chatting with
strangers, playing euchre, or
fiddling with their
smartphones.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
REI designs an interactive
racing game (pictured at
right). On another channel,
Sony has a massive
multiplayer tower defense
“pickup” game, and attendees
can join or leave the game at
their leisure.
>>
By downloading one
app, users can surf
limitless AR game
channels like this one
sponsored by REI.
©2015 Joshua Eckert