Réalité Augmentée: japon

There’s just something about augmented reality that makes me want to report on it every time I see a new development.
This next step in augmented reality is a unique development from Toppan Printing Co Ltd for vending machines. It is being used in three Japanese supermarkets, and it requires the consumer to have a specific QR code in order to receive a free sample.
I’m sure that you have seen QR codes on other augmented reality apps such as the cover of Esquire’s December issue, for example. The customer can print out the Toppan QR codes from home, or can put it on a screen of their mobile device. From there, they can show it to the Toppan brand vending machine, and they will receive a free product sample. Find out after the jump what happens from there.
Yes, the augmented reality fun doesn’t stop there as the consumer can hold up the actual product to the augmented reality-fitted camera and get a really cool effect. I’m not certain what kind of effect is seen, but you might want to check out this new Coke Zero ad campaign to give you an idea of what’s up.
Toppan seems to be on to something good, all right. I suppose that it is too much to ask for this augmented reality to go worldwide.

Source : coolest-gadgets.com

Augmented reality (AR) technologies, which superimpose information from computers on real fields of view in real time, began to be actually used on streets in Japan.
For example, they are now being used for improving item description on digital signage, providing new features to show windows and helping shoppers find stores.

Item description

One of the Japanese companies that promptly employed AR technologies is Toppan Printing Co Ltd. It began testing a terminal that looks like a vending machine and features AR functions and functions to showcase products at three Ito-Yokado supermarkets in October 2009.
For example, consumers can use their mobile phones to read the QR codes that are printed together with sample product information on e

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lectronics fliers available on Toppan's Website. After completing member registration on the Website, they receive a QR code. When they show the QR code to the camera equipped on one of the terminals, they can get a sample product.
Furthermore, when the package of a sample product is shown to the terminal's camera, the display on the terminal superimposes the description of the product on a real image.

Show windows

Sony Music Communications Inc (SMC) and Sky&Road Co Ltd are providing the "interactive show-window display using AR technologies" for offering shoppers new experience. When a person stands in front of the display, it superimposes a virtual image around the person in the real image by using face recognition technology.
"We are offering an experience like being drawn into a wonderland," the companies said.
The display was developed by using the AR development kit of Total Immersion, a France-based software solutions provider.
The display is exhibited in the show window and children's clothing department at an Isetan department store in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, from December 2 to 25, 2009.

Virtual fitting room

Furutanisangyou Co Ltd will test its "Magical Mirror" to let shoppers try on outfits and help them find stores in an underground mall in Okasa, Japan.
The Magical Mirror has a full-HD LCD display equipped with several cameras and superimposes the images of clothes on an image of a shopper standing in front of the display. It also has a function to measure the physical constitution of a shopper and process the images of clothes so that they fit the body.
The clothes are actually being sold at stores in the underground mall. And the display can show the availability of the clothes in appropriate sizes.
It is possible to try on up to six items, such as inner clothes, pants/skirts, shirts, dresses, sweaters and coats, at the same time even when they are being sold at different stores. Then, shoppers can go to a store and purchase the items they tried on.
"It eliminates the need for going to many stores and enables to try a combination of clothes that are being sold at different stores," Furutanisangyou said.
However, the Magical Mirror does not use AR technologies in a precise sense. It takes an image of a person standing in front of the display and, then, superimposes the images of clothes on it. So, it is not done in real time.
Still, the company plans to increase the number of items wearable at the same time to nine in October 2010 and enable to show images taken from the sides and behind a person in or after October 2011.
The Fraunhofer Institute of Germany demonstrated such virtual fitting technologies at CEATEC JAPAN 2009, a trade show that took place in October 2009 in Tokyo, under the name of "Virtual Mirror."