Author: Julie Campbell

Augmented reality window display enhances the New Museum

| October 13, 2014

The Store now has an interactive feature that was created and designed by artist Claudia Hart.

The store at the New Museum has now installed a new interactive window display that uses augmented reality in order to provide a unique experience created by artist Claudia Hart.

The use of the AR technology based installation gives visitors the chance to interact with the piece.

A press release described the piece as being an augmented reality “installation in the New Museum Store window consisting of a full tea service.” It will continue to be displayed at the store until October 19. Visitors will be able to use smartphones and tablets to be able to interact with the piece, which will then reveal hidden content to them through the Nue Morte and Junaio apps.

The augmented reality feature in the display also provides animated and text based content to the functional tea set.

Augmented Reality view through smartphone The content was greatly inspired by the Alice in Wonderland story, and the added digital content provided by the AR technology helps to bring that feeling to life. Among the various text and animation additions that are viewed by device users are excerpts from the story as well as post modern renderings of various symbols and scenes that appear within the book.

Those viewing the piece through their smartphones and tablets are able to uncover various layers of content that enhance the experience that they see with the naked eye. Digital elements simply pop up as the user looks through the phone to scan the various parts of the work. For instance, the press release explains that “The plates’ inscribed decorative pattern is recognized by the Nue Morte app, and a nude sleeping odalisque figure appears tossing and turning, seeming to lie across one’s meal.”

The installation that has been created by hart using the augmented reality is not entirely dissimilar to the Lady Bug piece created by Jeff Koons. Through that app, a digital sculpture is revealed when viewing the Garage magazine’s most recent issue. These are only the latest in a growing trend of AR technology based creations that bring tech and art together.

Wearable technology will become a new dedicated division at Burberry

| October 10, 2014

A growing number of successful American consumer companies are now looking to wearables for their future.

Some of the biggest and most celebrated businesses in the United States have now added a division of some form that is dedicated to looking into how wearable technology and other trends will affect them.

Burberry has now created its own innovation group that they have called the What If Group.

Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative and CEO at Burberry, stated that this business has assembled the What If Group in order to consider the way that tech and fashion can come together. This includes thoughts about wearable technology, such as if tech could be brought directly into a garment’s fibers or adding chips to a fashion accessory. At the time that this article was written, Bailey had not elaborated much more in terms of the details of their intentions, but a company representative shared a little bit more.

This group that is considering different possibilities for wearable technology has a range of different recruits.

Wearable Technology and Fashion - BurberryThe company rep explained that the members of the group are from all across the company. They assemble once every month in order to discuss areas in which there will be trends in retail, fashion, and technology separately or when brought together. The goal of these meetings is to be able to come up with innovative new ideas that may one day be offered to the company’s customers.

This is not the first time that the company has dabbled with wearable tech. In fact, in 2012, it attached RFID chips to some of its accessories. This way, when shoppers at the Regent Street flagship store of Burberry in London stepped near certain fitting room screens, specific content (such as some information about the materials that were used to create a certain bag, or a video that demonstrates the way in which a skirt was worn on a model that walked a fashion show runway) was displayed.

However, Bailey indicated that the company may now be looking to wearable technology more closely, examining certain devices such as the Opening Ceremony bracelet from Intel, or the “biometric” fabrics from Ralph Lauren.