Denny |
February 11, 2014
The massive online marketplace has brought in AR tech for even faster buying abilities.
The iOS version of the Amazon app is now giving customers the opportunity to take advantage of Flow and augmented reality to help shoppers to be able to shop even faster and easier by scanning items in real life so that they will be able to instantly buy them from their own mobile commerce shelves.
This is making mcommerce headlines around the world as it changes the entire nature of shopping.
The idea is that a consumer at home would be able to spot an item that needs to be replaced or replenished and could simply pick up their mobile devices to scan it so that it could be automatically ordered. Undoubtedly, Amazon must also be hoping that consumers will also use this opportunity to order products from them while they are standing in another company’s brick and mortar retail stores.
The company expressed that using this augmented reality experience could make shopping as short as two seconds.
In fact, through the use of this technology, the shopping experience could be even shorter than that, once the consumer is truly familiar with this new version of mobile commerce. The Flow app was first launched in 2011 as a form of augmented reality software, and now its integration with the iOS version of the Amazon mobile app makes it possible for an item to be identified by aiming the smartphone camera at it so that Amazon can then find its replacement in its massive product inventory.
This image recognition function has been upgraded from previous techniques that involved barcode scanning, or searching by entering a product name and conducting a query using a manual search function on the website. If the image recognizer is not capable of identifying the item, the users are still able to fall back on the old fashioned searches or barcode scans. Reportedly, some of the most Flow compatible products are DVDs, CDs, video games, and books.
Once products have been scanned through this augmented reality mobile commerce experience, they are saved into a search history, which will make them even easier to reorder.
A new San Francisco startup is enhancing the way that programming will be experienced by viewers.
A startup called SeeSpace, that is based in San Francisco, is now pursuing a new venture called InAir that would bring television together with web content in a highly unique way that uses augmented reality.
This would provide a virtually seamless and highly informational viewing experience.
This would function by presenting television programming alongside web content related to what was being seen. For example, Through the use of augmented reality, a viewer would be able to enjoy a program that talked about the Mars colony that is being planned for the near future, and could simultaneously access information from the official Mars One human settlement website.
The team behind InAir believes that this augmented reality experience could eliminate the need for second screens.
This method of presenting both kinds of content at the same time could reduce or eliminate the need for a viewer to need to use additional devices such as smartphones, tablets, or laptops in order to obtain information about a show that they are currently viewing. Portable and mobile devices have made this type of multitasking a very popular activity while watching television, and this new technology could help to make it easier and more direct.
SeeSpace is referring to the InAir service as the first augmented television experience because it would be the first one to use the technology in its truest sense. Combining the use of the service with a 3D television would make it possible for the additional content to appear to float in front of the television screen, while the program continues to be displayed as usual. This would give a type of layered experience, where the additional information is shown in front of the regularly playing program.
When combined with Leap Motion, Kinect, or a free Android or iOS app, it would allow the augmented reality content to be manipulated with simple hand gestures from the viewers. Furthermore, InAir will also have a software development kit (SDK) that will give mobile development companies and experts the chance to broaden the capabilities of the service.
