I’ve been using Facebook’s Spark AR Studio to create AR filters for their social media platforms for almost a year now. Although it’s fun to create experiences that activate to facial expressions or connected to the user’s face, I believe there’s more to it.
I’m convinced that the goal of Facebook is to push creators to this direction in the long run as well. The yearly SparkAR hackathon is usually about creating world filters making rookie and veteran creators think outside the box (face) and explore more about augmenting our world. This is an exploration for both Facebook and the creators since AR is still taking baby steps towards the real consumer market. Tech companies create tools, creators realise experiences and give feedback to these companies who implement new tools based on their feedback. Symbiotic.
But let’s get back to world filters and tell a bit about my approach here. At this stage, I feel that SparkAR is more like a great prototyping tool for these kinds of experiences. It has limited functions — I personally can’t wait for the networking module — and obviously it’s limited to use only via Facebook or Instagram app on your phone. But it’s still useful to create those prototypes and imagine how consumers could use AR software on their smartglasses quite soon.
I have recently created a couple of experiences imagining the future with AR in everyday life.
Metro AR is a vision where you get the Budapest metro map by aiming your phone camera to any Metro logo. It also shows how the trains move on each line, but not in real-time at the moment.
Another experience was for a Budapest-based car-sharing service. My approach here is — when activating the experience on any of their cars — to visualize data like the current car’s position on a 3d map, live nearby traffic, driving range, and cost of the car per minute. Again, these are demo data for showcase only.
I’m constantly exploring how AR could exist and help with our daily life so if you liked this article, please follow me or visit my personal or business website.
