{"id":4582,"date":"2011-05-26T04:58:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T08:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/2011\/05\/05\/"},"modified":"2011-05-26T04:58:15","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T08:58:15","slug":"angel-ambush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=4582","title":{"rendered":"Angel Ambush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At London\u2019s Victoria Station a voluptuous angel fell from the sky and interacted with unsuspecting humans.  Needless to say, it created quite a reaction.  However, the angel in question didn\u2019t actually fall from the sky; she leapt out of someone\u2019s laptop.<\/p>\n<p>In Europe they\u2019re known as Lynx, but to us Americans the brand name of Axe might be more familiar.  It wasn\u2019t too long ago that they launched a new television ad that was, in fact, really quite clever.  Some average Joe sprays some Axe body spray and the next thing you know smokin\u2019 hot angels are falling from the sky and smashing their halos for a chance to be with him.  Like I said, it\u2019s pretty amusing.  Take a look for yourself.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"392\" height=\"244\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EfeVEAZkJqM?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is where a thing called \u201caugmented reality\u201d comes in.  According to the anonymous folks at <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Augmented_reality\"target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia<\/a>, \u201caugmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or an indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound or graphics. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one\u2019s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.<\/p>\n<p>The television series \u2018Firefly\u2019 depicts numerous AR applications, including a real-time medical scanner which allows a doctor to use his hands to manipulate a detailed and labeled projection of a patient&#8217;s brain.  In \u2018Minority Report\u2019, Tom Cruise stands in front of a supercomputer using AR technology, and in the movie \u2018Mission Impossible 2\u2019, Tom Cruise uses Augmented Reality technology via a set of sunglasses he wears to debrief himself of his forthcoming mission, Chimera, after he completes climbing a mountain at the very outset of the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than ever companies are exploring augmented reality for, you guessed it, marketing.  And that is what led to \u201cAngel Ambush\u201d, which featured an angel falling from the sky to interact with people at Victoria Station.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"392\" height=\"244\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rFuUFeQIdpk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>According to an article by Sharif Sakr on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-13262407\"target=\"_blank\">BBC News website<\/a> \u201csome experts have commented that \u2018Angel Ambush\u2019 was not \u2018real\u2019 augmented reality at all because the virtual angel was just a layer of video manipulated by a human operator, rather than an independent 3D object.\u201d  The article goes on to state that Myles Peyton, UK Sales Director of Total Immersion, says \u201cThe true commercial power of augmented reality lies in its ability to let consumers virtually hold and interact with products that are fully and accurately modeled in the virtual world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So perhaps \u201cAngel Ambush\u201d wasn\u2019t \u201ctrue\u201d augmented reality, but it sure looks like a lot of fun.  I do find myself wondering if it will be so fun once it\u2019s everywhere jumping out at me; trying to get me to buy all kinds of crap I don\u2019t need.  Until then, bring on the angels!<\/p>\n<p>Interested in learning more about augmented reality?  The website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howstuffworks.com\/augmented-reality.htm\"target=\"_blank\">How Stuff Works<\/a> has got everything you\u2019d want to know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At London&#8217;s Victoria Station a voluptuous angel fell from the sky and interacted with unsuspecting humans.  Needless to say, it created quite a reaction.  However, the angel in question didn&#8217;t actually fall from the sky; she leapt out of someone\u2019s laptop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,34,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}