“This looks great on the model, but how will it look on me?”

Simply open the camera on your phone, choose different shades of foundation, lipstick, eye shadow or whatever else, and have a mobile app apply them to your face in real-time on your screen through Augmented Reality technology! Now don’t you think this is an emerging technology that deserves your attention?

Augmented Reality seems similar and is often mistaken with Virtual Reality, however, the aforementioned technologies differ in that the former superimposes virtual objects on physical elements to enhance your current perception of reality, whereas the latter replaces the world around you with a simulated one, letting you experience new, virtual, sometimes even unreal concepts (Krichenbauer et al., 2017).

 

 

The Makeup Genius App introduced by L’Oreal allows you to try out products on your face at no cost before buying them. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? This Virtual Reality application, along with many other mobile apps, makes it easier than ever before to recreate looks and find products that work best for you. While you’re shopping, simply choose or scan a product and try it on then and there within the app.

 

 

Other Augmented Reality makeup applications, such as Modiface, have introduced unlimited makeup styles and options through photo-realistic color rendering, universal shade matching along with countless features including fully customizable designs and glanced-based product recommendations.

In accordance with Stackpole (2016), most enterprise augmented reality applications are being created for marketing purposes, “giving companies a fresh take on consumer campaigns, or more substantially, an opportunity to showcase products in a different way” (p.1). Customers are now able to virtually try on makeup using smart detection to produce the most realistic results. For increased accuracy, existing applications would capture main facial points and expressions and track movements to help turn smartphones into mirrors.

According to Sephora, “the average woman buys the wrong color foundation seven times before she finds the right shade” (Weinswig, 2016), however, using the latest smart technologies, applications would identify and analyze face shapes, skin tones as well as eye, hair and lip colors, and based on the analysis, users would receive product recommendations and makeup application instructions.

Current developments and predictions of Augmented Reality show incredible promise and a bright future in digital marketing; investment in AR has risen substantially from $700 million in 2015 to $1.1 billion in 2016! In accordance with the most recent technology news, a market intelligence company, named ABI research, has estimated that the Augmented Reality niche market would reach a worth of $100 billion by 2020. (ABI Research, 2015)

It is without doubt that Augmented Reality can boost operational efficiency in more ways than one, including:

1. Reduced Time: having access to Augmented Reality can reduce the time to perform rare and complex tasks.
2. Reduced Errors: having available, relevant data and precise instructions results in error reduction; such errors may be caused by lack of experience or uninformed decisions.
3. Reduced Costs: By reducing time and reducing errors as well as increasing resource utilization and compliance, enterprise AR can help companies reduce costs; having more efficient systems would allow the cost savings to exceed the cost of putting enterprise AR into practice. (Azuma et al, 2001)

So what’s in store for the future? People are expecting to see further Augmented Reality practices in healthcare, navigation, games and advertisement. IKEA, for example, has already released a catalogue that lets you place virtual furniture in your home without wasting time, money or energy to visit the store (Stinson, 2013).

IKEA catalog uses augmented reality to give a virtual preview of furniture in a room

                                                                                (source: Stinson, 2013)

Stay tuned for another post about possible risks and some interesting examples on failed Augmented Reality implementation and practices.

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