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AR and 3D apps from the shoe fashion industry

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Mobile and tablet applications are getting more and more relevance in the past few years. If we look around the market, several apps were developed for almost everything, so it is not surprising, that fashion industry also tries to follow the trends.

People are having their mobile phones and tablets with themselves all day long and they would like to have apps for almost everything they are interested in – and their favorite brands deeply belong to this category. Fashion apps are good for following the latest trends and newest offers of our most beloved stores, and online shopping is also a usual feature nowadays.

Shopping clothes or shoes is hard without trying them on, and that is why the most interesting parts of fashion applications are related to two different directions; how can we see the products on our device and how can we customize the items for ourselves.

Let’s see some apps about shoes!

We can find several examples to applications that present the actual offer of a store, and sometimes contains an integrated online shopping function. Read more →

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AR in the Architecture and Real Estate sector

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Augmented Reality (AR) based smartphone and tablet applications are perfect to present customers real estate projects – building designs, exteriors, interiors, surroundings  - in a unique, 3 dimensional, immersive way impossible with other technologies.

Regular solutions always have some flaw – for a non-professional, 2 dimensional  images are hard to convert into 3d; rendered flyover videos, without interactivity, are just movies, not too close to the viewer; mock ups are too expensive, exist only one scale ratio and hard to move.
Non of these problems arise, if the building is presented on a tablet, with Augmented Reality or 360 technology – and the result is a lot stronger experience.

Read more →

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A Smart Day in the Smart City from 2015

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His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced last week the launch of the Smart City initiative focusing on 6 different areas – Life, Transportation, Society, Economy, Governance and Environment. On the announcement event an Augmented Reality (AR) application was used which indicates that AR technology will enter the highest circles of Dubai – and we’re ready to be part of it.

At ARworks we’re convinced that this initiative will turn the daily life of UAE into a fully mobile, connected experience. We’d like to be a part of this digital transformation since our Visually Impressive Technologies (VITs) like Augmented Reality, 360 panoramic photo and video and Kinect based virtual reality could make the otherwise not so spectacular content of mobile applications into a real visual experience – like we did for the Dubai Customs Office on the Gitex, 2013. Apart from this the strong front end app-back end server know-how will help us to built robust, fast data storing and data representation systems – like we’re doing for a government legal institution at the moment.
As a result of the initiative, visitors of the 2020 World Expo will feel that they are really entering a Smart City – the city of the future.
To show, how we think a smart day in the world’s first Smart City, Dubai, will look like already in the near future, we’ve prepared an imaginary diary entry – or a Facebook post – of a day in Dubai. Let’s see the experience:

11, March 2015
7:30 I’m waking up, checking the weather on the live 360 panoramic camera feed from the Burj Khalifa in my bed – sunny day ☺. Preparing kids for school, then leaving the house. On the go my app tells my road toll balance as we’re passing by the toll gate – and congratulates for not overspeeding for 3 months.. Arriving to school, dropping of the family – then booking on my phone the parking spot for today at the office.
8:30 Arriving at work. First scrolling through the new pitch/purchasing announcements from the Ministry of Infrastructure on my iPad – we will actually apply for one of them then approving our numbers for the last month to be automatically send to the authorities. My first meeting is about a real estate project – I’ve just updated the full 3 dimensional model of the new buildings so I can present it to my clients on our interactive 3D projection map. Besides the living 3d model of the new Free Port Zone, I’ll show them how the development is going on with a 360 panoramic video – the video was recorded by the automatic system on site yesterday. They are satisfied with the progress, so I’m happy to leave for lunch. Read more →

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10 Tips for marketers on how to use Augmented Reality smartphone apps

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Using Smartphones as a channel of advertising is the next big thing – companies, agencies are desperately trying to find the best ways to do it and reach the billions of users throughout their device. One of the solution – at least for the visual representation – is Augmented Reality and the other Visually Rich Technics (VRT-s) – like 360 panoramic video, photo and full interactive 3D content. Based on ARworks’ 4 years of developing campaign/event apps for brands, we’ve collected the 10 most important hints to consider when making an app. (Most of the tips are not strictly connected to AR apps – they should be followed, when preparing any kind of apps)

1. Make the user download – Exclusive content
The trickiest part is how to make your target group download the app – not the game/smartphone geeks, but the average customer. Build exclusive content into the app, which is not available anywhere else – a special offer, a limited series product, a unique song of your sponsored band, anything. This may not be the reason of the user to launch the app every day – but this will be the reason why they download it.

2. Make real users from the downloaders – Functional content

Don’t think that your product catalogue and shop location will be of interest to anybody – except of course those who have already bought or have decided to buy your product. Push the agency/your creatives/yourself to find product related app content, which makes daily use natural. If the product is a car, an app which calculate your car related costs based on consumption or give a kid a game while driving (like Toyota did) or records your daily jogging (like Adidas and Nike did) will do the work. So your customers not just download but use your app regularly as well.

3. Make them know about the app – Communication

Don’t forget to allocate time and money to tell your customers about the app. Use on-line solutions – because just clicking on the banner/link and ending up in the App Store/Google play is the easiest way for the user to download it. Or put your adds into other apps. Read more →

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5 tips on Augmented Reality Apps

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Besides our 10 ten tips of general smartphone app development, there are certain specific rules to consider when the augmented reality or other Rich Visual Technics are used in your app. So lets check the 5 tips by Arworks on Augmented Reality apps.

1. Make it less – Keep it simple

Don’t try to put several different AR content in the app – choose one core idea, and built the app around it.

2. Don’t use AR just because you can
The biggest problem is that companies often use AR in their apps, without making sure that it actually gives value or makes sense. Don’t put your TV spot clip on a product or on a print ad – just because AR can do it. Play it full screen from a youtube link triggered may be with a Qr code – so users don’t have to download the app. But making a video, where the image on the ad comes to life – like the man on the image starts to talk: that could be a cool AR app. Read more →

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Augmented Reality Developers – Turning Fun Fantasy Into “Real” Life

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Some people may complain about how tech-centred this generation has become. It’s nearly impossible to find young people who aren’t “hooked” to their smart phones and media playing devices or tablet PCs, surfing the net, listening to music, watching videos and playing games. However, today’s techies claim that, with technology, they have better amusement and make smarter use of their time — it certainly beats staring into space, musing lazily about nothing in particular. Read more →