Not just the stuff of movies, augmented reality is becoming common currency – but can it enhance business travel? Felicity Cousins finds out
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ONE OF THE FIRST SCENES in Terminator 2: Judgement Day is a point-of-view shot through the eyes of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s man-machine. Information about his surroundings appears on the screen, with calculations on the size and shape of objects, vehicles and people in his field of vision. And then the famous line: “I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.” When the film came out in 1991 this technology seemed fanciful, but in fact what we were seeing was an interpretation of augmented reality, which has actually been around for decades. Paul Lewis is CEO of Media Grand, a company which produces augmented reality experiences across all industry sectors. He says: “The first example of augmented reality was back in the 1960s, but in the 1990s the term was coined by Professor Tom Caudell at Boeing, who used it to map wiring on an aircraft. It did take a while to get into public consciousness but the whole mobile tablet market has really done it wonders. Now phones have the ability to process information and determine GPS on a large screen – that’s really the trigger that has made it take off.”
Augmented reality is where the real world and the virtual world meet. Digital information can be layered over real-life views using location or image recognition. The technology works by taking your location from a device such as a
mobile phone, and comparing it with a database of information about that location. For example, if a business traveller arrived in a city and was trying to find his hotel he could hold
Augmented reality is where the real world and the virtual world meet, where digital information can be layered over real-life views
up his phone and use augmented reality to see local information and the direction of his hotel. The technology also works by using image recognition, so if a traveller arrives in London and points his device at Buckingham Palace, information and facts about the royal residence can be accessed. While it may still seem futuristic, the technology is gaining ground in the everyday. Josh Gunn, sales
executive at Statesman Travel Group says: “Augmented reality has wide ranging implications for the whole travel industry – as it does for almost any other industry I can think of.” Take fashion: Wrangler is running a promotional campaign hanging paper tags on its jeans which depict a model wearing its clothes – when you point your augmented reality- enabled device at the label, the model comes to life, giving you a more vivid view of the clothes in action. Take publishing: adverts can come alive to readers and a product can appear right in front of them. Or training: mechanics can see the intricacies of a car engine without opening the bonnet. But can this technology help the traveller and, more importantly, the travel buyer? Carolyn Davies, procurement
manager at Profit Flo, says: “This sounds very exciting, but I am struggling to see why I would be interested in it as a buyer or how a TMC [travel management company] could use it to enhance their services. It wouldn’t make me buy a service from a TMC but it might be a nice extra if they added this layer of information to an app.”