The last time I talked about Augmented reality I spoke about how information could be superimposed on real world places. So you could see a virtual sign post that gave you directions to the nearest metro in Paris or so on. I recently came across how marketers are using augmented reality to allow users to virtually touch and feel products right from the convenience of their desktop. Though it definitely is a gimmick, it is fun nonetheless.
Still I am sure it cannot replace actually going to a store and handling a product. The example that I came across was for the Olympus Pen camera and I also came across something for Mini Cooper. How it works is you get a marker that is downloadable or available as promotional material. You hold it up to your webcam and presto, instead of a marker you see a virtual 3 D model, which you can interact with. Size doesn’t matter which is evident with the Mini Cooper which provides you a scale model of the car to have a close look at.
