Welcome to the next dimension of our 2025 demonstration sampler. The AR connection.
To follow this digital rabbit, you require a smartphone (not a tablet). Scan or click the above QR code.
A little different to the physical changes we offer in our Post Production Studio and certainly less invasive to your products, we open your product to the world of Augmented Reality. If you are querying what this means, you may be surprised to know that you will likely have already experienced such devises through entertaining applications on smartphones where googly eyes or, perhaps Disney character features are added to your face. These software applications consist of a simple scenario where the software recognises something visual and then places an object or effect in a certain placement according to what it is seeing. The software can then track the object, allowing the user to move around it.
Our application boasts five different triggers and responses in the AR browser application. Each of these have been selected to trigger the imaginations of our potential partners and we invite your minds to wonder about uses you may have for this technology.
Note before starting – the sound is independently controlled when you activate a trigger and you will have to tap either the video speaker icon on either the video or the top right hand corner menu to join the audio feed. Each trigger’s default is always set to “mute” as a matter of politeness. See item three for the additional controls available.
First port of call is our mailer itself, where you find an equally sized video graphic on loop that replace the rear image. This video sits on the same plane as the box, meaning that it realises on the flat card in the same orientation as the graphic. As well as this type of digital illustration, it demonstrates that any constant visual can be a trigger, however plain, in any colour contrast.
Next up is another video, this one in video as opposed to graphic animation. The trigger is the graphics on our Polyethylene Sleeve which will trigger either whilst on the product or off, provided the background has some contrast.
This video is set up to be angled towards the viewer, rising upwards and tilting backwards from the graphic plane, as though it has risen from the physical object itself and makes for more comfortable viewing when the trigger is horizontal.
The footage is a short loop of the launch of the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery STS-121. You can find several videos sourced from NASA’s archives and enthusiasts around the world. If you are interested, this is the full length version.
Our third aspect of wizardry is our first 3D model in the AR application and is triggered by our Spaceman on the rear cover. Considering the heat activated colour change reveals the face of our astronaut, we thought we would use the application to present a full model to you.
With accompanying sounds effects, this model was made by a third party associate featured on Cults3D and was an inspirational file in some of our sampler’s later design stages.
This being the first 3D model in the sample opens the abilities of the control panel in the top right-hand corner of the AR application screen to meaningful interaction. The function can be used with the video players but is not necessary. For the 3D models however, these controls allow the viewer to unlock rotations of the models. For AR applications this is a great feature because, although we all think it’s amazing to move the device around the object, the image tracking can often lose sight of the trigger. This access to rotation gives you, the viewer, full control to look around the models without losing the framed trigger.
As if our 3D Astronaut Zombie wasn’t enough, we wanted to show animation and we wanted to produce it relevant to the sampler’s printed components. To clue viewers into the timeline of the sampler, we started work on the AR as the record player Obi Strip was designed and we still had a blank inside. So, as we scratched our heads and rubbed our chins, we took a night off. A few hours of late night of channel hopping landed on a dinosaurs vs aliens b-movie which cued up the idea of the anaglyph 3D movie poster design as an introduction into the AR application. Blast from the past with a contrast to the current and future cultures was irresistible.
Naturally we rustled up a T-rex and had it being chased by a UFO so as to realise the full b-movie inspiration, sourced again from our friends at Cults3D. We settled on fixed point motion graphic instead of movement through the frame meaning that the two models are animated in a fixed position as opposed to physically moving around to keep programming and viewing simple.
The pair utilise the same access control, so you can get a good look around the models, turn them upside down, round and round again before attempting to right them again. To reset, focus on a different trigger, then come back to the troublesome pair.
… And finally, you can find our treasure. Our pirate themed hints resolve in the record itself and whilst the printed draw riddle sends you to the video demonstration of our Sampler to suggest the gold is the some of what you hold, the AR reveals that there is actual gold in the centre of the record, showing a fully adorned treasure chest accompanied by the environmental sounds of a pirate life,
The trigger for this render is the entire records A side, not just the label. We did spend some time trying to programme a moving trigger so that the chest appeared when the record was playing, but it has not resulted reliably enough yet…We are still aspiring to it.
Of course, this is one of the advantages to the AR aspect of a product. A new dimension can be added to the product long after purchase. Imagine if you will; the 10th or even 20th anniversary of a product being accompanied by a new virtual release triggered by the products sold at the original launch! Nothing like planning ahead.
More information?
AR applications have been around for some time now and are a very enjoyable experience without impact on any third parties or environments. At ALBOM45, we have often had a couple of hours distracted by utilising the technology for simple childish humour, but more importantly, and on a more serious note we feel the technology is widely underutilised by most products. A simple QR code, leading to an AR app can literally add new dimensions to a product in thousands of different ways.
There are two common ways to provide a user with AR on their smart device and there is lots of decision-making during development. The key points are the same as any other product in that the demographic is key to releasing the technology in the correct fashion.
The most obvious way to present AR is an App, available through either Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Most technology users will have access to at least one of these but as there are two different platforms, simple questions are raised: Does that mean we need to make two different Apps? Does that mean it costs twice as much? Twice as much to update? Sure… a lot of that now sounds daunting and, at least the update part is true. The good news is we only develop one application, but the tail end of compatibility, hosting the applications in the stores and monitoring functionality through updates is twice as much, so there are additional expenses. Sure, you can publish one or the other, but then you are cutting our huge parts of the market.
You will notice that we have not asked you to download an App from Google or Apple, but simply request that you follow the link above, or scan the QR code if you happen to be holding multiple devices and allow your smart phones browser to open the link granting permission to use your camera. This will invite you to start the web-based AR programme that is in no way phone brand or software biased, dismissing the need to guess a user’s platform. For our demonstration this was the simplest way to ensure as many people as possible could use our application.
There are naturally pros and cons to either method and the speed of technology means that you must continue to periodically ensure that all digital assets are current and working appropriately. If you would like to know more about the possibility of AR in your products or projects, then please get in touch.