Augmented reality companies

There are various companies based in the UK and abroad who are working in the field of augmented reality. They either offer augmented reality as one of several products or are solely focused on this form of technology.

These companies have developed a range of augmented reality products which are aimed at various sectors such as advertising, education, entertainment and healthcare.

Examples of these companies include:

• Total Immersion
• Augment Reality
• Metaio
• GeoVector
• Inglobe Technologies
• AR Consortium

These companies and others like them specialise in augmented reality products for mobile, web and desktop applications. But mobile technologies seem to be a major area of interest particularly with future developments such as location based services, GPRS and facial recognition.

Retail is another area where augmented reality is used as part of a marketing campaign. The idea is that customers learn more about a particular product by exploring it via the virtual world which increases their engagement and purchasing power.

If the focus is on improving the customer experience then augmented reality is one way of doing so.

This forms part of user experience or ‘UX’ for short which has become an important issue for many. There is recognition of the part customers’ emotions play during interaction which enhances (or detracts) from their experience. Augmented reality can contribute to that by being utilised to improve the customer experience.