When my team started working on location-based Augmented Reality experiences a couple of years ago, I caught myself on the idea that there is so much content available on the Internet and yet, we often can’t find what we’re looking for. Sometimes we don’t even know what to search to get the desired results.
Google is great. Huge respect to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for making our life easier and changing the Internet forever. However, how many times have you had a problem finding the information you need?
We know how hot the topic is. Businesses and marketers are working day and night to optimize their content for search engines. They’re trying to fight with algorithms to bring their web page on the first page of Google. They are using White Hat and Black Hat SEO techniques, hacking the system like you would in Matrix.
I realize this when I want to have another search option, where the content is already available on-demand without the need of asking anything.
Nowadays, our smartphones know why we are where we are and what our purpose of being there is.
My company and I started to think about how to augment our physical world with data that is already there on the Internet. For instance, I visit some cultural heritage place in Armenia and open the ARLOOPA app, which already has curated content there on the Map. I can check the titles and open the most appealing one.
I then see interactive content in the form of videos, photos, 3D models, AR audio stories, etc., related to that specific place.
And we can start to imagine what content should there be READY (without even asking) and available for us.
Another example is when we are in a specific place and the most demanded content related to that particular place already exists. Someone someday did a good job and created a video, audio podcast or wrote an article.
That content already exists but chances that you’d ask the right question to Google to bring it up quickly is really small. That content might not have a proper title to show up in the search results, or another article promoted by some business might come to the first page with information that is not very relevant to the place but is relevant to the business’ goals.
Hence, I believe it’s time to attach digital content to physical locations. Because the first question to answer is why we are at that location and what the purpose of our visit is. The rest technology will solve by overlaying digital content around to pick and consume.
If you’re looking to rent or buy property, interactive pop up can be shown on the building when you’re near.
If you’re hungry, best choices will pop up around restaurants with their daily offers.
If you’re looking for the historical view of a particular part of the city, pop up pictures and videos will show it right on your smartphone screen today and in your AR glasses in the coming years.
For this reason, we’re building ARLOOPA Studio that allows users to create digital layers everywhere in the world, adding content that should be ready for consumers without searching for it.
Let me bring up a recent story. A few days ago, it was the birthday of one of the most talented Armenians, Aram Khachaturian. Khachaturian is a world-renown composer whose musical notes have been included in UNESCO’s cultural heritage database.
When you’re in front of his statue in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, you are most probably interested to know more about him and, of course, to listen to his music.
With ARLOOPA’s logic, you can get your smartphone out of your pocket and unlock the hidden content in real-time. You can listen to the composer’s music, which is picked by professionals and is not just randomly searched on YouTube.
The range of ideas are endless, limited only to our imagination. One thing is for sure - AR search is the future of search and it’ll be developed in a variety of mediums sooner than we could have imagined.
Author: Arman Atoyan, ARLOOPA
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