#zugara

AR企業ZugaraのCEOによる考察。アナリストは、ARやVR市場を過小評価している？

Matthew Szymczyk氏はZugaraのCEOである。

上: 2014年のDezeenのYouTube動画 “The Future of Augmented Reality”より

ここ数ヶ月、Goldman Sachs、Digi-Capital、ABI Researchの各社が拡張現実（AR）と仮想現実（VR）の市場予測レポートを発表した。予想される将来の市場規模はGoldman Sachsが最も控えめな800億米ドル、Digi-Capitalが最も大きく1200億米ドルである。

私はと言えば、最大の予想をしたDigi-Capitalに近い。このテーマをできる限り客観的に見ると（拡張現実企業のCEOとしてではあるが）、ほとんどのアナリストは拡張現実と仮想現実が実際に影響を及ぼす分野に関して、木を見て森を見ていないと思われる。

私が最も馴染みのあるリテール業界について見てみよう。…

Kinect-powered virtual fitting room dresses up people all over the world

Zugara’s Virtual Dressing Room technology, which gives passersby a way to try on clothes without taking any off, made a big impression at Major League Baseball’s 2015 All-Star Game. Now the Kinect-powered application is popping up around the world — from Central America to the Far East to Red Square. It’s prominent in “60 Minutes in Tomorrow,” an exhibit on augmented reality and virtual reality…

A shared webcam Augmented Reality experience from Zugara is soon to be released. This is exciting, especially the demo of how doctors can interact and consult with one another. Worth watching for inspiration (though the music hurts both me and probably more so the brand).

via creativity-online.com

As I was browsing through the examples of videos on Augmented Reality (http://www.gigantico.net/augmented2/aug_video_index_00.html), one was particularly familiar to me. Zugara's Webcam Social Shopper immediately struck me, as the idea seemed to take inspiration from Cher Horwitz, played by Alicia Silverstone in the 1995, legendary, teen movie Clueless. 

Seventeen years later (already?), a software developer implemented what was then, a ridiculous notion and joke inserted in the film to represent the ridiculousness and excess of Cher and her life as a Beverly Hills princess. Only now, almost anyone with a computer and internet access can easily and inexpensively access a webcam and employ the same virtual dress-up routine as Cher as they shop online with Zugara. 

As Chris Grayson of Gigantico explains, the wow factor of augmented reality used in advertising is a double-edged sword that can attract users as well as lose them in an immediate, non-lasting fad. It is important that augmented reality is used in contexts that actually require them for functional, lasting benefits.

To me, Zugara's webcam social shopper is an example of applying augmented reality in a context that does not require it and has no functional, lasting benefit. Unlike Cher's closet, filled with garments she has, assumably, already tried and used, a shopper cannot accurately test the fit of a garment using a shrinkable and moveable digital image to "try it on". The novelty of such a function, for me, would wear out after a few if not the first try. 

It is an example of how media, in many cases, simply gets in the way of the tactile, lived experience and sensory quality of reality. An example that in itself, demonstrates how we know what is real from what is simply virtual, where tactility and real-world sense wins.