Augmented Reality from Home Depot
Dec 27th, 2009 | By Gene A. Wright | Category: Feature, Information Technology, InnovationThank you Wendy
Home Depot 3D Interactive Gift Card VIDEO Be patient it takes time
Home Depot gets into Augmented Reality with its Gift Card.
Think it will sell more gift cards?
I saw these also. Great to see some early adapters. They took the concept and use the visuals so that you can select the items you are interested in purchasing and put it in the basket. Not just a cute idea but also making it easier to push profitable items they want to move into your possible shopping cart. Great business idea.
As a technical geek (computer science undergraduate, IT professional, open source coder, etc), I do find the technological aspects of augmented reality (as described here) interesting, but I haven’t seen any major applications of the concepts that have been value added. I have to admit, I don’t really understand the appeal of augmented reality. I certainly don’t dismiss it as being useless simply because I don’t understand it though, mind you.
This is a step closer than some other things I have seen however. I am guessing the primary appeal is fun, and I just do not see the fun in it. For me, to find augmented reality worthwhile, I would need to see something where it really provides added benefit that I couldn’t more easily get some other way. Maybe I am just no fun.
I’ve seen expanded definitions of augmented reality that utilizes things to give value add. One example is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8193951.stm
I could also see it used in education, to make learning more interesting for students.
I like the idea, but I actually wonder how much sense it makes for Home Depot. At least when I shop at Home Depot, I have a project in mind. Therefore, I don’t want a random product recommendation or even a recommendation based on recent past purchases. I want to know what I need to solve today’s problem.
In my mind, this sort of concept with suggestions makes more sense in the area of fashion. Perhaps a JCrew gift card could offer suggestions from their new summer catalog. Or maybe Best Buy could ask if you want some games to go with that new Wii you just bought. In those cases, there would be past information that would be predictive of my future purchase much more so than in the case of Home Depot, in my opinion.
The link above currently does not work, I wonder if they still offer the program? Here is a YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQebYB3Trh8
I think this application of augmented reality works better then the one used by Esquire. I like the HD has associated the technology with a service like a project, so you can envision what you are going to spend that money on. I have to admit if I recieved on of them it would probably cause me to purchase more then what the gift card has on it. I guess thats the plan.
Here is a link to Topps Augmented Reality Baseball Cards, pretty cool. I had to by a pack just to play with it. It takes it to the next level by introducing games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7jm-AsY0lU