Augmented Reality App Replaces Ads with Art
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The anti-advertising group Public Ad Campaign has come up with a new app project that will use your iPhone or iPad to replace ads in public spaces, such as the massive array of ads seen in Times Square.
When you open the app on your iDevice, the camera will be used as a live view of your surroundings. Pointing your iPad or iPhone at a billboard or ad display will cause the app to replace the ad content with art created for the app, in real time.
These dynamic ad-replacing art displays will allow users to completely ignore the existence of the ads while still viewing their surroundings through the camera on the iDevice. While it’s not practical to view everything through the lens of a camera, this Augmented Reality app is a reminder of what cities and urban areas could look like if advertisements were replaced with more enriching content.
Augmented Reality has been used to modify public advertisements, but the technology is usually used by advertising companies to make ads even more pervasive. Take, for example, the Super 8 ads from Aurasma, which were released earlier this year. The app turned Super 8 advertisements into video clips that could be watched on the iPhone. It’s much nicer to see this technology display work from street artists than enhanced advertisements.
Currently the ad-replacing app is still in beta, and is designed to identify ads in Times Square in New York City, so you may not be able to test it out for awhile. You can, however, check out the video below to see it in action.
According to the Public Ad Campaign, the Augmented Reality technology used in this app will be used to create several more projects geared towards public use.
[via Public Ad Campaign]
