In the past decade, augmented reality has soared in its capabilities and widespread use. Its applications include everything from military use and urban planning to video games and Snapchat. But what exactly is it?
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What is Augmented Reality and how does it work?

Augmented reality is the modification of the real world by the addition of artificial sensory stimuli. These artificial stimuli include visual, auditory, and even haptic sensual modifications. These are superimposed into the physical world to modify the user’s experience.

AR utilized advanced technologies to gather information about the real-time world and make it interactive and digitally manipulatable. These technologies include the addition of computer vision, object recognition, and AR cameras, among many others.

QR codes offer a great way to incorporate AR elements into a given area. By scanning a code using their smartphones, users can access, view, and interact with augmented parts of their environment. Flowcode offers a renowned offline-to-online service, supplying high-efficiency QR codes to help businesses take their users from the real world to a digital space where they can interact better with their brand, product, and services.
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What's the difference between VR and AR?

Augmented reality is often confused with virtual reality. So, how do these two concepts differ from each other?

As we’ve explained above, AR combines both real-life and virtual components to create a combined reality. In AR, the real world is still part of the new reality. In VR, it isn’t. Virtual reality is entirely virtual.

There are also differences in how the two technologies are accessed. AR can be accessed through devices such as smartphones while VR almost always requires a headset. AR users have full control of themselves in the real world, but VR users' experiences are controlled by the VR system.
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Five unique ways AR is being used

Now that you understand what AR is, here are some of its applications in the real world.
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1. Augmented reality in real estate

Augmented reality uses advanced visualization technology to replicate the real world, allowing us to not only engage with spaces from afar but also create them to our liking. This ability opens up endless possibilities for the real estate industry.

First, AR allows prospective homeowners to see themselves in unfinished properties. What will their home look like when it’s done? Or when all their furniture has been put in? By reducing the hindrances potential tenants face when visualizing their homes, AR helps realtors seal the deal faster.

With AR, architects, developers, and interior designers can see problems in design before they finish any project. They are therefore in a position to make smarter design choices, avoid mistakes, and stay ahead of schedule. AR makes technicians’ work easier as well, allowing them to visualize and identify specific problems in homes

Finally, AR expands real estate marketing capabilities by allowing remote tours. International clients, or even those out of state, can easily tour homes and truly, feel at home. This convenient capability breaks the barriers of time and the logistics of physical visits. Physically visiting homes can sometimes be tiring for clients, and time-consuming as well.

2. Augmented reality for filters and fun

If you’ve used Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok you have probably come across a filter. It either distorts your image, adds some quirky effects to it, and in some cases, turns it into an animation. AR is responsible for all that.

Filters are made when AR concepts are employed to create computer-generated effects that seem to be superimposed over real images. By manipulating the image received by your phone’s camera, the AR filter adds an effect either to the background or foreground of the image

Today, Android and Apple users can create their filters using the Spark AR Studio Player. This app allows everyone an opportunity to interact with AR by making it easy to use and adding lots of built-in features to play around with. You can even create effects that can be applied to faces or synced with movement.

If all the features still feel complicated after a brief tour of the app, don’t worry! There’s a variety of educational resources that can take you through every single step. Trying AR with beginner skills has never been easier.
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3. Augmented reality for showing furniture

Naturally, the biggest companies in the world will also be the first to try out new trends, and also have the highest chances of succeeding. IKEA is a classic example.

The famous Swedish furniture brand, known for its revolutionary idea of furniture that buyers can assemble for themselves, started using AR in 2012. They created an app that allowed customers to picture how furniture would look in various positions in a room. Today, their app allows customers to see how furniture would fit to scale anywhere in their house.

Before this innovation, people would often spend an entire day moving furniture around to see what fit and looked best. Even more frustrating than that was the possibility that the item simply didn’t match the intended room and would need to be returned to the store. AR helps to solve this problem by transferring this process to the virtual world.

4. Augmented Reality for the beauty sector

Together with the interior design industry, the beauty industry has made major strides in innovation with the help of AR. L’Oreal spearheaded the first AR beauty innovation.

L’Oreal partnered with Perfect.Corp to bring forth the revolutionary YouCam Makeup App. With this app, consumers can test makeup without having to physically apply it, or risk buying something that doesn’t suit them.

With more and more consumers getting cautious about what they buy, the need for testing becomes more important. AR has provided the perfect solution for this.

5. Augmented reality for television news

Weather channels aren’t newbies when it comes to special effects. Weatherpeople have been standing in front of green screens for quite a few years now. Augmented reality is little more than a natural progression

AR is being used to bring weather phenomena such as tornadoes and floods to the weather room, without the obvious risks of course. This not only helps the weatherperson explain the weather but also shows the reality of associated dangers.

Apart from the weather channel, sports and even wildlife channels will pursue AR to complement their reporting. The news will never be the same again.
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Want to try some AR experiences?

Scan the Flowcodes below produced by Geenee AR for exciting and immersive experiences. See how one scan can transport you to an entirely new world.
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Let Flowcode improve your brand experience with Augmented Reality

In a fiercely competitive business environment, the slightest advantage can make all the difference between a successful and failing enterprise. There are numerous ways businesses can take advantage of AR to improve the quality of their customer interactions.

Thanks to Flowcode, you can offer your audience a seamless and convenient transition from the physical world to the digital world using high-speed and quality QR codes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you utilize the AR concept for numerous benefits.
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