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Augmented Reality in Entertainment: How AR is redefining the entertainment field.

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that augmented reality (AR) is steadily making a great stride in the entertainment field. It has touched and is in the process of redefining every diverse element in the vast galaxy of entertainment – be it art, music, gaming, live concerts, movies, and much more.

In this blog post, we will look into how augmented reality is changing the entertainment industry for the better, elevating the user experience to a far more superior reality.

However, before we shed light on the role of augmented reality in entertainment, let’s first glance through the definition of AR, as many of our readers could be completely novice and have little knowledge about this nascent technology.

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality, or AR is an interactive technology that seeks to elevate the reality by adding layers of computer-generated digital information, like visuals, sounds, videos, and other sensory stimuli, onto a user’s physical reality in real time.

This interaction between the physical reality and digital content is equally seamless, ultimately creating an immersive experience for the users.    

Unlike virtual reality or VR, AR keeps you grounded in the physical reality by adding immersive digital content while VR seeks to completely immerse you into computer generated digital world. It ultimately replaces your physical reality completely with digital one.

Another key differentiator is that AR mandatorily does not require any headset. It can elevate your reality even with simple devices like smartphones and smart glasses. VR, on other hand, typically requires a headset, which covers your field of vision and eventually blocking out the real world.

How Augmented Reality is changing Entertainment?

We’ll be briefly exploring important entertainment fields individually and how AR technology is proving to be a game changer for each of these field.

We will be briefly exploring five fields:

  • Gaming
  • Live performance and concerts.
  • Art Industry.
  • Film promotions.
  • Television viewing.

1) Gaming industry:

Enhanced realism:

As mentioned above, the essence of AR is to enhance your reality, and it has demonstrated this quite spectacularly in the gaming field.

Let’s take the example of the popular game Pokemon Go. Launched in 2016, Pokemon Go is a mobile game that is completely based on AR technology. The game leverages GPS location and camera to locate virtual Pokemon, which appear as if it were a real player operating in the real-world location.

Thanks to the superlative AR technology, Pokemon’s parent company was effortlessly able to infuse a virtual object into user’s physical environment and even use the surrounding as part of the game. Such seamless blending of the real and virtual worlds opens new growth opportunities for the gaming industry.

2) Live performances and concerts:

Augmented reality is creating new avenues for artistic expression, which most artists thought was never ever possible.

Immersive visual experience: AR can overlay digital content directly right onto the stage or live performance, creating stunning visual effect and were traditional set designs pale in comparison.

Try picturing a mesmerizing digital backdrop triggered by a specific music, animated characters interacting with performer or virtual instruments that appear or disappear during the show.

If all these sounds too futuristic then here is an interesting piece of fact. Many theatres across Europe and North America have been pretty successful in pulling of these so-called futuristic acts, all thanks to the highly effective AR technology.

Interactive features: When AR technology comes into play, audiences don’t just sit down as lame spectators. Even they can become active participants.

Imagine pointing your smartphone camera to the stage and witnessing behind-the-footage scenes or seeing your favorite actor in a whole new different way.

3) Art Industry:

Most people believe that art is for classes and not masses. But AR could break this barrier and take art to masses.

Infusing life into art: The one-way Augmented reality can make art massy is by infusing life into any static or boring artwork. Imagine a painting that can literally walk and move, sculptures that change shapes or a historical figure that is setting free from the portrait.

All these may sound or appear crazy, but AR can make all these seemingly crazy things possible. In fact, today many museums and art galleries are putting their faith on AR installations for attracting crowd.

Welcome to AR art: When AR is not merely a medium to express art but becomes art in itself. If this comes as a surprise then here is an interesting fact. Today many artists are trying to create a new form of art that exists solely within the augmented reality space.

Although AR art is still a very niche field and has a miniscule presence, it can unleash a revolution in the art world in distant future. It not only gives a new spin to the art but completely reimagines art in a new way.

4) Film promotion

While AR still hasn’t made a splash in the film production, it has started making impact in movie promotions. Many studios and directors have used AR apps for promoting their movies. These AR apps allow fans to interact with their favorite characters and get access to behind the scene footages as well as favorite scenes from the movie.

If this trend picks up then in future promoting movies through AR apps will become a norm of the film industry. Not to mention, it will be a welcome trend considering that it breaks the old style of promotion where any meaningful interaction with fans is pretty non-much-existent.

5) Television viewing:

Slowly but surely AR is bringing revolutionary changes to how we view and consume entertainment on television. For instance, all the real-time statistics and player information that you see during live sports broadcast is mostly thanks to augmented reality. Importantly, AR packages the information and statistics in a visually appealing format.

 

But all these is like scratching the surface. AR’s penetration can be much deeper. Imagine watching a period drama and using the AR app to get additional information about the era, characters, and locations depicted on the screen.

Additionally, AR also has the potential to personalize your television viewing by allowing you to view the content from different camera angles or add 3D models and characters.

Conclusion:

Augmented reality is not a gimmick or hyped-up technology. It is a transformative tool that can potentially bring revolutionary changes on how we view and consume entertainment. The future of augmented reality in entertainment is certainly very bright, which means that our experience as a viewer will only become more immersive and captivating. This nascent technology is yet to show its full potential. The recent exciting development in generative AI can also act as a catalyst for AR’s future growth.

Overall, we have all the reasons to be optimistic that this nascent technology has the capability to bring a generational and transcendent change in our entertainment viewing.

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