At RSR, we’re forever pondering the implications of all things digital on the world of retail. But even strategy wonks like me like to have fun, and so like all of the partners, I’ll dabble with new stuff from time to time (and now thanks to things like the Apple App Store, I don’t have to spend a lot of dough doing it!). And once in awhile, we see something that gives a hint of things to come.

One such “maybe ” technology is called Aurasma, and it touts itself as “The World’s First Visual Browser “. I first heard about this from watching a Youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frrZbq2LpwI). To get an idea of what the technology can do, harken back to the newspapers in the Harry Potter movies (with the moving pictures on the printed page). The augmented reality (AR) technology, which is a combination of visual recognition and a browser and is used on a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android device, was created by scientists at Cambridge University. According to Matt Mills, Aurasma’s Global Head of Innovation, the technology offers an easy and practical way “for you to see the world through someone’s else’s eyes, and for that person to take a moment in time and effectively store it and tag it to something physical that exists in the real world. “

Aurasma’s initial blush of interest comes from schools and museums. For example, an image in a history book can be linked to a snippet of video of the event itself or a re-enactment. In a museum, a person can use the Aurasma browser to connect to information about a portrait hanging on the wall. It’s easy to see where this might be used in retail as well. In a recent interview (http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/pure-genius/q-a-matt-mills-aurasmas-global-head-of-innovation/8631), Mills commented, “I want to go into a supermarket and see someone pick up a product, scan it with their phone … I think that’s the key thing: Once users start assuming they can scan things, the AR industry’s going to take off very, very quickly. Right now we’re seeing it in certain niches. In time, I think you’ll start to see a degree of ubiquity with that particular user behavior. “

In Use

Once the free Aurasma Lite browser to an iPhone or iPad (available via the Apple App Store), it’s simply a matter of pointing the phone’s camera at an image to see its “aura “. The technology is already being tried by some retailers. One such company is UK operator Marks & Spencer, that used Aurasma to make a “last minute Valentine gift ” promotion earlier this year (you can try it by going to http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/02/10/marks-spencer-develop-aurasma-ad-last-minute-valentine-s-day-gifts on your desktop browser and pointing your Aurasma Lite -enabled iPhone at the picture).

Experiment!

In this time of convergence of the digital and physical selling channels, RSR has been encouraging retailers to experiment with emerging consumer-grade technologies to test their applicability in the selling environment- and especially in the store. This isn’t an idle pursuit however; consumers move from initial acceptance of a hot new technology to an expectation that it’s “everywhere ” in their digitally enabled world very quickly, and so retailers must find new and interesting ways to bring the digital domain into the physical domain of the store if the store is to remain a viable part of the value equation.

Back in June in our report entitled Omni-Channel 2012: Cross-Channel Comes of Age, we made the statement that “retailers now know that increasingly, their cross-channel shoppers are just ‘shoppers’, and that their biggest challenge is in how to merge the digital and physical selling worlds into one compelling seamless customer experience. ” The good news for retailers is that the best, most compelling ways to do that haven’t been determined … yet. The technologies and their “use cases ” are still emerging. The bad news (if it is bad!) is that 2013 is likely to be the year when clearly winning practices are settled – the early adopters will gain their advantage and everyone else will have to chase them.

Experimentation is how to get out in front. And in the case of the visual browser technology Aurasma, it’s almost free. So the cost is in your time – but there’s not plenty of that, so… experiment!