AR experience

Due to the coming Spring Festival, these two weeks I have mainly focused on AR experience. I would like to begin with my experience using mobile ARs. In most apps, mobile ARs are integrated with functions like beauty cameras. The app I have used, which is called ‘哈你’, has features that enable users to decorate the environment. For example, I can put a 3-D Christmas tree right next to me when shooting the picture and the words I have written are also 3-D. When I move around my phone trying to observe the whole space from different angles, I find that for objects like Christmas trees and other decorations, they seem to occupy the position like real things in our life. While for special effects like fireworks, I can put multiple effects in one place so that it will have a fancier outlook. For 3-D letters, they look more similar to those we have seen in a word file. They have a certain thickness and give people a feeling that they are floating in the air. This has reminded me of the game Pokemon Go released several years ago, which I have found also very interesting. They basically use similar techniques, putting those well-designed 3-D objects in the current physical environment to give users a sense of realness.

Moreover, in the 2021 Spring Festival Gala Evening, I also have witnessed the usage of AR, and I think they have made the show more successful. These are all the scenes in the show.

I think this definitely enhances people’s watching experience by bringing a more vivid background. Meanwhile, this can save the stage’s space. If we use physical backgrounds, changing from scene to scene can be very difficult and time-consuming. And the moving range of actors will be restricted because of the physical objects occupying the stage’s room. I don’t know for sure whether it saves money or not. But there is one thing I am sure about, which is that this is much cheaper and easier compared with trying to use physical objects to build these backgrounds. I am very excited to see that this technology can be shown and adopted by such a large and important show.

Also, when watching e-sports, I have also found that this year’s PUBG Global Competition, which is also called PGI.S, has also used AR in their venue.

In the first picture, the pile of money is an AR product. In the second one, two cars are AR products. In the third one, these letters and the flags with team logos are AR products. When a team wins that game, all the logos on the flags will be changed to that team’s logo and the flags will be flapping around. This makes the race fancier and people can have a better watching experience. There is a trend in large activities, which is that AR is playing an important role in making the background more attractive to the audience. Combined with the current COVID-19 situation, most races don’t have too much audience at the scene. By broadcasting, AR can be more attractive to let audiences watching online.