#SMLive 2019: Daksh Sharma gives a glimpse into AR experiments

A group of creators get early access to AR filters to experiment, optimise and create. Daksh Sharma, Director, Iffort is one of them. He shares his experiment stories at #SMLive 2019.

Facebook and Instagram are planning to go big on AR filters. Daksh shares a few he has come across or worked on recently. They make use of face movement, iris tracking, motion gestures, plane tracking and segmentation. Technology is being created in such a way that you would soon be able to use a filter to create 3D augmented reality imagery from the logo on a coffee cup with your phone camera, he says, explaining how this can help brands. The logo will essentially come alive.

One of the interesting ways to use AR is to apply segmentation. Daksh explains an idea, where this was applied recently. "Used as a way to celebrate the pride month, the mechanism was such that your background will go away and be replaced by a rainbow," he says. Augmented reality can be used to help people better visualise real estate spaces as well.

Daksh recalls how AR has been used to create maps of train stations where you can see a 2D map of the station when you point your camera at a metro card. He explains how this has been created for Bangalore and soon, one will be made for Delhi as well.

"There is a lot of utility of AR in retail," he said, explaining how it can help jewellery brands help people visualise how the piece would look on their neck before they make a purchase. Another successful one was undertaken by an eatery in the US where people had to point their camera at an eatery while travelling on the highway and see a rainbow there as a result.

In one recent experiment of gamifying the concept, the blink of an eye was used to make a character run on-screen. This kind of gesture and gamification can be applied to various sports and even sports apparel brands, says Daksh.

At this point, AR is also a great method for brands to see amplification in the number of followers. "If you are a brand with less than 100,000 followers, you can create an Instagram filter using a beta application. This is still in the early stage as there could be bugs, but it could help you get followers, as people will follow you to get access to the filter," he says.

See the full session here: