Is 2012 the year of Augmented Reality?

I’ve been posting a lot on augmented reality lately and am starting to wonder two things. One, will 2012 be the year for augmented reality? And two, why isn’t anyone thinking of ways to use augmented reality that don’t involve Oreos popping up in my face, or something similar. Now, I’m not actually saying that Oreo has any plans to use augmented reality in a campaign, I’m just making the point that brands and advertisers are jumping on the AR bandwagon, while I would really like to see more practical applications of the technology.

Earlier I posted about Google and its augmented reality eyewear, and a few days ago I posted a video demonstrating Aurasma, another free AR app and company that allows brands to create AR marketing campaigns.

To be honest, what I would really love to see is more dialog about how AR can be leveraged in education. Then again, it does seem in natural form that marketers start using technologies in interesting ways first and then spaces like education eventually follow suit. While marketers and other early adopters have learned to use websites and related artifacts like social networking, web content management and mobile technology successfully, school administrators to this day fight over whether the same technologies are practical in education, despite the fact that new technologies introduce new literacies and students without access to them, whether practical or impractical in their nascent stages, may end up left behind.

But I digress…

This post was actually supposed to be about Blippar, a free app for iOS and Android devices, inviting users to wave their smartphone at branded products in return for some form of ‘fun’ offering. Blippar recently launched a campaign with Nestle’s Kit Kat. From the article:

“In what is the fourth time the food and beverage giant has tapped Blippar’s technology, Nestlé is enabling fans of the multi-fingered chocolate bar to play virtual football using nothing more than their smartphone and Kit Kat packaging & posters…An augmented 3D table football game ‘overlay’ will be revealed where you try to save as many shots as possible, building a score that will be automatically posted on the game’s league table in a bid to win the cash prize. The winner will be chosen at random via a draw from all the entries received.”

Since it works for Android, I might just give it a go today during my lunch break. And for all you teachers out there, maybe take a few minutes to download it on your phone and show your students. It’s free, and AR is the future after all.