Matt Szymczyk Zugara CEO

One of the many augmented reality applications that have created a lot of buzz this past week has been the Fashionista Augmented Reality App by Tobi.com. AugmentPro covered this exciting use case a couple of days ago in our Fashionista Review.

To better understand this application I went directly to the source company behind the development and integration of this application. Zugara is an interactive marketing agency focused on emerging technologies. Matthew Szymczyk is the CEO of Zugara and I asked him to help us all understand this fantastic real world case study on how they effectively used augmented reality to apply to a consumer retail website.

Zugara CEO Matt Symczyk – Interview

Zugara.com

AugmentPro – As the CEO of Zugara, can you please give a short summary of Zugara as an interactive marketing agency?

Matt S – Zugara is an interactive marketing agency focused on emerging media and technology.  The core areas we focus on are Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing and Website/Application Development.  We are also working quite a bit with Augmented Reality through creation of Flash-based proprietary technologies that are the foundation for our AR applications.  These technologies are licensable and have SDK’s that will allow developers to create advanced Flash-based AR executions.

AugmentPro -  What made Zugara choose to use Augmented Reality as a base technology for an application?

Matt S – Augmented Reality allows you to integrate information into a live video stream.  When we were initially looking at creating a unique online shopping experience, Augmented Reality first came to mind.  But, we also knew that usability would be important given the barriers already present with Augmented Reality (i.e. needing a webcam, printing a marker).  So, we felt by creating Flash-based Augmented Reality technologies that we were at least cutting out one barrier for the user – having to download software or install a plug-in to view.  Flash-based Augmented Reality is the reason why you’ve seen AR exploding on to the scene as of late.

AugmentPro - Does Zugara have any statistics behind the demographic of who will use augmented reality technology to its fullest?

Matt S – We are still compiling data on the best demographic target for use of AR, but we do know that currently 40% of Facebook Video uploads are via webcam.  Since we deal quite a bit (on the marketing side) with Gen X and Gen Y, we are used to creating emerging media and technologies for these demographics.  With the continued market saturation of webcams and Gen Y’s continued adoption of livestreaming and webcam based video, it seems only natural that Augmented Reality would also be a technology that is quickly adopted by this generation.

AugmentPro – Back in June 2009 Zugara introduced the Augmented Reality Dressing Room.How did brands react? Did Zugara get a lot of interest for the application?

Matt S – We had quite a bit of positive feedback and interest on the Webcam Social Shopper (Augmented Reality Dressing Room) when it was released back in June.  I think most people were surprised to see a utility based AR application as those seem to be very few and far between right now.  Social Media Integration and Utility were 2 key components of the Webcam Social Shopper and this allowed people to see how these emerging technologies could be integrated together and used effectively in an online retail experience.  Even though this application has been called a virtual dressing room or fitting room, it’s more about replicating the offline shopping experience when you’re at the rack, holding apparel up to yourself, and soliciting feedback from friends or family.

AugmentPro - Tobi.com seems to be the first company/brand that has adopted your application, are there other companies or case studies that you are allowed to share that will be leveraging your application?

Matt S – Tobi.com is the first brand to use the Webcam Social Shopper and I think over the next 3-4 months you’ll also see a few other brands using it as well.  Unfortunately, I cannot get into details about that at the moment.

AugmentPro - What are some of the best features of the Fashionista application?

Tobi.com - Fashionista Augmented Reality App

Matt S – I think we’re most proud of the ZugMO motion capture technology and Social Media integration.  When you see the person step back to control their “Augmented Shopping Experience”, that was a technology we created internally after going through initial usability tests.  We felt it was more natural to step away from the computer to try things on, so spent time creating the tech to do it.  We’re also happy with how the Facebook integration turned out which allows the shopper to post images of their shopping experience directly into their stream.

AugmentPro - What future features are in development for this application?

Matt S – We have a new technology that we actually just debuted in Europe called ZugSTAR.  This is short for Zugara Streaming Augmented Reality.  What this allows is for multiple people to use Flash-based Augmented Reality in real-time.  For instance, with ZugSTAR integrated into an application like Fashionista, this would allow a mother in New York to shop online with her daughter in Los Angeles.  They would both be able to see the other’s augmented experience to provide instantaneous feedback.  We’re pretty excited about this tech and it’s other applications (for other industries).  We even did a quick blog post to show how it would look – http://weareorganizedchaos.com/index.php/2009/11/04/zugaras-zugstar-video-conferencing-augmented-reality-a-shared-ar-experience/.

AugmentPro - Are there any other applications that Zugara will launch in the future that will leverage augmented reality?

Matt S – Please see above and keep an eye out for an official announcement in December.  We know initially people are like “Streaming Augmented Reality? So What…” But once we release some prototype examples of how ZugSTAR can be used, I think you’ll see quite a few people get excited about it.