Augmented Foreal

In today’s digital age, augmented reality (AR) has opened the door for endless marketing possibilities, not only in the entertainment industry, but in the corporate and industrial world as well.

So what exactly is Augmented Reality?? AR is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated information. So in short, AR skews our perception of the real world, by adding or removing ‘stuff’ from it.

At Saba Studios, we love to merge technologies together in effort to concoct a whimsical experience. Weatherford gave us that opportunity when they approached us with a quandary.

Weatherford was hosting an event to showcase their Automated MPD Riser System. The event was to take place in a warehouse. Only problem is, the complete riser system stood significantly taller than the warehouse ceiling, so it was not possible to stand the system vertically for their demonstration. Due to the nature of how a riser system was setup, it was not an option to demonstrate it horizontally.

Challenge accepted! We decided to leverage AR to mitigate the dilemma and the best part about it is, it saved Weatherford significant dollars. How you ask? We shall explain …

Since the riser system was made up of 5 components, all Weatherford had to do was bring in the main component and we would use AR to virtually build on the rest of the components at the event. This would be visually executed through a tablet. The real cost savings is only having to ship one component as opposed to all five.

We quickly went to work. Using 3D and programming software, we carefully mimicked the real world setup at the warehouse, down to the lighting, colors and textures. It was critical that the virtual components match the look and feel of the real one, in effort to create a seamless experience and sell the illusion that the entire riser system was in fact standing in the warehouse.

In addition, we also designed an interface which would allow the user to effortlessly add or remove the components using their thumbs, as they viewed the system through a tablet. It was indeed an illusion that even David Copperfield would have been proud of.

We’re happy to report that the AR experience was a huge success at Weatherford’s event. We sure do love it when a plan comes together.