Most people will know augmented reality from Pokémon Go or snapchat, where users catch virtual creatures with their smartphone or use filters in order to manipulate pictures, while experiencing the real-life environment. Augmented reality is the phenomenon of virtual information in the physical world which enables the user to enhance the environmental perception. Even though, there probably will not be many examples on top of your mind in which you use augmented reality, BCG states that in 2021 there will be over 120 million augmented reality users. In addition, Deloitte state that brand related goals can be raised for 86% by right implementation of augmented reality. Even though not much retailers have included an augmented reality tool on their application, it will be soon. Research has shown that 71% of online shoppers state that they would buy more if they were able to use augmented reality tools, 61% of the consumers say they would prefer a retailer which provides augmented reality and 40% of the consumers state that they are willing to pay more if they could use augmented reality tools.

It can be stated that augmented reality is growing massively and that the estimated market value of augmented reality is over 50 billion by 2024. Ikea is seen as one of the most advances retailers when it comes to augmented reality and e-commerce. Ikea developed the application IKEA PLACE which provides the possibility to try out over 2000 furniture products in your room by giving you camera access to film your room. The camera scans the room and shows the desired products in the right scale. In addition, the application makes use of apples ARKIT-system.

ARKIT ensures that the space around you is accurately mapped in 3D. In addition, it takes light sources into account, giving 3D objects a dynamic a realistic shadow. The most important features of Apple ARKIT are; tracking, scene understanding and rendering resulting in the most real-life experience. As mentioned before, there are already several applications like snapchat or Ikea Place. However, the e-commerce environment will change in the way that fashion retailers will enable customers to fit their products virtually before ordering by the means of augmented reality. They must make these changes fast in order to survive the changing customer demand and fierce competition in this industry.

Bibliography:

Cruz, E., Orts-Escolano, S., Gomez-Donoso, F., Rizo, C., Rangel, J. C., Mora, H., & Cazorla, M. (2019). An augmented reality application for improving shopping experience in large retail stores. Virtual Reality, 23(3), 281-291.

Rauschnabel, P. A., Felix, R., & Hinsch, C. (2019). Augmented reality marketing: How mobile AR-apps can improve brands through inspiration. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 49, 43-53.

Threekit.com 20 augmented reality statistics you should know in 2020. Retrieved from (https://www.threekit.com/20-augmented-reality-statistics-you-should-know-in-2020

Apple.com Dive into the world of augmented reality. Retrieved from https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/

According to Google, almost 70% of the pictures are taken with the for front-camera since the existence of it. In fact, over 24 billion photos are labeled as “selfies” in Google Photo’s. As a result, the hype of “filters” grew accordingly. Filters were often used without users even knowing it. Studies conducted by Google showed that when you are not aware of a used filter, this will negatively effect your mental health since you will compare yourself with the picture taken, which will show a unrealistic picture of yourself. In fact, the research conducted state that over 80% of the parents examined said that they were worried about the filters and two third of the examined teens mentioned that they were bullied based on how they looked on selfies. Therefore, it can be concluded that selfies are used massively and does have effect on mental health.

On the 24th of September, google and snapchat announced that they would disable the use of the so called “beauty filters”, which are turned on by default, since this would have a negative effect on people’s self-image and self-esteem especially under young girls. Among other things, these filters enabled people to eliminate minor irregularities of the skin or other irregularities. This will be done shortly through a software update which will first occur for pixel 4A and pixel 5A phones. The companies are also going to change terminology so that the filters are no longer directly associated with beauty. For example, Google now talks about a retouching function. With these changes Google wants to take the mental health of the users into account since multiple studies have shown that a beauty filter has negative impact on the self-image of users. In addition, a beauty filter would unconsciously change the “beauty ideal” which in the case of the filters are unrealistic.

The question which remains is to what extend it is good that google and snapchat take mental health into account by regulating the use of filters or is this approach “too much” since the use of filters is hard to avoid in the social media environment. What do you think?

Bibliography:

Nu.nl (2020, October 1). Google en snapchat zetten fotofilerts uit vanwege impact op zelfbeeld. Retrieved from https://www.nu.nl/tech/6081221/google-en-snapchat-zetten-fotofilters-uit-vanwege-impact-op-zelfbeeld.html

Modi, V. (2020, Oktober 1) More controls and transparency for your selfies. Retrieved from https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/digital-wellbeing/more-controls-selfie-filters/

Gomez, G (2020, October 1) Finding wellbeing in filters and selfies. Retrieved from https://material.io/blog/digital-wellbeing-face-retouching