Augmented Reality, or AR in short, has been around for years. Think of sports programmes on television for instance: those larger-than-life logos that appear ‘imprinted’ onto rugby fields or the digital ‘time markers’ inside each lane during the swimming competitions at the 2008 Olympics.

Augmented Reality on mobile devices on the other hand, has just started taking off, particularly as the way people interact with their mobile phones continues to evolve. We believe the implications for location-based mobile marketing are exciting, particularly for consumer brands.

In Mobile Augmented Reality, computer-generated imagery or text is spontaneously retrieved in real time from the Internet as a layer of information on top of an actual real time screen view on a mobile device. Augmented Reality applications can use any number of  smart phone capabilities: camera, GPS, compass, social media, 3D graphics, maps, audio, video, SMS, email or calls. As a result, it can add a richer experience for AR users from their environments.

We are beginning to see some commercial applications of Augmented Reality on mobile. Here are a couple of examples.

The Stella Artois Le Bar Guide claims to be the world’s first augmented reality iPhone app that allows beer connoisseurs and lovers of fine bars to search for the best bars nearby, via zip code, country or rating. With the iPhone held vertically, Le Bar Guide reveals profiles of bars in the immediate vicinity, overlaid on the street view from their location. Holding the phone discreetly with the camera pointing to the ground reveals arrows pointing users in the direction of nearby bars. Launched in late 2009, it can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store. It is currently only available for the US, UK, Argentina and Canada markets.

Another example of Augmented Reality on mobile is product information that ‘comes alive’ when you point your phone at an advertisement.

Pictured above is an outdoor ad in the Netherlands for Walt Disney’s movie, ‘Prince of Persia, The sands of time’. Android and iPhones users can watch movie trailers and play an augmented reality game simply by using the Augmented Reality application browser on their phones. Those that enter the augmented reality game and answer some questions correctly get a chance to earn 50 Movie Minutes value points that can be used on movieminutes.com.

The good news for marketing folks is that getting into the world of augmented reality does not need to be daunting. Two common mobile AR browsers, Layar and Junaio, seem relatively easy for web developers to use and appear to have enough critical mass and past commercial success to ensure continual software upgrade and longevity.

To get initiated, check out an introduction to how augmented reality works using Layar: