1/3 - Augmented, virtual or mixed reality, social AR, filters and AR lenses ... Not easy to navigate. Antoine Vu, co-founder of Atomic Digital Design, a startup specialized in augmented reality collaborating with brands such as Lacoste and Lancôme, explains the basics of this technology, which has been the millennials and digital natives’ favorite since the start of the health crisis.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

Le Boudoir Numérique: Atomic Digital Design is a startup specializing in social AR, namely mobile applications using augmented reality via social networks. Let's start from the beginning: what is augmented reality?

Antoine Vu, co-founder of Atomic Digital Design: Augmented reality consists of superimposing virtual content on a real image, a camera feedback, photographic or video. For example, if I look at the scenery of a city, through my phone camera, I can make a virtual tree appear on the asphalt in front of me. Augmented reality has tracking technologies that make it possible to recognize the ground and display an element, in this case our tree, which gives the illusion that it is really planted there.

How is it different from virtual or mixed reality?

Virtual reality is accessible through a headset offering 360-degree vision, completely obscuring the external environment. Mixed reality, on the other hand, combines augmented and virtual reality, so you wear a helmet or glasses to see 360 °, while continuing to perceive your environment, on which virtual content is superimpose.

This augmented reality is called social, because it is intended for social networks, through the mobile phone, is that right?

Yes. Through your screen, you can discover all kinds of new content, in front of you or on you. If you look at your face, you can wear things like accessories, try on caps, hats, necklaces or even makeup. From an artistic point of view, this makeup can even be surrealistic, because you don't have to strictly reproduce reality and things that already exist in real life. The important thing is to give the feeling that what you are looking at is real, physically present in the environment where it fits perfectly, with the right lights, the right textures, in short, we want to obtain a realistic rendering.

The experience must be credible to the human eye...

Absolutely. Last year we faced an interesting challenge with cans of Coca Cola. If you scanned a can with your phone, the face of a French football player would come alive. How do you make the virtual overlay so successful that you think the can is really moving? Especially since the peculiar shape of a can, curved and reflective, presented a technical challenge for us. We have thus worked meticulously on the materials, shadows and the metallic aspect to best take care of this natural side, necessary for the creation of the illusion, anchored in realness.

Are these kind of illusions what one calls augmented reality filters or AR lenses?

It's a matter of jargon, of vocabulary specific to each platform. The term lens was popularized by the Snapchat network, the first to have launched this trend to embed augmented reality on its application. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok talk about AR effects. The generic name today is augmented reality filter. It's a term that I don't like because it's reductive, it refers more to a colorimetric, cosmetic treatment than to the experiential quality of augmented reality. That's why I prefer to talk about augmented reality experiences, powered on social media.

Why insist on this notion of experience?

Because unlike traditional content, such as static visuals or even video, with which viewers remain locked in a fairly passive role, augmented reality is interactive. It fits into your environment, while you make its experience your own. Cognitively, the connection goes further, because other senses are involved. There, we no longer speak of spectators but of actors of the consumed content with which they will be called upon to react, interact, feel, with a certain timing and narrative codes specific to augmented reality. The great thing about this technology is that it is very immersive. And therefore ideal for creating empathy between a brand and its audience.

* Read the second part of Antoine Vu's interview on Le Boudoir Numérique: "Augmented reality sends an emotional message".