Blog Post
Adweek Featured Quote
Adweek Featured Quote
Posted on
15 Apr 2019
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Featured Quote
15 Apr 2019 • Featured Quote
New Frontiers
In this week's Adweek article, "Sound May Be The Next Augmented Reality Frontier For Brands," Marty Swant writes about how agencies are designing for the ear instead of the eye. There is a new wave of emerging technology that is enabling sound to be at the forefront of augmented reality: Audio AR. Sean Thornton, Creative Director at Audio UX®, talks about designing for user interfaces built specifically for sound.Augmented reality has been at the forefront of technological fascination for the past few years. However, it is usually discussed in the context of “visual” AR. Innovations such as Google Glass and camera-utilizing smartphone apps such as Pokémon Go have captured both the irritation and imagination of the public in recent years.Less commonly discussed, however, is sonic augmented reality, or as we like to call it: Audio AR. This lack of attention is a bit of an oversight considering air pods and smart speakers are now nearly ubiquitous. They can be spotted everywhere and anywhere, both in and out of the home. Forward-looking brands and companies are beginning to catch on to the possibilities of enhancing the user experience through auditory AR, and the potential of the technology remains untapped. Fully immersive spatial audio is seeing immense growth in popularity, mainly due to Apple’s massive support of the tech. Audio AR (sometimes referred to as “sound AR”) also notably offers “screen-free” AR experiences. For users who don’t want to deal with clunky headsets or interrupted vision, Audio AR offers a less-intrusive way forward.
Because we're used to detecting information by hearing sounds and hijacking those senses, making them the lead tool in this quest of calling attention to invisible elements around them becomes a new challenge.
"Sound May Be the Next Augmented Reality Frontier for Brands" on Adweek.
