Pocket Talks: Bringing Global Perspectives to Life via Mobile AR

We partnered with MyWorld Bristol, Condense Reality and the BBC to deliver a world-first digital experiment as part of BTF+ - Bristol’s festival of tech, creativity and culture.

The idea for the experiment came from a conversation between aer studios, MyWorld and Bristol tech start-up Condense Reality. Condense had built a 3D volumetric capture system that allowed them to capture live performance and stream them in 3D across the internet.

We already had expertise building augmented reality experiences for the likes of Roman Baths and Historic Royal Palaces, and so we joined forces to devise a new way for people across the world to be able to experience live events from their phone.

A more inclusive experience

The problem space we settled upon was conferences. There are many downsides to traditional in-person conferences - they can often be prohibitive in terms of cost, time, and often have a hefty carbon footprint associated with travel and attendance.

Knowing we could capture a conference speaker using Condense’ 3D capture rig, we set about building a mobile-first, browser-based augmented reality experience that would enable people to enjoy a conference talk wherever they were in the world - placing the speaker in their own environment.

The end result was brilliant. The BBC’s Manon Dave delivered a really interesting talk as part of BTF+, captured by Condense, which was then streamed across the world - with the aer-powered app beaming Manon in 3D onto their kitchen tables, desks, and all sorts of other places - in real-time!

As an experiment it was hugely successful, proving out the concept, and enabled us to continue onto the next phase of the technology - Pudsey’s Big Thank You in Pawg-mented Reality. Again working with the BBC, we built a very special mobile augmented reality experience to let Pudsey say his thanks to people donating to Children in Need!