"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope." These were the words uttered by a holographic Princess Leia in Star Wars over 30 years ago. When the film premiered back in 1977, interactive holographic images only existed within the realms of science fiction, but now, thanks to the arrival of augmented reality (AR), merging animated 3D objects into real-time video is becoming a possibility for brands.
Some things are better seen than described. Typing 'augmented reality' into Google reveals numerous video demonstrations of this new technology: a tiny car revolves in the palm of someone's hand; a train drives through a wall onto the stage during a corporate presentation; a cartoon cuckoo explodes out of a TV presenter's stomach. All of these examples are AR apps that occur in real time, and many of them enable individuals to interact directly with the virtual image on the screen - picking it up, moving it around as if it were another physical object.
Our collective jaw does not generally stay dropped for long, but for the time being, to see AR in action is to be thoroughly impressed.
"The other day, I was supposed to be giving a demo to the technology guy at a big agency," says Myles Peyton, UK sales director at AR specialist Total Immersion. "I showed him what we do, and then he got the chief executive in and some other senior staff and various clients who were around. I probably presented in the end to about 40 people, and what was supposed to be a half-hour meeting took about four hours."
A few forward-thinking brands are already experimenting with the technology. Last year, BBC Radio 1 sent an AR link to all those who missed out on Big Weekend tickets. Listeners were instructed to print out a QR code on a large piece of paper and hold it up to a webcam, whereupon they saw the paper transformed into a virtual screen showing a performance by The Fratellis.
In January, General Electric, using another simple code printed on a piece of paper and viewed through a webcam - a process known as pattern recognition - distributed a virtual 3D wind farm, complete with its own sun and three turbines. The app even lets you appear to power the turbines if you blow into the speaker on your computer.
At the next level of interactivity, Topps, the American collectable sports-card brand recently acquired by former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, has developed a series of baseball cards which don't just picture the player; they bring him to life in miniature and let the user control him as he pitches, hits and catches the ball in the style of the player himself.
From a consumer perspective, AR applications are numerous and varied, but it is arguably marketers who have the most to gain from the current phase of development, given that the technology has the power both to engage and to make headlines in its own right.
"Marketing directors with big brands are under the cosh right now," says Peyton, who launched the UK office of Paris-based Total Immersion just weeks ago. "Their bosses are saying, 'OK, you're the marketing guys, it's tough out there, how are you going to make a difference?'."
And even in its simplest form, an AR-based campaign can certainly do that. In the automotive industry, AR technology is suddenly de rigueur, with Mini, Nissan, Ford and Citroen all seizing the opportunity to create revolving working models of new cars, activated from codes printed on ads and brochures and viewed through phones or webcams.
"The next few years will undoubtedly see a rise in the use of AR in marketing," says Jim Alliban, an ActionScript developer at Skive. "This sort of marketing not only provides a fun experience, it actually puts the product in the hands of the user, making them an active participant in the ad."
As rapid a rise as it has apparently been, one of the most remarkable things about AR is just how much is already possible.
"When brands see augmented reality they don't realise it is something that can be implemented as part of a marketing campaign today," says Rick Corteville, head of digital media EMEA at Universal McCann. "It's not something that is far off in the future and is going to take a huge amount of work to develop."
As any movie-goer knows, neither the technology nor the concept of AR is entirely new. Its evolution on TV and in the cinema can be tracked from the Star Trek Holodeck, via the computer-assisted headset of Robocop, to the intrusive 3D ads in Minority Report.
But given the falling cost of processing power and CGI, AR is now a genuine marketing tool, and not a dramatically expensive one, according to digital agencies that have used it. What's more, it is unlikely to go away until its imaginative possibilities have been exhausted, which could take some time.
While early executions might cast AR as a clever tool of limited long-term interest, there is a depth to the technology, and specifically its ability to integrate the real world with the virtual, that ultimately makes it a far more significant thing.
"Augmented reality opens up a world of possibilities in terms of how brands can market to savvy, younger consumers," says Corteville. "The brands that are going to be interested are the ones that have strong goals about shifting brand awareness and consideration."
Desktop apps, such as those used in the BBC Radio 1 and GE campaigns, are just one element of what is possible, and they are clearly limited by their requirement for a webcam to view the 3D image. Mobile is the logical next step, and it is already being taken. Nokia's research labs in Finland and the US are deeply immersed in AR developments, and Apple's iPhone is likewise primed for a flood of apps.
Wikitude, a GPS travel app for the G1 Android by Austrian developer Mobilizy, allows users to pick out landmarks through their phone's camera lens. In the Netherlands, ING has released an app to allow customers to find a cash machine by scanning the street ahead of them in their phone's video mode.
Given the potential combinations of AR and location-based services, it is reasonable to expect new developments to focus on mobile, though this doesn't have to mean just phones.
"Most people's interaction with augmented reality will be via some sort of mobile device," says Nick Suckley, joint managing partner at Agenda 21. "But already, from a gaming point of view, people are starting to wear augmented reality-enabled headsets.
Such developments immediately promise to point AR in a more intriguing direction. Futurologist Ian Pearson, of Futurizon, believes that by integrating our physical world with the online realm, AR puts us on the cusp of a real shift. "AR enables the creation of GPS systems which allow you to take the internet out onto the street and use services which apply to you wherever you are," he says.
Pearson has been tracking the growth of AR since the early nineties, when crude software operating on the same principles was developed for use in military training. "At the moment, you have to look at your mobile screen, or take out your laptop, to see anything. This is slowing down AR," he says. The solution is translucent video visors, which Pearson expects to see soon.
"Once they are available, it will really take off," he says. "You'll be walking down the street and be able to see what sales are relevant to you just by glancing towards a shop. You might link in all the social sites you use, so that if one of your contacts happened to be passing, you could see their avatar passing through the crowd."
As the implications of AR become more apparent, an image of an entirely customisable world opens up that may either horrify or delight. We are not there yet, but be warned, we are not far off.
CASEBOOK
How Ford used AR to promote the new Ka
With the release of the new Ka in January, Ford became the first automotive brand to harness augmented-reality technology to the mobile platform, and it picked a young, engaged audience on which to try it out.
Through experiential agency Don't Panic, the car manufacturer distributed stickers at bars, clubs, fashion boutiques, universities and music events bearing a QR code and a WAP link.
The link led to a downloadable app, which enabled users to point their phones at the QR code and bring a 3D image of the Ka to life. When viewed from a particular angle, the Ka revealed a link to a URL with further content.
"What we featured on the augmented-reality app were several different vehicles in the individual range," says Richard Last, creative director at Wunderman, which created the campaign with HIT Lab New Zealand and Ford's CGi specialist, Burrows.
"Ford basically cannot make enough of those cars now - there is more demand for them than ever," he adds.