Mirror, mirror on the wall - test report from Zurich main station

As already reportsThe Magic Mirror was on display at Zurich's main railway station from Monday to Wednesday. So yesterday I set off to experience the augmented reality application for myself. A big disappointment!

Banal realisation.

In my opinion, there wasn't much to experience. You could stand in front of the screen and see yourself on TV - I can do that in any shop with a surveillance camera and visible screens. From time to time, however, a few zombies, animals or cartoon characters were shown on the screen behind, next to or in front of the passers-by - but there's another way to feel like you're right in the middle of it. The fusion of reality and the virtual world therefore remained at a very low level. The fact that the partner companies were displayed with adverts at a very high frequency did not make things any better. At least an interactive game was occasionally started.

If you watch the video on YouTube from UPC, you might automatically expect a little more. The Magic Mirror was simply too small to even begin to have a good effect on me and transport me into a fairytale or virtual world.

... but still an effect

The mirror looked very lost in the large hall. You didn't even notice it from a distance. However, the passers-by who saw it were at least magically attracted to it for a brief moment. I stood a little apart for 20 minutes and watched the hustle and bustle. During the whole time, there were people in front of the mirror who obviously took a liking to the application. There were the two teenagers who had a quick game of duelling, a couple of older gentlemen who obviously found it interesting to see themselves surrounded by elephants and the little girl with her father, who happily greeted the comic figures. The well-known principle of people attract people worked here.

No matter how poor the graphics and how banal the overall realisation of the application, people were already fascinated. Virtual reality and, above all, the interaction possibilities are very quickly an eye-catcher for the general public, who have little or no experience with such applications. In future, however, companies should place more emphasis on realisation. I have already seen much better, customised solutions from smaller companies than those from 3RockAR seen. I would have expected much more from UPC and the many partner companies Paco Rabanne, Hertz and Microsoft.

Source: Youtube