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Augemented reality technology is one of many powerful factors conspiring to kill display advertising as we know it.

Yesterday, I stumbled across some incredible augmented reality work by Julian Oliver (via @BBHLabs).

levelHead is a spatial memory game by Julian Oliver.

levelHead uses a hand-held solid-plastic cube as its only interface. On-screen it appears each face of the cube contains a little room, each of which are logically connected by doors. In one of these rooms is a character. By tilting the cube the player directs this character from room to room in an effort to find the exit.

This is actually a working prototype. The sophistication of this technology, and its application in a game/puzzle is pretty awe-inspiring.

But, this other project of Oliver's really got me excited:

The Artvertiser

The Artvertiser is an urban, hand-held, augmented-reality project exploring on-site substitution of advertising content for the purposes of exhibiting art....The Artvertiser considers Puerta del Sol Madrid, Times Square New York, Shibuya Tokyo and other sites dense with advertisements as potential exhibition space....The Artvertiser software is trained to recognise individual advertisements, each of which become a virtual 'canvas' on which an artist can exhibit images or video when viewed through the hand-held device. After training, where ever the advertisement appears, the chosen art will appear instead when viewed live through the hand-held device. It doesn't matter whether the advertisement is on a building, in a magazine or on the side of a vehicle.

Further evidence of the impending obsolescence of display advertising. Individuals are increasingly defining their own experiences. Technology gives us the ability to see and hear what we want, when we want. And those choices are guided by our social connections, the people we want to be, and the communities we want to be a part of. And it's not just on computers any more.

Advertising that merely seeks to get people's attention and make and impression is getting less effective every day.

What is your brand doing instead?

Here's a way to put Oliver's Artvertiser technology to good use, and bring a little efficacy back to display advertising:

(This could work for any food or drink related brand) Create a mobile app for any GPS-enabled smart phone with a camera. As the user is walking around town, they can stop and point their phone at any nearby billboard. The app will replace the billboard on their mobile screen with directional signage to a nearby bar or restaurant, e.g. 3 blocks to the right is Anselmo's (Italian, 4 stars on Yelp)! Enjoy.