• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer, June 22, 2009

Augmented Reality, the process of enabling users equipped with Webcams to interact with videos or 3-D images online in real-time, has made the cover of Popular Science.

The July issue features a cover story entitled, "The Future of Energy. Power Plan: Extraordinary Solutions for a Clean-Energy Century.

The row of windmills on the cover comes to life online through a partnership with General Electric. This marks the first time that augmented reality has been implemented on a magazine cover.

When users hold their copy of Popular Science up to their Webcam while visiting www.popsci.com/imagination, the windmills activate, in the form of a 3-D image. Then users can blow into their Webcam microphone to make the blades of the turbines spin. It's a modern-day version of the pinwheel.

Users sans Popular Science can still play along and download a copy of the cover online.

The idea of creating an augmented reality cover was in the works when, inspired by GE's Smart Grid technology, Popular Science partnered with the company.The hologram was created through a combination of Smart Grid and software provided by metaio, a company that's no stranger to this column. The software, called "Unifeye Viewer," is compatible with both PCs and Macs.

"It enabled us to use our existing cover image as a trigger for the augmented reality animation," said Gregg Hano, publisher of Popsci Media group. "While the investment was significant," he added, "we felt the technology would be well-received by our readers. It is certainly something that we plan to utilize again."  It's easy to see why; the technology has ongoing ad potential.   

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners San Francisco and OMD were the creative and media agencies involved, respectively.

Visitors to Popsci.com/imagination will notice the URL change to http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/popsci/.

There was no mention of GE on the cover of Popular Science or editorial, but the company purchased three ads in the July issue. According to a spokesperson at Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science, GE would not be considered the advertiser or sponsor for the cover, since it was not responsible for its creation.

However, the PopSci Web site automatically turns into a GE URL, so I'd be initially inclined to believe that the cover and the technology went hand-in-hand -- and that GE played a role in the creation of the magazine cover.

"The Popular Science cover execution raises interesting issues, which ASME plans to explore further, but does not appear to violate 'the letter of the law' of the guidelines," said Sid Holt, Chief Executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors. "The cover appears to be analogous in some ways to the Esquire Obama trap door -- no visible use of the cover for non-editorial and non-consumer marketing purposes," concluded Holt.