Digital Watermarks Will Enable Augmented Reality On Our TVs

Digital content is becoming more and more interactive. Even our business cards now have QR codes which enable us to utilize augmented reality. It’s something that has become a popular practice all around the world. Our digital reality is slowly becoming the real world we live in, if you know what I mean. With digital watermarks, we are taking another step closer to putting the virtual into our own reality.

A company called Visual SyncAR recently showcased their groundbreaking new digital watermark technology for eager viewers. This technology, which was co-invented under development by NTT, could make even our ordinary TVs display augmented reality content on a second device. Does that sound weird? That’s what I thought too until I checked out how the technology actually works. It’s quite straightforward, and the result is quite impressive to say the least.

By using the camera on your mobile device to view your TV screen, the digital watermarks trigger augmented reality content in a way we have never seen before. The content of the screen suddenly pops out into your living room (or wherever you have your TV located) and brings another dimension to watching TV. Even though digital watermarks combined with augmented reality might not seem like groundbreaking innovation, the ability to show position-based content from your TV on your mobile device could lead to some quite interesting viewer experiences.

By embedding digital watermarks into the video sequentially as time codes, the app can then read those time codes, confirm the timing of the video being played, and display the relevant content in sync with the content on the screen. Imagine the capabilities this would have for TV shows, extended movie versions and even immersive home movie experiences based on your position to the TV. No date is yet set for the release of this digital technology. However, Visual SyncAR wants to gain feedback from their potential developers and customers in order to perfect and fine-tune the technology to fit better into everyone’s lifestyle.