Weekly Mashup 62

Is the key to achieving a sense of touch in virtual reality actually SOUND? TechCrunch

A group of researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK have built an improved version of haptic tech that uses high-frequency sound emitters to mimic the effect of touching a physical object, without any physical object being present.

UK will be first country in which over 50% of ad spend goes on digital The Guardian

The total UK ad market will hit £15.7bn in 2015, with online spend predicted to grow 12.7% and hit £8bn, according to Group M, the worldwide media buying arm of WPP. Britain is closely followed by Sweden (47%), Denmark (43%), Australia (42%) and Norway (40%).

US Postal Service uses augmented reality in holiday app Washington Post

USPS customers can use the app to scan the company’s blue collection boxes and turn it ‘magical’. The agency will update the app with a different animation each week.

How will augmented reality change our lives? Brain Blogger

‘AR will be increasingly used for marketing purposes. We could walk in front of a retail outlet and see ourselves in a jeans advert, to check out how good we look in them. This form of street marketing is already within reach, allowing a mixing of contextual information related to both the client and the product.’

Apple begins to focus on its virtual and augmented reality gaming plan App Advice

An increase in job openings at Apple for gaming-heavy roles such as ‘an App Engineer who would be tasked with creating apps that integrate with VR systems for prototyping and user testing’ implies the tech giant is getting more serious about building virtual and augmented reality functions into their products.

A future full of augmented reality is closer than you think Business 2 Community

‘Augmented reality has the potential to transform the experiences that as marketers, we strive to create, enhance and provide for our clients and their customers. AR does this by enabling new forms of visualization and interaction between brands and users – leveraging both the physical and digital elements in our lives.’