Background:
Creating a menu in Augmented Reality was possibly one of the first use cases of how AR can bring value to businesses, especially for airlines. The main problem with most of the AR experience is that it will require the installation of additional applications where the experience will be “hosted”. When AirAsia’s team approached Vostok VR, they were sure that they wanted to provide the magic of Augmented Reality without the need to install an application. The team wanted to create an interactive AR menu, allowing customers to preview dishes before boarding the plane, making their purchase once on-board. WebAR was a fitting platform for this.
Innovation:
WebAR technology started to develop a few years back and its features were limited by the times. Only basic AR experiences were possible due to slower internet connections and more limited technology. Nowadays the internet connection has significantly improved (with up to 5G in selected regions) and the world has undergone many technological advances, thus dramatically pushing the medium further.
For our project, we used photogrammetry of the food in order to transfer every detail of each dish, however small. Special food artists prepared each of the dishes and we made 200-300 images per dish. After the initial stage of post-processing, the total 3D model was well above 100MB (something impossible to use via WebAR). It took another four iterations to create a 3D model that would be able to load within 3-5 seconds using average mobile phone connection in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Manila.
Results:
We built an immersive WebAR experience that works on every mobile device. No app required.
First test launch is planned at Kota Kinabalu airport and, if successful, we plan to expand it into 120 airports where AirAsia has a presence.
Initial feedback from the AirAsia team was very positive and extra features (such as highlighting of the ingredients and providing information about allergens) have been suggested for the new release.
Platform Used:
WebAR experience (works for both iOS and Android)
Supports most of browsers for Android (Chrome, Firefox, Samsung Internet)
For iOS, it only supports Safari
