We've all seen brilliant examples of augmented reality (opens in new tab) - the melding of live action footage with CGI to create something verging on the magical. And they've often been used for pranks, such as this hilarious stunt by Adobe (opens in new tab) and another where Pepsi made commuters jump out of their skin (opens in new tab). But now the soft drinks giant has taken advanced face tracking technology and – apparently – done something truly mindblowing with it.
In the video, unsuspected patrons of Bayswater Cinema, London, fall victim to a Halloween prank when washing their hands in the bathroom. Staring into the mirror, they see a live reflection of themselves looking like a deathly ghoul or vicious werewolf, making them jump out their skins.
Viewers, though, aren't wholly convinced. The video's posting on Facebook (opens in new tab) has attracted a storm of criticism, with commenters suspecting that the whole thing has been staged by actors. There's also disbelief over whether such advanced use of real-time rendering (opens in new tab) is even technically possible, and speculation on how members of the public could have been filmed without any visible cameras in the bathroom.
Whether this is a well-made fake or the best-ever use of AR, or a mixture of both, instant disbelief is not generally what you want your advertising to inspire. So with this augmented realty ad Pepsi may have underestimated the scepticism of today's tech-savvy, socially-connected generation...
