Building an AR Photo
Booth for SXSW

TL;DR

An experiential AR activation for SXSW

Augmented Reality is one of the most exciting tools in the marketing toolkit. Interactive by nature, it deeply engages audiences and invites them to connect with brands in a flat-out-fun way.

Wanting to demonstrate the potential of AR to marketers and technologists during SXSW, we teamed up with AMD to create a one-of-a-kind Augmented Reality photo booth. Built with the housing of a vintage slot machine, and decked out in throwback neon graphics, the booth sported serious 80s charm as it made its way to various events throughout the festival.

Work

The Booth, Powered by AMD

Our team created the photo booth completely in-house. First, we engineered custom hardware and designed eye-catching graphics to make it look the part. Then, we partnered with AMD to power it with a Radeon Pro WX7100 graphics card and a Ryzen 7 1800X processor. And finally, we programmed a library of AR effects to bring the vision to life.

Work

The Execution

The Augmented Reality photo booth made appearances at SXSW parties and events throughout Austin, including Stream SXSW and a VR meetup at Capital Factory. At every stop, the experience was a hit. With each pull of the lever, the booth used facial recognition technology to drop AR props on partygoers’ faces, applied a fun frame, and automatically posted the resulting photo to Facebook. From cowboy hats and rabbit ears to pirate patches and tiaras, the AR photo booth dressed every user to the nines.

Opportunity

AR for Marketing

Whether through physical activations like the AR photo booth or mobile experiences like Snapchat Lenses, Augmented Reality provides a fun and effective way for brands to engage their audiences. So effective, in fact, that global use of AR marketing is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.79% from 2017 to 2022.*

If you have an AR project in mind or are simply interested in exploring the possibilities of Augmented Reality for your business, we’re here to help.