IT Glossary
What is augmented reality (AR)?
A digital layer over the real world: through a phone camera, virtual products in your own room, instructions over machinery, information over reality.
Augmented reality does not take you out of the world — that is virtual reality, with its headsets. It adds a digital layer over what you already see: through a phone camera, a virtual sofa appears in your actual living room at actual size; glasses are tried on your own face inside an online shop; navigation arrows are drawn onto the real pavement; service instructions sit over the machine in front of a technician. The technology left the demo stage long ago and runs natively on modern phones, including straight from the browser through WebAR, with no exotic application required. The business cases proven with numbers form a short list. Commerce in products that must be seen in context — furniture, décor, appliances — where see it in your room measurably reduces uncertainty, lifts conversion and cuts returns, which is the most direct financial argument for the technology. Virtual try-on for eyewear, cosmetics and watches, now standard among large retailers. Industry and field service, where step-by-step instructions overlay the equipment and a remote expert draws over what the technician sees, meaning fewer journeys and fewer errors. Property and construction, where a future project is visualized on the real plot. And experiential marketing, memorable when it has a purpose and a gadget when it does not. For a mid-sized company the right calibration is not an AR strategy but a narrow question: is there a moment where a customer hesitates because they cannot see the product in context, or a field process where paper instructions cost real errors?
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247
Why it matters for your business
Pre-purchase uncertainty reduced
See the product in your own home answers exactly the question that blocks the order — with the effect measured in conversion and in fewer returns.
Field work assisted remotely
An expert sees through the technician’s camera and draws instructions over reality — problems get solved without a second journey and without descriptions garbled over the phone.
Memorable differentiation
A well-targeted AR experience is remembered and retold — a perception advantage that one more banner cannot copy.
Frequently asked questions
Do customers need a special app to see products in AR?
Not necessarily, and that is the good news of recent years: WebAR runs straight from a phone browser, opened by a link or a QR code, and viewing 3D models is native on both iOS and Android. A dedicated app remains for complex experiences, but for see it in your room the installation friction has disappeared, which radically changes the share of people who actually use it.
What does it cost to bring my products into AR?
The main cost is the 3D models of the products themselves: from tens of euros per item for simple scanning or modelling at volume, to hundreds for complex products with fine detail, plus integration into the site, which ranges from ready-made modules on major e-commerce platforms to custom development. The rational pilot is ten to twenty representative products, measured on conversion and returns against the rest of the catalogue.
AR or VR — which is relevant for an ordinary company?
For most, augmented reality: it runs on the phones customers already carry and attaches naturally to commerce, field work and service. Virtual reality, with full immersion and dedicated headsets, has serious niches — training for situations that are dangerous or expensive to rehearse, property and project presentations, complex configuration — but it needs hardware and a controlled setting. The short rule: a customer in a shop or on a website means AR; a trainee in a showroom might mean VR.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247