TED Talks: Marco Tempest in AR

The Medium is the Message.

In his presentation to TED Talks, A magical tale (with augmented reality) , magician Marco Tempest talked about magic and storytelling. It didn't have any overt agenda, instead focusing on entertaining the audience. Marco spoke without a powerpoint, charts, or graphs of any kind, but it did have a twist: the talk was done using Augmented Reality.

Marco Tempest was talking into a device that recorded him, his motions, and overlaid special effects on the video being shown on the video screen in real time. He used these special effects to both entertain and to provide visuals in order to illustrate his points. They blended with the magic tricks he was performing and greatly enhanced the talk. And that was his argument.When asked for ideas for applications for Augmented Reality technologies, people tend to think of AR in terms of displaying data, like what they see in movies like Iron Man or Minority Report. They've put AR into a box. Marco Tempest, without directly invoking this, simply shows how AR can also be used in entertainment.

From a technical perspective, Marco made excellent use of the AR integration into his presentation. He was awash in visual props to help make his points and matched his pacing to the visuals he was using. For instance, he covered more ground in his 6 minutes than would normally be advisable as the audience might not be able to keep up. However, the flurry of visuals emphasized his words. He also divided the talk into 3 major points. Each of those points opened with a quote and a pause before and after the quote. While the audience was treated to a special effect while the quote was being shared, it also provided a brief pause for the audience to process what they'd seen thus far. Using these techniques, he was able to present his information at a faster than normal pace as well as direct his audience's attention. This is an excellent example of how AR can be used outside the context of eye-wear.

The medium is the message.