Amongst our excitement this week for the release of Prezi Next there was something else magical happening across the pond in Vancouver at the latest TED Conference. Prezi was getting ready to show off something that is really going to blow the minds of all presenters. A version of Prezi with built in Augmented Reality.
Let me say that again just so it hits home. Augmented reality in Prezi.
I know, mind blown right!
An explanation
Prezi teamed up with TED speaker Robert Sapolsky who was scheduled to talk to the live audience in Vancouver. Except Robert wasn’t in Vancouver to give the speech, he was at Prezi HQ in San Francisco!
Robert was being filmed giving the speech live, and that was then beamed to the audience at TED. This was done so that the magicians at Prezi could then overlay the Augmented Reality presentation on top of Robert and he could control it with simple gestures.
The actual TED talk isn’t yet available but here’s a short preview of Prezi AR from Adam Somlai-Fischer one of the founders of Prezi, and in our eyes a presentation technology guru:
So what does this really mean?
If we break this down and think about what it might mean for all presenters in the future it’s really exciting.
In a future where online presenting and video conferencing is favoured over expensive travelling to be somewhere in person, we will all be able to give online presentations that aren’t just us talking to a boring old slide deck. The audiences we present to around the world will be able to see us, and also see really impactful visuals (the Prezi) overlaying the video feed.
It also means we will be able to interact with the presentation content in a very natural way. Removing the need for wireless clickers or us trying to click the mouse in order to advance the slides.
It’s a huge leap towards presentations being delivered in a more natural way.
When can we use Prezi AR?
The news of Prezi AR is hot off the press this morning. We haven’t got any official dates or development schedules from Prezi, but as soon as we do it’ll all be posted to our blog.
Russell (aka The Prezenter)
