Inc. — “Fashionista—helping retailers use augmented reality to inspire sales”
Hold up certain bottles of the sports drink Muscle Milk to a webcam, and something strange happens. Shaquille O’Neal suddenly pops out of the bottle on your computer screen, like some kind of virtual genie. The 7-foot basketball star, who now appears only a few inches tall, stands firmly on the bottle cap, even when you move the bottle around. It’s not a hologram — it’s all happening on the screen, but it looks as if tiny Shaq is right in front of you, cracking jokes and interacting with animations that pop up around him. At one point, he even jams on an animated electric guitar before appearing to dive back into the bottle with a splash.