Munich-based augmented reality specialist, metaio, has teamed with the UK's Royal Mail service; near field communication (NFC) and 2D bar coding specialist, RBIT; and digital marketing agency, m2end, to add a thematically related interactive enhancement to the Royal Mail's new "Great British Railway" special stamp issue.
Consumers can point their iPhone or Android smartphone's camera at the stamp--after launching metaio's junaio AR browser and the browser's Royal Mail channel--in order to unlock supplemental video content: a recital by actor, Bernard Cribbins, of the poem, "Night Mail." According to metaio, this "intelligent stamp" technology--which is based on the company's ability to "glue" digital (3D or multimedia) information onto objects (see the article published on itvt.com, June 1st)--will also be made available on future special stamps from the Royal Mail. "This is the first time a national postal service has used this kind of technology on their stamps and we're very excited to be bringing intelligent stamps to the nation's post," the Royal Mail's head of stamp strategy, Philip Parker, said in a prepared statement. "Through Intelligent Stamp technology, our stamps will open up to a whole new world of information, interest and fun to collectors and the millions of people who will receive them on letters in the coming months alike." A demo video is embedded above.
