A new dimension to a restaurant experience with augmented reality

Restaurant Version, Helsinki

Client challenge

How to extend the brand identity into the digital dimension
How to offer a new and exciting experience to the restaurant’s customers

End users

The customers of restaurant Version and marketing and sales professionals

Content and interactivity

Interactive 3D animations that float above the meals and drinks when activated by the customer

Stereoscape x Loihde Ateljee solution

Complement the menu of the restaurant by adding a digital “spice” in the meals and drinks
The customers point at their meal or drink with their smartphone, activating a digital spice – for example a flying hummingbird or an artist’s brushstroke – that appears over the drink or the meal
The digital content and the physical object (meal or drink) are visible over each other, creating a new, added dimension to the physical experience
The customers can save a video of the augmented reality experience, for sharing on social media

Solution type

A mobile phone application utilising augmented reality

Distribution and display

A web based application downloadable on a smartphone. The 3D content is activated when the user points their smartphone at small printed symbols attached to the plates and glasses. The user can get a “souvenir” of the experience in the form of a video that is shareable on social media.

Adds an exciting digital dimension to a physical experience

Delights and inspires guests and increases engagement

Conveys innovation and enhances customer experience

Shareable experience promotes digital brand identity

Opportunity

Restaurant Version is a California-themed bar and eatery located in the heart of Helsinki city centre. The restaurant wanted to engage its customers by offering a fun experience beyond the food and drink: an added “spice” that gets people talking and extends the restaurant’s brand of relaxed fun into the digital sphere.

Solution

The creative concept was to bring a piece of Californian nature to the diners in Helsinki: something that would not be possible in the real world, but could be created with augmented reality.

A mobile phone application was created in collaboration with Loihde Ateljee that the restaurant’s customers could download and point at their meals and drinks, opening surprising content that would float above the food and drink. Animated 3D content of digital hummingbirds and other natural elements from Californian nature would appear to enliven the dining experience and create a talking point among the diners.

The animated content was created in close collaboration with the client’s restaurant manager and a special menu and cocktail created to bring the digital and physical experiences seamlessly together. For example, a blue, digital brush stroke from the mobile application would extend to a cocktail that was specifically designed for the event, sharing the same blue colour in the physical drink and digitally created layer.

The application was activated by pointing at printed symbols that were attached to the plates and glasses of the diners. The diners would hover their phone over the drink and meal and the digital layer would appear over it. A video combining the physical and digital layers could be saved on the customer’s phone and shared on social media.