Augmented Reality Bus Shelter @ HSBC

HSBC • 2014

Combining real-time street view with AR effect

Ever imagined you could play some AR game while waiting for the bus? onActivity made this possible by building an augmented reality bus shelter for HSBC, for the implementation of HSBC credit card marketing campaign.
A bus shelter at Chater Road, Central was equipped with a GoPro camera to capture the real-time street view, and the video signal obtained from the camera is integrated with AR effect to create a seamless yet surprising experience for passersby – interacting with zebras on the busy streets of Central! People can enjoy a wonderful moment while waiting for the bus.

The Challenges

Augmented Reality – the scenes of zebras galloping on the road are pre-rendered and then overlaid onto the real-time street view which is captured by the GoPro camera at the back of the screen, making it look like the zebras are actually there at that particular moment. Since the zebras will appear after a certain time of inactivity (i.e. no cars passing by), onsite road conditions have to be analysed and taken into account when tuning the capture frame rate and sensitivity, so as to ensure detection accuracy. Also, images captured by GoPro’s fish-eye lens are distorted, which need to be undistorted back to normal images.
Outdoor environment presents many challenges for the installation such as raining and leakage problem. So the kiosk needs to be made waterproof to protect the camera from rain.

Award winning marketing campaign

This project won Gold Award in the Best Creative Campaign category of the Maze Awards 2014, an award organized by JCDecaux Cityscape to honour the most innovative, creative and stunning campaigns at bus shelters and tramcars. The creative ideas, functional innovation and presentation visuals all count towards the success. The bus shelter’s unique nature makes it the best media to bring this campaign concept to life, helping the advertiser shine its brand at street level.

onActivity oversaw the entire software engineering, programming, system integration and installation process.

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