It’s sorta strange that our first post is not about the project, but instead introduces a new acronym/term: LARE. However, we felt it very important to start with this because we want to establish a concept and premise that isn’t exactly 100% clear right now.
With many AR experiences, the creators augment ANY reality around the participant. This is fine and wonderful, but not what we’re after. Some experiences are pinned to specific world coordinates too. Saying, you need to be nearby or in a certain space to participate in the same generic experience for every participant. While that second one is closer to what we’re seeking, it’s still not 100% either. Therefore, to explain what it is we’re trying to achieve, we’ve settled upon calling it a LARE.
What is a LARE?
As a team, we were talking about what type of AR experiences we wanted to build. I said this in an internal call:
Urban skaters see something built for a non-skating purpose and say, “This will provide an amazing experience for me and my board.” Movie makers look at distinct real world locations and say, “I want my movie to be shot there, because the location itself is a character and adds to the story.” We provide a mix of both in our (catchy term for our unique type of AR experiences).
In our vision, the experiences are built around specific fixed objects within specific real world locations. These objects (benches, statues, lamposts, trees, etc) are key characters that are just as important as the manufactured characters we place in and around them. We want to build experiences where the environment is not just a prop to provide a generic experience, but are a key reason for why our characters exist and are doing the actions they are doing.
The more I thought about the term LARE, the more it made perfect sense as the word to use. Here are some random thoughts I jotted down to justify it:
- Location awARE – Our experiences are not just based on a specific GPS coordinate, but are also aware of the items existing at those coordinates
- Living Augmented Reality Experience – These will take place in real living spaces that will continue to grow and change over time. As they do, our experiences will have to take those changes into consideration
- “Dare to LARE” – A catchy phrase to encourage folks to go out and experience their favorite places in a new, unique way
- “Scare LARE” – A horror themed experience
- Lare – an obsolete word that used to mean “learning”, which we think makes sense to use as you learn to interact with familiar places in new ways
So, we make LAREs and hopefully you now understand what that means. What is the first LARE we’re making? Funny you should ask. That’ll be the subject of our next post. 🙂 (Spoiler alert: You can learn some early details in the About page)