Leo Burnett Sydney has created an augmented reality app for Samsung and Surf Life Saving Australia that helps Aussies understand beaches’ number one hazard, rips. The app lets beachgoers see what lifesavers see and identify the dangerous spots in the surf by using a combination of data that is uploaded by the on-duty lifeguards and surf lifesavers as well as AR, GPS, Compass, Gyroscope and image recognition.
Philip Newton, corporate vice president and chief marketing officer, Samsung explained, “Each year Samsung looks at local real life issues affecting Australians and how technology can help support or solve the problem. Pocket Patrol allows Samsung to support SLSA by providing a tool to help them educate beachgoers regarding rips and hazards at the beach.”
The agency, led by joint executive creative directors, Grant McAloon and Vince Lagana, put together two facts of Australian life to create the app – smartphones are becoming a natural extension in people’s lives and two-thirds of Australian beach goers unable to identify a rip. [Source: Surf Lifesaving Australia, beachsafe.org.au/surf-safety/ripcurrents] The app allows lifeguards and surf lifesavers to pinpoint dangers in real time.
“It was important that Pocket Patrol was easy to use,” Lagana added. It had to be as simple as holding up your smartphone to the water. Augmented Reality became a natural fit to implement into the app. Pocket Patrol is the first time that this technology and GPS have been used together to display hidden dangers in such a manner. Making it happen meant pushing the technology to its current limits so we could achieve a level of accuracy satisfaction for both SLSA and Samsung.”
The pilot program for Pocket Patrol took place from October 22 through to November 13, at selected beaches on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Pocket Patrol is part of Samsung’s Launching People initiative, the global brand campaign that started in 2013 to help consumers “unleash their potential and create meaningful change” using Samsung technology.
More than 2,000 beachgoers tried Pocket Patrol during the four-week pilot, learning how they too can identify rips and other potential hazards. A further three million connected with the program through Virtual Reality, 360 film and online content that communicated the importance of beach safety.
Shane Daw, coastal safety manager at Surf Life Saving Australia, commented, “The identification of rip currents and other hazards displayed through Samsung Pocket Patrol’s augmented reality program has greatly assisted in providing increased education and awareness.”
