News: Samsung Sends Family Guy into Augmented Reality to Showcase Connected Home Products

On Friday, at IFA 2018 in Berlin, Samsung invited attendees into the residence of Family Guy's Griffin family to learn all about its "smart home" products via augmented reality.

"If Peter Griffin can have a smart home, then everyone can," said Samsung via its webpage for the "Doorways" experience (translated via Google Translate). "We partnered with Family Guy to bring you the magic of a fully networked home with a unique AR experience."

The Doorways AR experience, developed by creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, uses Google ARCore to project Samsung appliances into the makeshift home and simulate interactions with Bixby (Samsung's AI assistant). Using image recognition to scan the walls and floor of the booth, the app replaces the room with a digital rendering of the Griffin's animated home.

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"I did it. It's a Google [ARCore] experience where you walk around the Griffin home and complete household tasks with Bixby and virtual Samsung appliances," said Avi Greengart, a tech analyst for GlobalData, via Twitter. "A bit clunky, but lets you experience the integration."

While part of the appeal of augmented reality is bringing virtual content to audiences wherever they are, marketing departments are also finding some utility with the technology for so-called "experiential marketing."

In this case, Samsung employed augmented reality to cut through the noise at a major trade show to attract attendees to its booth in order to teach them about its products and evangelize the connected home life. Nevertheless, according to Samsung, the experience will soon be available online as well.