How Christmas went hi-tech with augmented reality reindeers and interactive trees

It's a merry techmas in the capital with interactive trees and augmented reality reindeer, says Rachael Sigee
An AR Rudolph flying over Covent Garden
Rachael Sigee17 November 2016

Christmas is supposed to be the pinnacle of tradition. The same drinks with your friends from school, the same stocking fillers (always a Terry’s Chocolate Orange) and the same feeling of dread the morning after the office party.

But this year tech is tweaking our festive season and sprinkling a little extra magic around the city.

Usually, getting your phone out on a busy shopping thoroughfare is a high risk game, but at Christmas normal rules are suspended. If you stop by Covent Garden for a mulled wine, get your phone out and open up a new augmented reality (AR). More than 140 shops in the area have partnered with the Blippar app to enhance the Christmas shopping experience.

The app will allow you to scan swing tags in stores to access gifting tips from top magazine editors or catch reindeer swooping around the piazza: think Pokémon Go but with Rudolph instead of Bulbasaur. There is also a 50ft tree that looks awe-inspiring in reality but even better in AR where it will be the key to unlocking rewards and offers when you hold your phone up to it.

Danny Lopez, the Blippar COO, thinks that the festive season is the perfect time to experiment with tech and see how it can give people that extra element in their in-store experience that they want.

He says: “It made complete sense to do this in the run up to Christmas where people are already in a pretty magical mood and they want to be excited and they want to have fun. Christmas is tradition so in a way you expect the same thing to happen every year and it does. Now we’re giving them those ingredients but with a new enhancement to take them to a whole new level. For me, it’s a glimpse into the future of retail.”

Covent Garden's interactive Christmas tree

It’s not just shopping: the window displays of London’s department stores are as momentous in the festive season as the Coca-Cola advert, your first mince pie and the opening notes of Mariah Carey blasting out at the end of the night. Harrods has teamed up with Burberry this year to make a more interactive experience for shoppers. As customers walk past the windows they can trigger touch and motion sensors that will affect the music and lighting of the displays.

Gifts for Harry Potter fans - in pictures

1/10

At the top of the Shard, technology is reaching new heights as restaurant Aqua Shard shuns the traditional Norwegian spruce in favour of a 3D-printed installation of thousands of leaves cascading nine metres from the ceiling. The leaves forming the sculpture, called Human Nature, will be 3D printed using recycled plastic from items including fridges and bottles. Designed in collaboration with David Attenborough, the leaves will be sold individually after Christmas to raise money for the Flora & Fauna International conservation charity.

The Shard's 3D printed Christmas tree

Innovation is key: Claridge’s, known for tapping into the zeitgeist, has Sir Jony Ive, chief design officer at Apple, co-designing its tree this year. Unveiled this Saturday, details are top secret but the man who has overseen the design of the iMac, iPhone and Apple Watch is sure to be pushing boundaries.

You can even digitise your home decorations. The Rockingham tree from B&Q is bluetooth-enabled and will flash its lights in time to your music (£148, diy.com).

And if you’ve already been emotionally played by the John Lewis Christmas advert, you might as well let them mess with your other senses too. At the flagship store on Oxford Street, you can jump around on a real trampoline but whilst wearing a virtual reality headset so you can be joined by some critters as you bounce. Tech the halls.

Follow Rachael Sigee on Twitter: @littlewondering

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT