The best thing about being on the cutting edge of implementing new technology is that it’s pretty damn exciting. The worst thing about being on the cutting edge of figuring out how new technology will be most successfully implemented is that it’s insanely challenging. If I was a bajillionaire, I’d have like five think tanks that would work nonstop on new ideas I threw at them. But I’m not and I don’t, so I guess I get to do the brainstorming myself.

Image recognition (yes, QR codes are already outdated) and Augmented Reality (AR) on mobile devices are two of the new technologies that make the neurons in my brain start firing so fast that I can’t even keep up with my own thoughts. Ben and Jerry’s is the first company I’ve seen yet (see the video below) who is using them in a way that I think will be pretty successful from a marketing/promotional angle. What they are doing is super cool, and I’m probably going to download the app even though I don’t eat ice cream.

However, when I see what they’re doing, I realize it’s only a crude preview of what this technology is capable of, what it will become and, most importantly, what it will be used for. Here you see it used on a mobile phone, but just imagine what AR on an iPad could be, and I’m not talking about for silly cartoonish purposes…I mean for – well, I’ve got some ideas, but you don’t get to hear them. I want to keep my competitive edge, after all. Now I feel like I shouldn’t even be showing you this video. In fact, forget that you even read this post.