In 2019, I had to do a presentation to a bunch of execs about Augmented Reality. I was going to be challenged on time, and so wanted to do a pre-read so as to not spend time on a bunch of the ‘AR 101’ what-if use case scenarios and the like. Also, I was aware that often, pre-reads don’t get read - especially if their on something that is outside the core business, as was the case here.

I wanted to do something that would both compel folk to read, and that would easily convey the subject matter.

I took inspiration from a comic I’d seen a few years back, SVK, by Warren Ellis. SVK’s plot centered around AR-tech, and the comic shipped with a UV penlight disguised as a keycard that you, the reader, had mistakenly got hold of. That penlight revealed the AR elements that the main character in the story was seeing. You can read a bit more about it on my old blog.

I crafted a zine that was half AR whitepaper, half illustrative guide, and had AR elements printed on it with UV ink. I then had a bunch of glasses made up that were simple black framed glasses with a UV penlight stuck to one of the arms with shrinkwrap tubing. The reader would don the glasses, read the zine, and with each turn of the page, press a little button behind their ear to flood the page with UV light and reveal those elements.

I can’t put the entirety of the zine online (work related) but the illustrations were the interesting bits and are generic AR use cases.

Photographing the UV elements is tough to do. My cellphone camera automatically adjusts the exposure way down when exposed to the UV, which is not what it looks like in real life. Normally the page is fully lit from the room’s regular lighting, then the UV light only casts a slight glow but reveals the ‘secret’ AR content otherwise invisible. A few pics below.