Bangkok, Thailand-based graphic design agency Work Actually has recently partnered with Thanachart (TNC) Bank, one of Thailand’s largest banks, to help bring a bit of interactivity to its customers.

Each year the bank gives out calendars to current and new customers, and this year scanning the calendar with the Layar App reveals extra digital content. Work Actually has commissioned portraits of Thailand’s King, Bhumibol Adulyadej by artist Atelier PorChong to feature in the calendar.

Scanning the portraits plays music composed by the King himself, who is actually an accomplished jazz saxophone player. A total of 800,000 calendars have been printed and distributed to bank branches, including 450,000 hanging calendars and 350,000 desk calendars.

So far the calendars have been a great success in Thailand, attracting hundreds of thousands of pageviews and interactions. What’s even more impressive is the average user is scanning over-and-over, with an average of 10 pageviews and 8 interactions per person. It’s only a few weeks into the new year and already around 3% of the calendars have been scanned, based on unique users.

Check out the video above to see more about this campaign, or try it yourself by scanning here on our Client Examples page.

The Vlaams Radio Koor (Flemish Radio Choir) from Belgium has created a series of 3D postage stamp videos for a new line of stamps, and the results are incredible!

As you can see in the video above, scanning one of the stamps with the Layar App displays a video playing inside a 3D model of a concert stage. The experience is incredibly immersive, as you can move in and out and look around inside the stage as a video message plays as the backdrop.

The video and Interactive Print campaign were produced and created by Havas Worldwide, one of the world’s largest marketing agencies. To promote a concert series of music based on letters sent by Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann, Havas created the idea for a “singing stamp” that comes to life.

How did they achieve this effect? It’s built from two basic components of the Layar Creator: a 3D model (using the HOTSPOT button in the Creator) placed on top of a video button. The resulting effect of being inside the concert hall is terrific!

Read Havas’ press release about the “singing stamp” for more information, including how to order your own set of the stamps!

“Full Frequency,” the latest album from international recording artist Sean Paul, features an interactive cover that comes to life when scanned with the Layar App.

When scanning the cover with the Layar App, fans can watch a video of Sean Paul himself welcoming them to his new album and point out links to his social channels, tour info and more.

Khaliq King and Kai Williams of the Jamaican company Creative Solutions were hired by Sean Paul to add interactivity to the cover of his new album. The company partnered with local web developers ZIPTEQ to collaborate on the project and produce the video.

“The idea was to not only present this really cool new technology, but to provide an intimate and personal experience for Sean Paul’s fans and an entrance for people who have purchased the album to know more about Sean Paul,” said King.

In addition to promoting the interactive cover through his Facebook page (where he has over 9.3 million fans), Sean Paul has talked about the campaign in interviews on TV and on radio.

To check it out yourself, click here to scan the album cover with the Layar App.

SoundCloud is a great way for anyone to upload, listen and share audio, from music to podcasts and more. Now, in the Layar Creator, you can easily add SoundCloud audio to your interactive print.

As of today in the Layar Creator, you’ll find our new SoundCloud widget in the Media section of our Standard buttons. Here’s how to add a SoundCloud audio file to your campaign:

1. Enter the SoundCloud URL for the piece of audio you want to add.
2. Choose whether the audio should autoplay or not.
3. Hit “Apply changes” and you’re done!

You’ll see a nice little SoundCloud widget appear on your page, complete with the track’s artwork, name, artist and duration. When a user scans your page, they can tap the orange play button to listen to the audio or tap the SoundCloud logo to view the track on the web.

ALSO! We have new sharing options right here on the blog!

If you look below this post, you’ll notice that Facebook and Twitter have been joined by LinkedIn, Pinterest and Email sharing options. We hope you find these added options useful for sharing our posts with your friends, family, followers and contacts! 

We know that you’ve just been itching to sit back and soak up a nice long video about augmented reality, the future and the evolution of technology. Well, your wait is over as we have for you another keynote from Augmented Reality Event 2011 in Santa Clara, California. This time, we’ve got Jaron Lanier who spoke for a good 40 minutes at ARE for the attendees.

Lanier is a computer scientist well-known for ushering in the term “virtual reality.” He helped develop some of the first VR goggles and gloves, and in recent days has worked with Second Life and Xbox Kinnect. He also is a music composer, connoisseur and instrument collector, and he showed off one of his unique instruments at ARE.

At the beginning of his talk, Lanier plays a khene, an ancient Laotian instrument. Lanier says the khene is possibly the first example of digital technology because sounds are created by air flowing through a series of open and shut (on versus off, 1 versus zero) switches. He uses this as a launching point for his discussion of technology, making for a very interesting talk.