The Big Issue magazine has launched “augmented reality” technology to bring their vendors’ stories to life because the public are failing to understand the scale of homelessness in the UK. The street magazine, which was founded in 1991, believes technology will allow them to “hammer home the message” of Britain’s unprecedented homelessness issue which people need to “better understand”. The innovative new approach, which launches today, includes augmented reality (AR) interactions throughout the publication. Readers can download an app onto their mobile phones, scan it over AR icons in the magazine and watch traditional print articles come to life in video. This includes the cover story of vendor Ann Warke, 53, who turned to The Big Issue when she couldn’t afford to pay her rent due to losing her job. Ben Sullivan, digital editor at The Big Issue, told the Telegraph: “We are doing this mainly for the vendors.
Poverty - focused street magazine The Big Issue has integrated augmented reality ( AR ) technology into its publication as a way to show the extent of homelessness in the UK . Readers will now have the choice to download the magazine 's app on their smartphone and , by using AR icons in the magazine 's articles , the images come to life . The first AR issue features the words of Big Issue vendor Anne Warke , who took to the technology after losing her job . It is thought that the bi - monthly AR stories will help to demonstrate the extent of homelessness and how the system fails these people .