Engaging and Immersing Weather App Users with Augmented Reality to Expedite Hazard Planning; with Live, 2-way Interactive, Outdoor Broadcasts to Address Communication Gaps (User Location & Recommended Actions)

The weather enterprise broadcast community encounters users who have shorter attention spans, they reside on a mobile device, they crave authenticity, they seek education and expertise, and desire engagement via conversation that steers toward their forecast needs. Confounding us, we notice they ask where they are located on a map, and request advice on what they should actually DO when there's a weather threat. Augmented Reality (AR) can bridge these gaps, along with a suite of emerging communications tools, built into one broadcasting product.

As meteorologists we can reach users and can keep their attention by starting a 2-way dialog while we broadcast. We can now demonstrably show expected weather—not just tell or narrate it—and its impacts, at their current location. When they see it, and how it impacts the structure/home/hotel they're in, the broadcast meteorologist can display a list of actions and even illuminate an evacuation route to consider using, if applicable. Engaging users is what keeps this communications product fresh, adaptive, attention-worthy, and driven by users themselves. Users will know where to turn for weather education during stable weather and where to turn for recommended actions needed during serious weather.

Weather broadcast communications and use new technology now available, to deliver information where users essentially live: on their mobile devices. Our approach is with mobile broadcast product. Live, 2-way interactive, mobile, outdoor, augmented reality (AR), weather & climate reporting in these broadcasts increases engagement so that we can be avenues for education and the go-to when severe weather threatens. Adding AR utilizes a user's location services to display weather threats right outside their room or window of their own house, thus increasing likelihood that a user takes action. No longer will they worry where they are located on a map or potentially not understand what a threat means or what action they should take. They will now see the threat in a virtual AR layer during the broadcast, coming at them and over the shoulder of the broadcast meteorologist narrating, live, on-screen. The user will see the weather content within their surroundings. The on-screen meteorologist can even get into the experience, by perhaps partially getting wet or blown around by the AR overlay.