Last year, Esquire magazine attempted to evolve magazines into the digital realm with its October 2008 75th Anniversary issue featuring "E-Ink," which got a ton of hype and just about as much criticism. Nevertheless, Editor-in-Chief David Granger this year continues to ambitiously test the waters of integrating print and digital in the magazine's Augmented Reality issue, on newsstands now. Augmented Reality (AR) takes a multi-dimensional look at cover kid Robert Downey Jr., jokes around with Gillian Jacobs and looks fashionable with French photographer Jeremy Renner.

A new look at fashion.

The term Augmented Reality refers to when the physical or real-world environment is merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery—creating a mixed reality. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally available. As in the case with Esquire, once you download the accompanying software (a crutch they'll need to bypass in the future) a computer with object recognition recognizes symbols imbedded within the magazine and then, in-turn, interacts with the magazine itself.

Robert Downey, Jr. being obnoxious

Augmented Reality presents an interesting publishing opportunity between print and online models. The problem with online models is that they have never successfully created a pay-to-read subscription model, but they are becoming the overwhelming favorite due to factors like convenience, interactivity and speed of news. Will Augmented Reality take over anytime soon? No. But it is interesting to watch the development and integration of it one page at a time.

Beautiful Woman tells an AR-enhanced joke