Research.

Artistic:

Ar has been used in many artisc ways. One being a sculptre made by Paulo Valbeuna, which is a series of cuboids. These cuboids are then overlaid with neon stroke, this gives off a 'Tron' like vibe.

http://thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/blog/creativity-bytes-a-guide-to-augmented-reality-art-exhibits

The most amazing example of artistic AR I've seen is probably in Prague, where they had a projection mapped installation to commemorate their astrological clocktower's 600th aniversery. This used multiple projectors projecting on the clocktower describing its history. This shows how AR can be used to produce a breathtaking, engaging installation, while still being educational.

The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo.

Industry:

One fantastic example of AR being used already is an Android application called Layar. This is a search engine based on location and AR. It takes input from the camera and applies locations via AR as shown in this video below:

Another example was a few months ago, if you bought a pack of Cheestrings you got a pack of cards. One of those cards had an AR code on it. Going on their website and downloading their software enabled you to view the AR content. here is an example of me doing so:

While the content isn't at all impressive (2D animation on a flat plane perpendicular to the card, it shows that companies are realizing the power of AR as an effective means of advertising. While now it's a rather novel technology, people are developing increasingly astounding ways of using it's power. For example this video shows how AR can be used in business cards:

The interactivity involved in this is brilliant, and with some behind the scenes code, ad the business cards 'connect' contact information could automatically be shared and saved between cards. A paper by Hirokazu Kato of Hiroshima City University published an article describing the method for a video based AR conferencing system.

Academic:

An amazing example of AR in academia is Word Lens for the iPhone. It's a translation application that overlays the translated text on top of the actual text. Using AR in this kind of educational manner is a really nice method of breaking language barriers and providing useful information to travelers going to foreign countries. Using this kind of technology to translate language at a level accessible commercially an incredible step forward in AR.