Some Thoughts on Augmented Reality

A little bit ago I posted links to an exciting, emerging technology called 'Augmented Reality.' For those unfamiliar with it, essentially you have a product with some sort of code on it that your webcam reads, and then creates a 3D rendering on top of the product that has a varying degree of interactivity attached to it.

Here is an example I played around with

While there have been lots of examples of this (such as chess games where you literally can move nonexistent pieces,) the most successful example of this to date was pointed out to me recently at work — interactive 3D baseball cards. Unfortunately I can't embed the video but it can be found here:

http://www.t-immersion.com/

For those too lazy to watch the first minute or so of that video, he is essentially what goes down:

Click to Enlarge

I think that Topps is doing a great thing here in an industry that has stagnated in recent years as it seems to have lost touch with its demographic as technology continues to dominate new trends for younger kids/teens. I have no idea how well this will fare as I really have no grasp on where card collecting stands with kids these days. I mean, think about utilizing this technology with something like "Pokemon" and "Magic: The Gathering." You could literally see your character carry out spells and kill sequences on screen.

Another example with great potential are these augmented cards:

Augmented Cards in Action

Think about the ability to create custom content for a greeting card. Maybe you could go online (or like an automated machine in a store that you can do this from,) fill out the text, select animations (maybe you animate the text, or perhaps there is some other theme you would like to see come to life — based on what you think the receiver would like. The options really are limitless,) and then have the card sent directly to your friend. You may not even need to have anything written on the card as it could all be viewed through your webcam. The one major drawback to this technology being that not everyone has access to a webcam. But over the next few years most everyone with a computer will have one as the majority of new computer purchases come with them built in.

So we'll see. This technology is still in its infancy, but the move towards interactive digital media is in full swing and it will be interesting to see it unfold over the next few years.