inglorious

My friend and boss Peter Roman sent the above video to me today, and it amazed me. I figured I’d share it with everyone here. The speed that this information can be calculated using just an IPhone is impressive, the flowers are great but when you see the tiny Darth Vader walking around on the desktop and moving via touch control is when it really shines.

Imagine the potential of this in gaming; players could eventually be using their IPhones to fight monsters within their city. With the Iphone 3Gs compass now the system will know which direction the player is facing as well. One monster could potentially be seen by multiple players allowing for epic encounters requiring groups of players meeting up in parks or other public spaces to fight some behemoth or defend their city from an invasion.

Augmented Reality could also be turned towards a more mystery/puzzle game where the player takes on the role of a CSI investigator. They could explore their space and work to solve a crime that happened in their own home. Walking around the room looking at the bullet holes in the wall, blood spatter across the mirror all added via AR.

It could even be used with educational gameplay. This type of augmented reality could herald a return of a localized version of Where In [Your City] Is Carmen Sandiego. Requiring players to explore their cities and environment casing the elusive thief. Teachers could take students to a museum and show the skin covering a dinosaur’s skeleton, or animated the background of a life-sized diorama of the battle of Gettysburg.

The potential for new types of gameplay, user interaction, and experience is really astounding. I dropped two more videos after the jump in a similar vein. One is from the same group working on the AR for the IPhone shown above. Around the 1:00 mark there’s a similar demo showing Vader and Ewoks fighting it out in a park. The other is a game coming out for the Playstation 3 by SCE London called EyePet that is a similar AR experience but far less mobile. If this sort of thing interests you I encourage you to check both.