What’s even better than the prospect of taking hundreds of thousands of images with you wherever you go? Augmented Reality that lets you see things as they were, might be, or with interactive figures floating in front of your eyes. Mattel is getting into the AR realm by introducing a new line of action figures based on the upcoming Avatar movie from 20th Century Fox.
Each action figure, vehicle and creature in the product line will come with a 3-D web tag, called an i-TAG, which consumers can “scan†using a home computer’s webcam. Scanning the i-TAG will reveal special content onscreen unique to the corresponding product. Exact content varies for each item, but could include biographical information, additional images and animated models of the figures. When the i-TAG for deluxe figures, vehicles or creatures are placed under a webcam, animated 3-D models will “come alive†through engaging, evading or defending moves. Place two i-TAGs from the “Battle Pack†together and the 3-D images will interact with each other.
If you aren’t familiar with Augmented Reality, check out this YouTube demo that shows what happens when users scan AR cards into their computer.
The Mattel toys are scheduled to hit shelves in October 2009.
2 Comments
This is a cool concept
topps had it down with their baseball card concept
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/technology/09topps.html
They actually play games with these cards
It sure adds something new to a century old thing like a trading card
I love how we come up with awesome technological innovations that could be MONDO useful, like this could be for assisting people with visual disabilities or short-comings, and use it for games and porn first. *lol*