Top 10 augmented reality demos that will revolutionize video games

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Ori Inbar

Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to do something parents can’t: free gamers from their couches and usher them into the real world, to play.

***UPDATE***if you find this interesting – check out the recent post Top AR Games of All Time.

Here is my countdown of the top 10 best AR demos poised to revolutionize video games:

10. Human Pac Man

When Dr. Adrian David Cheok (NUS) wanted to create an exciting augmented reality game, he chose to remake the first video game to ever introduce a character – the legendary Pac Man. Cheok literally stepped into Pacman’s shoes in this first-person-shooter-like real world game.

9. Come Out & Play

In 2006 the Come Out & Play Festival turned New York City into a playground for a weekend, then did the same for the city of Amsterdam in 2007. Hundreds of players gathered to play dozens different Big Games across each city.

None of the games played in the festival made it to my top ten list – individually. They fell short of stretching the interactivity between real and virtual. But as a group – they reminded us that playing games outdoors can be fun, and technology can make it even funner.

8. Second Life Avatar Enters the Real World

Tobias Lang and Blair MacIntyre (GA Tech) give us an extraordinary glance at what happens when the virtual world “leaks” into the real world. No, they didn’t use a green screen as you can see behind the scenes. Is it a hint for some of us to ditch Second Life and augment our First…?

7. WIFI ARMY FPS

The world is the battlefield, your phone is your weapon. Players organize in 2 teams armed with cell phones with the goal to locate and take pictures of their opponents. The phone compares captured pictures against a database of player faces and awards points for correct hits. Peter Whatanitch of W2Pi (creator of the game) explains how it will work. It could become quite an experience as staged in the Lumix Battle commercial.

6. Shadow Monsters

Phil Worthington is an artist that injects coolness into augmented reality.

“Magical monsters appear from shadows cast by the hands of participants, reacting to gestures with sound and animation. Wolf like creatures, birds and a rastafarian are among the characters that speak and squeek as imaginary mouths open and close. Shadow Monsters is an intuitive and magical experience for young and old alike to play with body posture for creating crazy narratives.”

5. AR Grafitti by DAIM

Artist DAIM creates virtual 3D graffiti floating in space in his latest art project “Tagged in Motion” of NextWall .
What if everyone could overlay reality with their own virtual creation?

4. CARCADE: In-Car Video Game

Andreas Nicolas Fischer and team suggest to take advantage of the fast changing scenery experienced by car passengers – and turn it into a video game (remember Gondry’s Star Guitar Video Clip?). Could be a great way to pass time. I’d call it: “Are we there yet..?”

3. Total Immersion at Demo ‘07

Probably the most commercially successful company that specializes in augmented reality, Total Immersion delivers the best live demos in this domain – with a French accent. They have also featured in CES 2008 keynote by Intel’s CEO Ottelini.

2. Roku’s Reward

This concept* video shows the potential of augmented reality utilizing today’s technology:
  • A handheld camera device,
  • live video overlaid with 3D graphics,
  • computer recognition – identifying real life objects,
  • positioning and acceleration sensors,
  • virtual objects interacting with reality,

…wrapped up in a fantasy narrative make up this yet-to-be-developed game.
*According to Phil Stenton (HP Labs, UK): “Roku remains a demo film. We haven’t signed up with anyone to create the game yet.”

…And the top demo is…

1. Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Though delivered in words only, this “demo” paints the farthest vision for augmented reality so far. Everything else you’ll see on this topic will look like excuses: “sorry, we don’t have that technology yet…”
Yes, but do you have the imagination?

“There was something familiar about this prey. It was young and clever looking … a newborn from Juan’s own design! And that meant its Mommy would be nearby. Juan said, “You know, I don’t think –”
“The Problem Is, None Of You Think Nearly Enough.” The sound was premium external, like sticking your head inside an old-time boom box. Too late, they saw that the tree trunks behind them grew from yard-long claws. Mommy. Drool fell in ten-inch blobs from high above.
This was Juan’s design scaled up to the max.”
Read it on Google Books.
Didn’t make the list…
* You may ask how come I left out another classic remake: AR Quake. Well, this remake is indeed played outdoors, but let me ask you this: does it add much to the original experience of that first person shooter?
* How come I am ignoring what some call “the future of books” such as EyeMagic Book or WizQubes? Is it really that different than manipulating 3D characters on the computer screen?
* Daniel Wagner, a major force behind recent AR innovation, may be disappointed that his pioneering handheld AR game the Invisible Train didn’t make it. No hurt feelings; it’s a great proof of concept, but isn’t it more fun to play with the *visible* train?
* Other educational oriented games such as MIT’s Environmental Detective or U-WIS’s MadCity Mystery certainly beat learning in a classroom – but aren’t they indistinguishable from traditional low tech scavenger hunts?

Can you beat this list? I want to hear from you.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

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43 Responses

  1. Augmento, on March 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm Said:

    Awesome post. What a nice collection of demos.

  2. Anonymous, on March 12th, 2008 at 1:23 am Said:

    It’s a very good post, but i thing that this demo ArtoolKit and Magic the Gathering is a great demo of a possible augmented reality video game.
    What do you think?

  3. lard panks, on March 12th, 2008 at 2:48 am Said:

    Hello and thanks for posting our project (the game in the car). We presented it at university to some folks from the Human Machine Interface R&D department of Volkswagen. The haven´t responded yet and I doubt they will…

  4. john martin, on March 12th, 2008 at 2:07 pm Said:

    Hi Ori!

    Nice post! and I look forward to watching your site for the latest on AR! I’m John Martin (regardingjohn dot com), affiliated with the Local Games Lab at UW-Madison, and admin of the now-defunct Augmented Reality Gaming blog. To answer the question “aren’t they indistinguishable from traditional low tech scavenger hunts?” — they’re different because they’re high tech, and that gives them some cachet. They also allow for a bit more interaction, branching, media integration, etc. Having said that, they *are* essentially just high tech versions of scavenger hunts. We’re somewhat hamstrung by what the editor allows, but also what classrooms (and School Districts) will allow. But we’re working on that — I think our most exciting work is on the fringes. I’d be happy to discuss more.

  5. darkflame, on March 13th, 2008 at 9:54 am Said:

    penupnowGreat collection.
    I saw one or too before, but lots new.

    btw, I recomend anyone interested in AR to seak out an Anime called “Denno Coil”. It paints a very realistic picture of an augmented reality future.

    Also, theres this book;
    http://www.theendofhardware.com

    Which paints a much the same picture.

    When we can augument our vision with virtual objects, so many real objects become unnesscery.

  6. darkflame, on March 13th, 2008 at 9:55 am Said:

    Great collection.
    I saw one or too before, but lots new.

    btw, I recomend anyone interested in AR to seak out an Anime called “Denno Coil”. It paints a very realistic picture of an augmented reality future.

    Also, theres this book;
    http://www.theendofhardware.com

    Which paints a much the same picture.

    When we can augument our vision with virtual objects, so many real objects become unnesscery.

  7. darkflame, on March 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm Said:

    Lots of interesting posts here.
    I already subscribed to the feed.

    Does anyone know a good augmented reality discusion forum?

    btw, the links to Denno Coil is down. (copyright I guess).

    You can still link to the opening or wikipedia page;
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennō_Coil
    or the titles;
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ctDbavpFg0
    or maybe just some screens choosen to show the AR;
    http://forum.magicball.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=7333&stc=1&d=1202916263

    :p

    Yes, I’m a bit of a fan.
    But I was into AR long before that show.

    ” We presented it at university to some folks from the Human Machine Interface R&D department of Volkswagen. The haven´t responded yet and I doubt they will…”

    Probably the wrong target group.
    It wouldnt be built into cars really.
    I think Gizmondo is going to be relaunched by someone else. That was a portable games machine with its only real unique saleing point was its AR abilitys.
    If they want to actualy make some money this time, they might invest into AR games, so its worth a shot.

  8. Ori Inbar, on March 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm Said:

    Everybody – thanks for the kind words, feedback, corrections and suggestions!
    I couldn’t find a good ARG forum so I just opened a new forum for augmented reality games on facebook at augmented reality games group

  9. darkflame, on March 15th, 2008 at 1:08 pm Said:

    Cant actualy signup to facebook at the moment, I’ll try again in a few days.

  10. Etay Gafni, on March 25th, 2008 at 3:27 pm Said:

    Mukyon!

    It is so great to see you are doing interesting stuff.

    Ping me. I would be happy to stay in touch.

    Etay.

  11. RichWhite, on April 9th, 2008 at 6:55 pm Said:

    This one is worth a view ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFsxev-2sk

  12. Augmented Reality - Blending Real and Digital Worlds « Digital Worlds - Interactive Media and Game Design, on June 30th, 2008 at 5:09 am Said:

    [...] here are a few ideas for augmented reality games: Top 10 augmented reality demos that will revolutionize video games. (Note that this list may be a little dated by now – if you manage to find any more recent [...]

  13. Can Google’s G1 do augmented reality better then the iPhone? « Games Alfresco, on October 16th, 2008 at 3:03 pm Said:

    [...] mobile video gamesTop 10 Augmented Reality engines that will ignite a new era of video gamesTop 10 augmented reality demos that will revolutionize video gamesThe #9 disruptive technology of 2009 according to GartnerLive From ISMAR ‘08: Augmented Reality Demo [...]

  14. 9 Movies that Will Inspire Your Next Augmented Reality Experience « Games Alfresco, on December 4th, 2008 at 10:20 pm Said:

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  15. GE’s augmented reality marketing gimmick works… at theory.isthereason, on March 7th, 2009 at 1:52 pm Said:

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  16. Augmented reality revolutie « Void, on March 9th, 2009 at 4:03 am Said:

    [...] maar eens een recente top-10 van augmented reality demo’s. Bedrijven halen AR steeds meer uit de wetenschappelijke hoek en brengen het naar consumenten [...]

  17. Steven Dow, on March 25th, 2009 at 1:55 pm Said:

    Another cool demo to add to your list: AR Façade
    http://www.cc.gatech.edu/projects/arfacade/video.html
    :)

  18. Fred, on April 7th, 2009 at 1:09 am Said:

    How about our rebrandable board game? We think it has potential, what do you think?

  19. Michael’s Blog 2.0 » Augmented Reality (zum Mitmachen!), on April 19th, 2009 at 11:04 am Said:

    [...]   PDF – Link SmartGrid: Link Mikko’s Blog: Link How-To: Link Top 10 AR Games: Link WYSIWYG Editor für AR: Google SketchUp + AR-media Plugin for [...]

  20. daan, on May 7th, 2009 at 5:21 am Said:

    dude’s how come ARis isn,t on the list.
    you know the digital maid created somewhere in japan

  21. Weekly Linkfest « Games Alfresco, on May 10th, 2009 at 3:06 am Said:

    [...] Posts Top 10 augmented reality demos that will revolutionize video games11 Industries to be Reinvented with Augmented RealityAugmented Animals of the FutureAugmented Fear [...]

  22. Flüge USA, on May 16th, 2009 at 12:50 am Said:

    Very nice post
    I have never heard about that matter before. That sounds very interesting and the interactivity between real and virtual can be an issue for the social and psychological problems of game players.
    i kostly liked the demo MScape Game Demo. That seems to be very fun especially because the game becomes funny only when you play it outdoors.
    But There is going to be be a lot of car accidents with this.

  23. Weekly Linkfest « Games Alfresco, on May 17th, 2009 at 4:35 am Said:

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  24. Chris Whiteoak, on May 21st, 2009 at 6:48 am Said:

    Augmented reality gaming is gunna be the next big thing with video gaming, add this to motiion technology seen in the nintendo wii, and we’ll soon have full on virtual reality games!

    I’m working with Oasis, check out these cool augmented reality games as part of the oasis rubberduckzilla advertising campaign http://www.rubberduckzilla.com

  25. Geertje, on May 28th, 2009 at 2:35 am Said:

    Very interesting this AR. Does anyone know whether AR is already used in television programmes?

  26. Bob Ladrach, on June 10th, 2009 at 10:54 am Said:

    You should take a look at book called Dream Park by Larry Niven and Stephen Barnes. It was the first to put gamers inside a live action role playing game using virtual characters and 3D worlds. Came out in 1981.

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  29. mchammer, on June 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 am Said:

    The NDSi is the best handheld ever imo, I don’t care what those PSP fanboys say….

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  31. Oliver, on June 28th, 2009 at 4:55 am Said:

    Cool post guys

    It was an experiment we developed a remake of the classic video game
    Breakout using papervision3D and the FLAR Toolkit.

    Have a look.

    http://www.studiohangloose.it/en/blog/436/augmented-reality/

  32. vgamer, on July 1st, 2009 at 8:21 am Said:

    Amo su blog, su sitio tengo cierto gran Info.

  33. Play Time: Augmented Reality Games | Imaginary Eric - A Children's Media Blog, on July 9th, 2009 at 2:43 pm Said:

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  38. gmpoint, on October 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm Said:

    Great post my friend,this is really helpful,especially the last part,keep up the good job

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  42. Magic, on December 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 am Said:

    Nice list of demo games, the Human Pac Man looks interesting.

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