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
9. Come Out & Play
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
7. WIFI ARMY FPS
6. Shadow Monsters
“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
4. CARCADE: In-Car Video Game
3. Total Immersion at Demo ‘07
2. Roku’s Reward
- 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.”
Can you beat this list? I want to hear from you.
Filed under: AR Demos, AR Games | Tagged: 3d graffiti, AR Games, augmented reality, big games, carcade, come out and play, handheld video games, human pacman, rainbows end, rokus reward, second life, shadow monsters, total immersion, wifi army



Awesome post. What a nice collection of demos.
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?
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Cant actualy signup to facebook at the moment, I’ll try again in a few days.
Mukyon!
It is so great to see you are doing interesting stuff.
Ping me. I would be happy to stay in touch.
Etay.
This one is worth a view ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFsxev-2sk
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Another cool demo to add to your list: AR Façade
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/projects/arfacade/video.html
:)
How about our rebrandable board game? We think it has potential, what do you think?
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dude’s how come ARis isn,t on the list.
you know the digital maid created somewhere in japan
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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.
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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
Very interesting this AR. Does anyone know whether AR is already used in television programmes?
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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The NDSi is the best handheld ever imo, I don’t care what those PSP fanboys say….
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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/
Amo su blog, su sitio tengo cierto gran Info.
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Great post my friend,this is really helpful,especially the last part,keep up the good job
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Nice list of demo games, the Human Pac Man looks interesting.
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