Barbie maker Mattel, and augmented reality provider Total Immersion, have joined forces to bring the public the first retail toys that are AR enhanced (or so says their press release). Unveiled today at Comic-Con 2009, each product in Mattel’s line of action figures and vehicles based on James Cameron coming film Avatar 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.
3d web tag? Sounds impressive, but thanks to this next video clip, we can all see it’s nothing more than a marker card:
Still, it looks cool and I’m quite sure it’s gonna be a hit this Christmas season (unless the film itself bombs). Pity they used such a convoluted term for it.
press release, via I4U news.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Games, indoors AR, total immersion, web camera |
Games Alfresco 
If they can port the game to a console, I think it could stand a chance to be a hit, but as an experienced gamer, AR doesn’t shine its best on a PC because of the space. Console games have the proper enviroment for a breakout AR game.
And it pains me to say this because I’ve always been a hardcore PC gamer. Its the same reason the Wii wouldn’t work well on a PC — space.
I’m still rooting for it though. I’d like to be proved wrong.
[…] Immersion began 10 years ago in the quiet, lonely, hours before the dawn of an AR industry. But Total Immersion’s AR toys for Mattel and augmented reality for Topps baseball cards fired CNet writer Daniel Terdiman up enough to say, […]