Disrupting Automotive: Using AR to Pick Your Next Ride
Nissan’s teamed up with the versatile and endlessly-surprising Kinect to enable people to check out its 2013 Pathfinder, inside and outside, from all angles, with a natural series of gestures. And it’s pretty specific, lending you a sense of proportion for the trunk space and even indicating where your head falls in the driver’s seat.
The idea is to give you enough sensory information via augmented reality (AR) to make an informed decision about whether the Pathfinder is right for you. (It was certainly right for my parents at least three times in their car-buying history.)
Question is, how many cars have been sold by new car smell alone? Somebody better be pumping that in from someplace.
Here’s a cool idea: Code Hero teaches you how to code, and make games at the same time, in a first-person shooting game.
Use your code ray to manipulate code. You won’t just be killing enemies; you’ll be manipulating your environment and building structures, all while recruiting other coders to save the world from rogue AI. I can’t think of anything cooler, and neither could a pile of other people apparently, because Code Hero raised a whopping $170,000 on Kickstarter.
A little context from Kevin Slavin at MIPTV in 2010:
“The difference now is there is a far greater literacy in the popular sensibility of what games are. As with all forms of literacy, it has moved from those who just can write the code to those who can read it.”
People fluent in games will enjoy an urban literacy that is opaque to previous generations, enabling to manipulate systems — like broadcast media, government, or even the environment — that have always seemed impenetrable. It’s a brave new world, and you’re gonna need the code.
Gamer video entertainment network Machinima, which is bridging the gap between TV and gaming, produced an awesome vid that speaks to both Game of Thrones and Minecraft fans. We give you … Game of Thrones’ Westeros, reconstructed in Minecraft!
And this is just a taste. Virtual builders can join in the fun by checking the dedicated Minecraft servers site at westeroscraft.com.
Fans of AR mobile game Zombies Run will delight in the official Season 1 guide, which provides background on the outbreak, tips on what virtual supplies to scoop up, and hints on getting “hostiles” off your trail, among other things.
The document is beautifully produced and well-written. But best of all, it’s Season 1, meaning there’ll be more layers of this game to discover as everyone progresses. I can’t think of a better way to get addicted to running. And until Project Glass proves a hit, I’m hard pressed to think of a stickier marriage that’s been made between augmented reality and human ritual.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 characters, wearing Prada’s Spring/Summer 2012 menswear collection? …yes, we give you luxury’s attempt to penetrate gaming.
The images were made by Square Enix’s Visual Works and will appear in the April 12 issue of British magazine Arena Homme+.
(via adverve)
