Mattel's New Web-Enabled "Avatar" Toys Will Offer Augmented Reality
If you think augmented reality is just a bunch of hype with no usable applications as of yet, think again. Major toy manufacturer Mattel has just announced a new line of products tied to the upcoming 3-D adventure movie "Avatar" directed by James Cameron. While normally we wouldn't cover toys here at ReadWriteWeb, there is something special about this new lineup: these toys are integrated with augmented reality. By way of a 3-D web tag which can be scanned with any computer's webcam, the new toys are linked to an online world of content which makes them "come alive" in an entirely new way.
The "Internet of Things" Becomes Child's Play
In the past, we've looked at companies building the "internet of things," where we've discovered how everyday objects can be linked to the web using sensors, RFID, and even Twitter. In many cases, the applications of such technology are practical, such as with IBM's investment in food supply chain tracking or the web-connected bathroom scale. But web-enabled objects don't have to simply be useful - they can also be fun. The Nabaztag, for example, is an adorable little rabbit that sits on your desk delivering ambient information through lights and sounds according to changes and updates to information found on the web.
But now "augmented reality" is moving beyond the conceptual and practical stages meant to inform (or merely amuse) technology enthusiasts and is reaching out to a new generation: today's web-savvy children.
About Mattel's New Toys
According to Mattel, each action figure, vehicle, and creature in their new Avatar toy lineup will come with a 3-D web tab called an i-TAG which can be scanned using any computer webcam. After doing so, special content unique to that product will be revealed onscreen. The content will vary by toy, but will include things like biographical information, additional images, and 3D animated models showing off the action figures' "engaging, evading, or defending moves." Even better, scanning two of the i-TAGs will reveal an onscreen animation showing 3D images interacting with each other.
Although this isn't the first time we've seen augmented reality integrated into a product, this new way to "play with toys" is notable for being among the first attempts to integrate technology in what is clearly a mainstream consumer product. And a product for kids, at that.
With each new generation, children are becoming increasing comfortable with technology starting at earlier ages. Where today's kids may tote around toy computers, it seems the upcoming generation will have even more options for interacting with the web-enabled world, such as with these new internet-connected toys.
Assuming the Avatar toys are popular (and since they appeal to the comic-obsessed adult fans too, they probably will be), we'll likely see more augmented reality-powered toys like these launched in the near future.
Images of Avatar toys via TheHDRoom
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This is not augmented reality. This is just a bad marketing gimmick.
Woohoo, you can scan a tag on a toy and see a page about the toy. Get a grip. This is not exactly a technological breakthrough; and it doesn't sound like it's going to be much fun either.
It's hard to imagine kids scrambling to do this, at least more than once. Would you rather play with a toy, play a video game, watch a cartoon, or watch some crappy animation page about your toy that only works on selected PCs, and which probably can't even be done solo (need to enable and use the webcam) by the average kid who is of an age to want such a toy in the first place.
Now if you could scan the toy, have it create a unique online avatar for you, which you could then use to actually fight or compete against others in a virtual world or something like that, then you'd have a game with vestigial AR elements that might conceivably be fun for people. But apparently that's not in the cards.
This is EPIC!
Oh dear. First you say, "If you think augmented reality is just a bunch of hype with no usable applications as of yet, think again."
Excellent! I've been thinking the same thing, while hoping that I might be proven wrong, so now I'm waiting breathlessly to see just what it is that will me think again!
Okay. I've made sure I'm sitting down, and now I'm ready to read your next sentence:
"Major toy manufacturer Mattel has just announced a new line of products tied to the upcoming 3-D adventure movie "Avatar" directed by James Cameron."
Oh, I get it! The first sentence was *deadpan irony*. Move along, nothing to see here...
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/rklancer#ff44c
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July 24, 2009 7:57 AM
@rklancer: Usability is in the eye of the beholder. Avatar fans will likely disagree. ;) Just do a Twitter search to see what I mean.
I thought that this is the Avatar that I've been watching. Avatar: The Legend of Aang.
@Sarah, my bad! I should read more carefully. I see now that you claimed only that it was "usable", not that it was "useful".
Okay, I'm done with slagging the entertainment-industrial complex until the next time I go to a grocery store that's helpfully added TVs to the checkout line. (Perhaps they operate on the theory that I might become suicidally depressed if I'm too long deprived of the social affirmation that comes from being advertised to!)
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/rklancer#ff44c
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July 24, 2009 8:12 AM
This is not breakthrough stuff at all. Twenty years ago my kids had toys from the Captain Power line that interacted with TV content from a live broadcast TV show or from videos also marketed with episode content augmented with graphic content. You should have seen my wife's eyes the first time an episode came on the TV and a "toy" sitting on the floor with no one around came to life and started reacting to content in the show.
You could shoot at bad guys in the show and score points for hits and they could shoot you and damage you as well. Pretty advanced for the time, but the show and franchise never got to the big time.
Very interesting Sarah, but you cannot credit Mattel for doing the first foray in AR games :
Lego AR kiosks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxWkZtUKaI
Pokemon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llHPPc_uOTA
or a PSP game (Invizimals) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvDWleKmhYs
have led the way, in different fields
Cheers :)
Alex
Thanks, Alexandre, for the info. I'll update.
Great article!
Interesting to see where it goes.
(Just had to see if Aang was still there.)
Anna
This is the same technology used in the Playstation 3 game The Eye of Judgement. The game came out around 2 yrs ago. It's a card battle game where the cards "come to life" on screen and fight. The tech is fun when used in the appropriate application, but this is just marketing poo.
While augmented reality in toys is cool, I think location-based apps for mobile phones are more interesting. If coupled with the cameras on the phones, they could result in some very nice information overlays. Layar (http://layar.com/) is a nice example.
3d scanning from Surfdev, a specialist scanning service performed by a reverse engineering company.
very thanks for article
What are your thoughts on scanning your face and got it integrated in new games ??
Is this a evolution which is upcoming or wishful thinking ?
Tx a lot