Is Augmented Reality Really Kids Stuff? This Indiegogo Campaign Thinks So
Designer John Zhao, the founder of an augmented reality studio in China called AR Magic School was growing frustrated as work demands were preventing him from spending more time with his 5 year old daughter. So he decided to make a game they could play together.
Within two weeks he had created an app for iPad featuring two characters, a dinosaur and a rabbit. So far so good; now, utilising his coding skills he drew the characters on some little round cards and added a tiny barcode which, when placed in front of the iPad screen, caused the characters to come to life in an explosion of colour and 3D. A classic AR design trick.
On-screen the characters become interactive; they can walk, talk and dance at the touch of a finger, and John's daughter loved them. So did her friends. So John realised he had a product that combines the best of Eastern culture's colourful fantasy animations within an app designed for iPad, a product that is ubiquitous across Western markets.
AR Magic Card's Indiegogo campaign has already hit its ten thousand dollar target with hundreds of backers ready to receive a treasure chest containing the cards and hundreds of permutations that allows them to play all sorts of games with an educational and learning theme, from studying a foreign language to word hunting or story-telling, with their kids (or just let the kids get on with it!).
It's a smart campaign; AR Magic School have worked with the likes of Qualcomm and Lenovo and won numerous awards in China. They are even selling packs of the cards in bulk for the Western distributors to acquire at a significant discount. So far, as I mentioned earlier, so good.
But what's really interesting about the cards and augmented reality as a concept is that it seems to have found its natural home as a product aimed at children. Colourful, dramatic, capable of firing the imagination, but, to date, of little practical use outside the nursery or playroom.
It seems ironic that a concept which can be employed effectively as a useful weapon on the battlefield has effectively bypassed the adult market and been passed straight to the youngest generation. Google glass was a tremendous failure that simply did not offer anything considered useful or worthwhile enough to make the wearing of an admittedly fairly horrific piece of design worthwhile.
Then we have augmented business cards, which, let's face it, are more likely to prompt potential business partners to inquire why so much time was spent adding unnecessary functionality to what is essentially a calling card than get you invited to lunch.
And beyond this? Augmented reality is sometimes used in medicine to locate a vein by projecting detailed images onto the skin of what lies beneath. It can improve navigation devices, adding an additional virtual layer of signposts and helpful hints; it's also been used in archaeology, architecture, construction, education and design, without setting any of these industries alight.
So, should we celebrate the fact that when civilisation stumbles across a potentially game changing technology, more often than not, it ends up in our children's toy boxes first whilst we spend decades puzzling over what we are supposed to do with it, like the apes at the beginning of 2001 A Space Oddyssey?
Or should we be concerned? Perhaps only time will tell. In the meantime, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I say. The kids are alright, and after all, exposure to a product with so much untapped potential at such an early age can only be a good thing, right?
