In troubled economic times, it becomes very difficult to explain to a child why he can’t have those flashy new toys that he sees on Saturday Morning TV commercials, especially when all his friends have em and he doesn’t. It’s hard for a parent to choose between the never ending pleas of his kids for new toys and paying the bills. But if someone could come up with a very cool way to breathe new life into old toys, well, suddenly the coolness factor can be turned on it’s head and our wallets will be all the more happy for it. Leave it to our friends at Yanko to come up with just such an idea.
Designed by Frantz Lasorne, the concept is called the Augmented Reality Tangible User Interface (AR TUI), and allows kids to use old action figures, cars, even legos as game pieces in a virtually created game environment that kids can see with a specially designed pair of glasses which work as a heads up display. We’re talking very cool here. It’s like taking video games and moving them into real life and augmented reality could be the next big thing. Imagine kids playing unique games based on hit movies like Star Wars and using their Star Wars toys as a cast of characters. They’d be able to see cool special effects through the ARTUI glasses and even participate in the action. They could use models and toys as vehicles or even buildings and ruins, and even use toy blasters and light sabers and see realistic effects emanate from them.
I’m betting the initial investment would be rather steep given the technology needed to make it work, but if it could take old toys and make them new again this may just be the ideal way to keep a kid entertained without having to break the bank.
Hat Tip – Gizmowatch