As children we all dreamt that our toys would come to life and play with us. Well thanks to Qualcomm and some augmented reality technology our children won’t have to dream.

At CES2012 this week, Qualcomm showed off a product demo of the Sesame Street Playset. The playset was developed in partnership with Sesame Street Workshop for the education of pre-school aged children. The toys are fun to play with on their own but come to life when a tablet joins in. In this case Qualcomm used a HTC Jetstream tablet.

“In the past, the only place toys came to life was on TV and in movies. Today, we are bringing that magic one step closer to reality,” said Jay Wright, senior director of business development at Qualcomm.

The experience is built using Qualcomm’s Vuforia™ platform and an application to recognize 3D figures. Qualcomm has always been active in the augmented reality space working with and supporting developers to create the hardware needed for truly immersive executions.

Although a prototype this Playset has been created with learning and interaction at it’s core. Qualcomm has worked closely with the Sesame Street Workshop to ensure the toys are educational and maximize developmental growth. The toys from our dreams and sci-fi movies are now in our living rooms. What will be next?

Check out this video to see the Playset in action:

Want to try on watches but can’t make it to the store? Tissot, maker of Swiss watches has a solution for you. Using augmented reality technology you are able to try any of a select collection of watches.

This magical experience lets you shop online for just the right watch. You can see a 3D model of each watch on your own wrist. Compare styles, seek the right color to match your outfit or decide which face size is appropriate for you. By activating the touch functions you can learn about the features of each watch.

Congratulations go to Tissot for a perfect matching of e-commerce and augmented reality. With this unique offering Tissot ensures that their consumer is engaged with their product and spends more time on their site. The AR application is both refined and informative. The experience is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems. The only draw back is the hefty download. For Mac it weighs in at a whopping 85 MB.

Download the marker:

Tissot Touch Collection

Download the AR Experience:

Windows or Mac

Video of Experience:

During my time at the first annual Augmented Reality Event 2010 in Santa Clara last month, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Camilla Grey from Moving Brands. Moving Brands is a London based branding company. Their goal is to “redefine branding by setting new standards of creativity for a moving world.” They have done some amazing identity work.

During the conference Camilla gave a wonderful presentation on Living Identity. Instead of the usual PowerPoint or Keynote slides Camilla used a custom AR format. What a great way to present at an AR conference. If you would like to experience the script for yourself you can download the marker and follow the link below. Through the use of their logo Moving Brands is able to display blog, twitter, video and image feeds from their site. To cycle through the content you simply move the marker to arrows at the left or right of the content. The code is flash based so there is no download required.

Tips for use:

1) On Mac computer make sure you have USB camera selected. To do so, right-click select settings and click the webcam icon.

2) For easy recognition, you may want to print the marker at 100% and fold the edges of the paper under to make it more stable.


Download the marker:
Moving Brands: Living Identity

Launch AR Experience


Video of Experience:

This Wednesday April 21st, I will be attending the Augmented Reality Conference. A one day part of the Emerging Communications Conference at the Airport Marriott in San Francisco, CA.

The AR Conference is the world’s first and largest commercial augmented reality event. Industry leaders will be sharing their expertise on a variety of AR related subjects. Topics range from a presentation on crowd sourced traffic apps by Di-Ann Eisnor, Community Geographer, of Waze to the applying the advancement of desktop applications to the future of mobile AR, presented by Blake Callens, Senior Software Engineer at Zugara.

This conference is going to be a place where the future of the marketplace will be molded. The advancement of AR is changing the way that consumers experience their products and promotions. As with other industries in the past few years AR is helping to put the power back in the consumer’s hands. When the consumer decides how and when they experience a promotion the relationship is enhanced.

Other industry leaders presenting will be Bruno Uzzan of Total Immersion, Peter Meier of Metaio, Dana Farbo of Acrossair, and Mark Rolston of Frog Design. Take a look at the full schedule here.

Keep up on the AR Conference news throughout the day on Wednesday by following hashtag #arconf on Twitter. I will also be providing updates on the sessions via Twitter. You can follow me @mdusing.

When it comes to retailers embracing new technology Target® is working to stay top. With the latest version of Target’s iPhone app the retailer shows just how serious they can be about shopping with technology.

One of the biggest advancements in version 3.3 is the addition of a barcode scanner. Powered by Occipital a Boulder, CO based app developer. The barcode scanner allows guests to build shopping lists (TargetLists) and price items right in the aisle. TargetLists include managing wedding or baby registries, wish lists and daily shopping items. Scan any item in stores and access the product details, reviews and store availability.

With 3.3 Target brings you Daily Deals. Much like Amazon’s Gold Box Deals, each day Target offers special discounts available only for a limited time. The deals are available through online ordering only but do include free shipping.

And lastly Target makes it easier for their guests to ask questions with contact us and feedback features. Way to go Target! When retailers take the time to innovate and listen to their guests sales improve and the relationship grows. iPhone users told Target how they wanted to use their app and Target has shown they can listen.

Visit Target app on iTunes or text “APP” to 827438 (TARGET) to receive a download link.

Now thats some pretty well designed mail.

Rahul Mahtani & Yofred Moik from the Industrial Design program at Syracuse University had an idea called Google Maps Envelope Beta. The concept was to have the option inside Gmail to send a printed envelope via snail mail. The envelope would show a call-out for the locations of the to and from addresses. The rest of the envelope is covered in a map between those destinations with the driving route. It won’t be coming to Gmail anytime soon though, this is just a concept. It’s a get design enhancement to an old practice.

If you are interested in actually sending some “map mail” there is an option however; Map Envelopes. Map Envelopes allows you to print an envelope lined with your sending location. You can include a map of where you were when you wrote them. All you have to do is visit the website, select a location and message then print the envelope.

Interesting heads up AR concept. Experience your computer screen when you get up in the morning. Concept shows calibrating by looking at certain points with your eyes. A long ways off and something like Minority Report (the part no one wants to come true) but a good look at an AR UI Design.

Posted by Spannungsbogen on YouTube. The poster is primarily a DJ/Producerbut he does have some serious 3D and artistic talent. You can find him @bojean on Twitter or on his personal website here.

Saatchi & Saatchi Israel recently created an AR promotion for Passover. Using Matza as the marker they have created a very memorable interactive card. Do you want a bite?

Man the folks over at Waze have been pretty busy. What is Waze you ask? Well it’s a user-generated mapping application for the iPhone, Andriod phones, and even Windows Mobile phones. The interesting part is the social interaction in the app. Some very smart people have been enriching mapping content. The best part is the app is FREE.

The Waze team originates from Isreal. Where thier app created maps of the roads from their users driving. No base map was used. User data created all the roads. The value of crowd-sourced data is amazing. Di-Ann from Waze states that roads in Italy were mapped in only 10 days by users. Users are deemed Wazers.

As for features, there are turn-by-turn directions, traffic flow, speed traps, even a live ETA for your trip. Join in by reporting speed traps, accidents, and construction. Wazers driving on new roads can hit the record road button and upload new roads to the Waze database. Of course all this comes with the general caveat that Waze’s app is only as good as the data from all their Wazers. So join today and improve the experience for all.

What makes mapping even more fun? Games! Waze has gaming features built-in. wazers can munch pellets like Pacman and earn points. Other goodies including cherries and hammers appear on the map as well. Check out the Waze blog where you can earn prizes during special promotions: http://www.waze.com/blog/

Pros:
Don’t get stuck in traffic
GPS based for accuracy
Inaccuracies are reported and fixed by users
Typing is disabled while in motion for Safety
Makes driving fun with game integration
Side roads are added (anywhere Wazers go)

Cons:
GPS based so battery drain happens
For safest use the driver needs a passenger

Check out these videos for more information and take a look into the future of Waze:
Click “OK” to begin.

Yesterday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain Microsoft introduced their next offering to the mobile OS platform. Windows Phone 7 Series. And I do have to say the design looks impressive.

Microsoft has taken a step back and started to innovate. They’ve looked at phones as a different kind of platform a small platform not a mini PC. Geometric design which has a clean simple look, using grey, blue, and white with the integration of photos. Also using green to delineate games and cue to Xbox. Meant to deliver a task oriented experience as opposed to an application focused approach.

On a hardware note three buttons will be featured on all Windows Phone 7 Series hardware: Start, Search, and Back. Hardware will also always have a touch screen. The lock screen slides up; wouldn’t this be a problem putting the phone in your pocket? The homescreen/start experience features live tiles which update with information from the internet and exchange. The tiles are also referred to as hubs. The tiles are People, Calendars, Pictures, Outlook, Office, Games, Web pages, and Individuals. Described as destinations or hubs for an integrated experience by larger categories rather than application specific.

People

Contacts are filed together Recent people, All people (windows live, online e-mail services, Facebook), and a What’s New category. Keyboard features a face button for all your emoji in their original text only form. Also on a nice humorous note you delete an tile for a person by touching a broken heart icon to severe ties.

Calendar

Work and home events featured are together in your calendar. The calendar has Day, Agenda and Month views. Locations are built in with the Bing map service. As you zoom in on the map closer to the ground it automatically goes from graphic data to satellite photo data (aerial view).

Bing

When searching you see web, local, and image result categories. In a humorous choice of demonstration; the search example used was “Sushi” same as with Apple’s iPhone demos. Also featured in the results for each restaurant will be reviews via partnerships with other companies like Yelp. The browser is based on desktop version of IE; using sub-pixel positioning to make web pages appear with greater clarity.

Pictures

Categories include Gallery, Albums, and What’s New (your friend’s photo activity). Direct uploading to Facebook from phone. Syncing of photos from Windows Live and Facebook.

Outlook

Categories include Unread, Flags, Urgent, and All. The interface is clean with check boxes next to e-mails making it easy to delete multiples similar to on the iPhone edit mode.

Office

For productivity Office includes One Note, Documents, and SharePoint categories. Take notes on your phone or computer in text, photo, or voice memo formats. Documents for viewing on the go. SharePoint for consumption on a variety of devices as well as editing on the go.

Games

Categories here include Spotlight, Xbox Live, Requests, and Collections. Spotlight posts announcements about games and your gaming activity as well as your friend’s. Multi-player gaming with other phones, PCs and even Xbox devices is said to be supported.

Music/Video

Every phone will be a Zune. Categories here include Music, Video, Podcast, Radio, and the Marketplace. Music features History and New for easy access to what you were last listening to or recently upload tunes. Pin content to have it appear in a separate category (somewhat like favoring an album or song).

Zune software for syncing. Very iPhone like experience on the device tab. Bar graphic of space on phone and content. Last sync listing and device graphic.

Hardware partners include Qualcomm, LG, Samsung, Garmin/Asus, HTC, HP, DELL, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba.
Carrier partners will include T-Mobile, Telefonica, Sprint, Vodafone, AT&T, Orange, SFR, Verizon, Telstra, and Telecom.

Taking a stab at Apple and the iPhone by changing the focus from apps to a phone experience with hubs meant to work together. A glance and go experience versus the in and out experience of apps. Not sure I buy that. It’s pretty much the same thing said in a different way.

With all that said the bottom line seems to be a new UI with a spin on the phone experience. As for NEW features the Xbox Live integration is the main add over other phones. We will see if the Windows Phone 7 Series will prove to be a step forward or simply another player in the market.