Augmented reality is the thing I’ve heard most about in predictions for 2012. Sorry to keep bringing those things up, but this isn’t about predictions. This is just an informal post about augmented reality, and my idea for a sweet augmented reality game.
First of all, augmented reality is a way of seeing reality through a camera, on a screen. It’s that webcam effect that takes a picture and makes it look like your were underwater, or that iPhone appthat shows you all the constellations when you hold your phone toward the sky.
As a student of communications, I’m aware that many great minds believe we already live in an augmented reality. Many psychologist and philosophers say we see things through the languages we speak. Yellow is yellow because we call it yellow. It wouldn’t exist in our reality if we didn’t have a word for it. I’m not sure I agree with this theory as it’s extremely complicated, and very difficult to prove. It is certainly one of the most interesting topics I’ve ever talked about though.
Philosophical beliefs aside, here’s my idea:
A sword fighting game.
Two people hold their devices up so they can see the screens. They’re aiming the device cameras (not the face cameras, the ones on the back) at each other. On the screen, one sees the other. They hold up something that looks like a light saber without the light, just the handle. The device’s camera detects that handle, and creates a blade on the screen.
Bystanders see two people dueling with invisible swords. The duelers see an intense battle. When the blades clash, one must not move his sword through the other’s sword. If he does, the sword slips, and his opponent has an advantage. When the blades clash, the competitors must hold their wands steady, and slowly push toward each other’s blades, but only when their screen flashes. The first one to push at the wrong time slips. When someone gets stabbed, the vision gets blurry and wobbly.
There could even be a headset that holds the device in place.
How cool would that be? I mean, I’ve never tried it or anything, but I bet it would be fun. At least until the novelty of augmented reality wears off. Then, you’d have to have some kind of proximity-based ranking system (or some other competitive marker) to keep gamers interested. Either way, that’s my idea. What do you think?
Now for a tangent: Now that I’ve written this, I technically own the copyright (unless someone I don’t know of wrote this idea before me). However, if a large company wanted to steal my idea, they would. They know they could win in a court case because they’ve got the money for the lawyers. They could just keep fighting it until I have nothing left to fight with. It’s happened throughout history. It happens today, it happened when radio was invented.
At that, I’d like to offer, to anybody who wants to purchase my idea, the cost of half of what it would cost to take me to court for it. That’s a great deal, if you ask me.
One more thing, if SOPA/PIPA gets passed, it won’t be able to protect my intellectual property rights any better than the laws of the past protected the small guys.
Working with the up-and-comers is a smart move for someone like Snoop Dogg. It’ll help keep his fan base fresh. Especially when the collaboration creates a wonderful piece of art that combines the best of old school hip hop with the best of new school hip hop, and lots of innovation.
