Augmented reality mobile app developer Blippar presented their new product at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California – a platform for developing 3D, augmented reality games for the Google Glass headset.
Known as Games for Glass, the system promises to “bring the world around [the player] to digital life and interact with it in meaningful ways” according to Blippar’s official announcement of the software development kit on their website. The technology builds on Blippar’s eponymous mobile app, which recognizes and interacts with certain real-world objects viewed through a smartphone camera and has already seen use as both a gaming platform and a marketing tool for a host of major corporations.
Ambarish Mitra, chief executive of Blippar, described his company’s new product as a “browser that brings the physical world to life” in an interview with VentureBeat. Games for Glass provides support for touch and gesture-based controls, allowing the player to interact directly with the game world just as one would with a physical object. 3D Asteroid, a game used as a tech demo by the company, gives players the opportunity to shoot down oncoming asteroids emerging from a poster on the wall based only on the direction they’re looking and controlled by hand gestures or a tap on the frame of Glass.
In addition to traditional games, the platform also intends to support a kind of persistent augmented reality in which one person’s actions are visible to another player who happens by the same area at a later date. According to the VentureBeat article, you could “toss some virtual paint at an object in the real world,” which would then be visible to any future passers-by wearing Glass, allowing users to cover the world around them in their virtual graffiti. Alternatively, you could use the system to leave a private note for someone visible only to them.
Third-party developers will be able to get their hands on Games for Glass in approximately six weeks. While development will take time, the possibilities for virtual reality gaming are nearly limitless. Mitra described Glass as “a natural testing ground for innovation.” His vision of the future is one where everyday objects will be able to interact with you on a personal basis using demographic data, geographic location, and preference tracking. If enterprising developers can turn Games for Glass into a success, the world may well be on the way towards that future.
You can watch Blippar’s official demo video on YouTube.