Film Futurist

I’m a storyteller. So were most of us at one time. Remember the “imaginary friend” you played with when you were a child? Remember the castles you built in your mind for your dolls to live? The finery you imagined them wearing even though your doll was naked because your brother ran over it with his bike? As children we are undaunted by the lack of “real things” because we could just imagine. And that may be why I am so deeply fascinated by Augmented Reality.

I mentioned this to a writer friend of mine, who instantly went into mental “nap” mode – as in: I see your lips moving but I cannot hear a word of what you are saying. I have lots of writer and filmmaker friends who roll their eyes when the subject of technology enhanced storytelling comes up. They just want to know why we just can’t tell stories the old-fashioned way – the way humans have done for generations. And if my writer friend would have been paying attention, he might have understood that in fact, Augmented Reality can be a very primal, imaginative way to tell stories.

There is only a little difference between my imaginary castle and say, this kids’ “Mixed Reality” game called WizQubes.

In my doll play, I transcoded the fairy tale princesses castle from my storybook onto the experience whereas in WizQubes, not only does the game provide a virtual version of the castle, but it also allows a shared experience with another child.

The above example is an early interesting foray into Augmented Reality gaming and there appear to be many different approaches – some which feel more 3D than others like levelHead’s 3D Spatial Memory Game, some that require location based technology like the well-discussed Roku’s Reward and some which feel only a few degrees from a more conventional gaming experience such as Ahrrrr from GA Tech and SCAD Atlanta which utilizes an interface on the mobile device combined with a “real” space environment.

As I write this, there are probably thousands of experiments being conducted in this area, from the most technologically complex to the simplest and most accessible, like Esquire’s upcoming AR integration in their physical December issue and the John Mayer music video enhanced by AR and activated by a webcam. The one thing they all have in common is that they aim to enhance one’s experience of the real world and engage the user, inviting him/her to dig deeper, and look for something beyond the “real” or surface appearance of the experience.

I can just see my writer friend’s eyes still rolling when I say this, but here’s what I’m thinking: our world is increasingly complex in the way we navigate from device to device, city to country, work to play, and this massively complex network of experiences means our way of interacting both with stories and “real life” is shifting. And while I’m not suggesting that we all go live on some AR planet where all our friends are imaginary, I think that some very interesting creative experiences and stories can come of this form.

Note: In Part 2, I’ll delve more into the role of the mobile device in creating seamless AR experiences.