There was a catchy article over at Blue Sky Disney on the future of Disney and how they're going to handle the transistion to digital streaming ala Netflix-style. There's talk of their own app for all things Disney past and current, but really that's kept under close watch inside the walls of the Mouses' tech HQ.
What got me thinking though, was this relatively new technology that has some really amazing potential. Augmented Reality takes any smart phone and can turn it into a new world on your phone. What "A.R." is, is utilizing your camera on your smart phone, mixed with GPS locationing on your phone, and giving you a chance to post on a 'wall' or suspend a photo in the middle of digital air. For example...
This idea stemmed from one of the few games I play on my iPhone/iPad, Simpson's Tapped Out. The style is very akin to the old VMK game, with high camera frame, and building your own world. It's definitely a fun way to pass time waiting for meetings.
What I think has the potential here though, is combining augmented reality tech with a virtual magic kingdom. Unfortunately, I can see Walt Disney World getting this before Disneyland, simply because of the Kim Possible/Agent P mission games they have had in EPCOT. I'd love to see this in the original park first though.
Utilizing A.R. tech with VMK game play, iPhone/android users would be able to log into an app that would give them quest missions inside the theme park to gain prizes and points for their characters back on the computer at home. Imagine walking through Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough attraction, gaining coins along the walkway on your phone, allowing you to gain money to buy more things than you normally would on the game at home. Or walking past Tom Sawyer's island, and seeing Maleficent, and through your phone you yourself have to battle against her to save the island, ala Fantasmic! finale.
This wouldn't just be coins and battles though. Taking it a step higher with that rumored KeyChest, adding smaller animatronics throughout the park to interact with the game's coding to give you clues to hidden missions and hidden items to find in the park.
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1 comment:
This reminds me of something I read a few years ago about an Augemnted Reality-type game for the Haunted Mansion where you would "capture" the ghosts (this was back before it was even being called "Augmented Reality").
Part of me thinks this sort of thing would be really neat and part of me thinks it's kind of a creepy extension of the idea that virtual reality is more real than real reality. The same article mentioned a AR thing for Tom Sawyer's Island in an effort to make it more "interactive"... as though a giant playground island wasn't already interactive...
The game app idea is neat, but I expect it would have the same problem as VMK did, favouring the people who actually did live near DL (oh VMK, how I loved you). It would also be unfeasible until they get a WiFi running through the park. Being from Canada, I would not be able to use an app that required a network connection otherwise.
Anyways, cool ideas... keep 'em coming ^_^
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