Nintendo DS and handheld AR?
blair | September 29, 2008Over on Wired there is an article about a new Nintendo DS possibly having a camera and other support for creating AR games. Ori also comments on this.
I am also really excited by this; anything that pushes handheld AR will be a good thing for those of us currently engaged in it (and it’ll give my students more job opportunities!). There is the practical issue of creating “good handheld AR games” that are practical for mass marketing and consumption. The DS/PSP/Gizmondo aren’t powerful enough to do “real computer vision” (like the PS3 could do), and so some sort of physical props (e.g., cards with markers on them) will be needed. As soon as your start requiring props, that makes the games less portable … a conundrum to be sure.
Hopefully, some of the students in the “handheld AR game design” class I’m doing at GT right now (in collaboration with a class at SCAD Atlanta) will come up with some compelling examples and help drive interest!
You nesscerly need to have props to have AR games.
A simple example would be one that turned the screen into a viewfinding, which you move around to shot at flying saucers overlaid onto the real-world view.
The enemys wouldnt be alligned to real-world objects, and if they are in the air, it would only need very apoximate tracking to where they can/cant fly.
Another possible game would be a varation on the Carcade. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Se2nhyetR8&eurl=http://mark-logan.blogspot.com/2008/09/augmented-reality.html)
Any DS game would be along these lines I think, if at all.
I’m skeptical Nintendo would split the market of the DS by introduceing games that require a specific model.
I think more likely it will be the next gen of handhelds….which will probably have wiimote style sensors built in…that will be more suitable for AR.
[...] AR application and games could be viable. Blair MacIntyre written in his blog that he consider markers for AR to be a “prop”: “As soon as your start requiring [...]