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Smart Product PackagingA Research Demo of the Distributed Systems Group
We propose to view product packaging as a new kind of interactive medium that provides entry points to Web-based information services. In this paradigm, the virtual counterpart of the physical product is selected and displayed with a handheld device. We not only see potential in providing background information or third-party information about a product itself, but also in making marketing campaigns on product packages, that are often realized as games or quizzes, more attractive. Cereal packages, for example, have included game boards on the back side for years. Even though these games have been very simple and they appeal only to a limited user population, such simple games did not disappear as a part of product packages. The idea presented here is to link handheld augmented reality games and animations to packages. In this approach, packages provide the visual background for the augmented reality games in the form of a playing field and a visual code. The playing field containing the visual code is captured by the camera of a camera-equipped mobile phone. The games are controlled by applying embodied interaction gestures to the handheld device. Such games would be interesting to a larger proportion of consumers and increase participation rates in the marketing campaigns they are part of. The approach opens up new design possibilities for marketing campaigns on product packages. The particular game that is presented in this demo and in the video below is a penalty shootout game. It consists of a printed playing surface on a box of cereals and virtual overlays generated by a camera phone. The playing surface shows a visual code, a soccer field, a soccer goal, the penalty spot, and spectators in the background. The display of the camera phone shows the virtual goal keeper, initially standing on the goal-line, a virtual ball, initially positioned on the penalty spot, and textual overlays. The code coordinate system of the central visual code is used to register the generated graphical overlays (the goal keeper and the ball) with elements in the camera image (the goal-line and the penalty spot). The game is then controlled by changing the orientation of the mobile device relative to the playing surface and by pressing keys on the device. The live camera image of the focused part of the background medium and its graphical overlays are updated in real time as the device moves. A short videos illustrates the interaction with a cereal package. The video requires a DivX codec.
This demo was created in June 2005. See also the following related items:
Participating Researchers |
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