Martian Attack - Zapparel from Zappar on Vimeo.
Technologies that let you paint words in the night, let you touch holograms, and morph your face in real time bring us closer to the kind of future movies envision. Here's an addition to the list — augmented reality t-shirts that play music and emulate a Martian invasion among other cool things.Zappar's line of augmented reality t-shirts launched during this year's Magic International Fashion Expo in Las Vegas. A total of twenty designs were showcased. But while the prints on each of the shirts look hip from the get-go, the magic happens only if you look at them through a smartphone or a tablet screen. The shirts are a collaborative effort between Hybrid Apparel and augmented reality app Zappar (download Zappar for your iPhone, iPad, and Android). So it's given that you need to install the free app on your device for the trick to work.
You only need to point your gadget's camera to the t-shirt to trigger the animation sequence. But if you're the one wearing the shirt, be prepared to stand very still while your friends take turns watching the animation or zapping some Martian flying saucers. The system's interaction is pretty one-sided, but we'd love to see how Zappar and Hybrid Apparel could improve on this initial design, and what other augmented reality applications could spring from this.
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