Snipers, and Choppers, and Skittles… Oh my!

At risk of sounding like a television program featured on the Discovery Channel, I thought I’d come here today to talk about Augmented Reality or rather, AR. You may be asking yourself: “What the heck is AR?”

Well, to lay it down it for you, it’s a field of computer research that has been around since the ’90′s. It deals with the pleasant combination of real-world and computer-generated data. Sound complicated? It’s not really. Think Virtual Reality. Video Games in Real Time. “What!? This doesn’t have anything to do with Zombies! What’s it doing on ShootForTheHead!?” Now, now. Before you get rowdy, let me finish.

It turns out that the Augmented Environments Lab (AEL) has developed a Zombie Shooter Game for Mobile Camera-Phones, cleverly titled ARhrrrr! This may serve as moldy news to some but I thought it was quite neat. Here is what AEL has to say about ARhrrrr!

ARhrrrr is an augmented reality shooter for mobile camera-phones. The phone provides a window into a 3D town overrun with zombies. Point the camera at our special game map to mix virtual and real world content. Civilians are trapped in the town, and must escape before the zombies eat them! From your vantage point in a helicopter overhead, you must shoot the zombies to clear the path for the civilians to get out. Watch out though as the zombies will fight back, throwing bloody organs to bring down your copter. Move the phone quickly to dodge them. You can also use Skittles as tangible inputs to the game, placing one on the board and shooting it to trigger an explosion.

To read on, visit ARhrrrr at the AEL Website: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Or is it simply the future of video games? You decide.