Augmented reality is hot… new uses seem to pop up every day. In the last months we’ve seen augmented Japanese slaves, Mini cars driving in magazines and many other interesting solutions. This time it’s LEGO’s turn to try out this interesting technology worldwide in toy stores.

While many uses of augmented reality leave me in doubt of their success, this one is interesting. Everybody knows the frustration of being in a toy store… all the LEGO looks nice. You’ve got all these cool boxes with photos of the product inside. But what does it look like on the other side? Is it really that big? Metaio developed a digital box which will solve these questions. They will place this box in a store. When someone walks up to it, with the packaging facing the box, a 3d-model appears which can be manipulated by twisting and turning the packaging.

This is one of the first times this technology is applied on such a large scale (another product is the PS3 game ‘Eye of judgement’. Thanks Stephen Cox for mentioning it). After applying it in various more or less experimental ways, this finally looks like a match which really adds value. This because it shows something which we can relate to, something which we can confirm later on.

I hope they’ll be putting on in a toy store nearby. This will give me a good excuse to go inside.