This year, at E3 2009, Sony gave a preview of their new PSP game Invizimals, which is to be released in the UK this fall. The game uses augmented reality to capture children’s imaginations and enhance the gaming experience. According to the introductory video in the game, a Japanese scientist created a camera that is more sensitive than the human eye and can ‘see’ invizimals that humans cannot. The game tasks you to find the invizimals using the PSP camera (the screen begins to pulse when the camera detects an invizimal) and to trap them by placing a star shaped card in the vicinity of the invizimal. If done correctly, the Invizimal, a little, wild, computer-generated animal, will appear on the PSP screen on top of the real star-shaped card, as shown in this YouTube video. Once captured, the Invizimals can be battled against each other, and during the battle, players can blow on the screen to create a windstorm or cast a shadow over the screen to create a lighting strike.

Seeing the augmented reality technology used by Sony, I became intrigued with marketing applications for such technology. After some searching, I came across GE’s use of augmented reality in promoting Smart Grid, a project that encourages energy efficiency and the harnessing of renewable energy sources. GE has created a windmill model (shown in the picture above) that is enhanced by augmented reality and can be viewed using a webcam and the ‘marker’ (a 2D bar code) from their Smart Grid website. Although the model is very interesting to view, this use of augmented reality is playing on the novelty of the technology and not using the technology to its full potential.

I later came across a concept that uses augmented reality to enhance marketing for IKEA in an effective way. It’s called My.IKEA. The idea is that augmented reality can be used by IKEA customers to literally ‘picture’ the furniture in their rooms before purchasing. The customer sets up a webcam in their room, prints out markers that are each tied to an item of furniture and places the markers where they would like the furniture. In the example picture above, the marker for the virtual table is visible, but the virtual couch sits on top of its marker. I love this concept for two reasons: one, it takes a lot of guesswork out of furniture shopping and two, it allows people to show concepts to each other, chat online about them and compete for the best designs. The social aspect to this concept makes it interactive and fun for those that are interested in design, and creates a community that is interested in discussing IKEA products.

Another interesting development is using augmented reality with QR codes on billboards and in magazines. When the codes are scanned by a mobile phone, the image in the advertisement would transform on the mobile screen into a 3D augmented reality picture. These ideas, though, have the same issue as GE’s augmented reality model: once the novelty has worn off, they will no longer be of much interest. One area where it could be useful is if when the code is scanned, the advertisement for, say a cruise, could pop up in 3D and allow you to navigate through the cruise ship, taking a 3D tour of the facilities.

I’m interested to know what you think. Will augmented reality become commonplace in marketing in the future?

Tohato, a Japanese snack manufacturer, launched the “World’s Worst War,” a massively multiplayer online game created to promote the launch of two new spicy snack flavours: “Tyrant Habenero Burning Hot Hell” and “Satan Jorquia Bazooka Deadly Hot”. The flavours were positioned as rivals with each snack claiming to be the spiciest, and the matter was settled on the battlefield. To join the battle, a consumer would purchase one flavour of the snack and with their cell phone, scan the 2D barcode (called a QR code). The consumer would then become a part of either Tyrant Habenero’s or Satan Jorquia’s army, depending on the flavour they had bought. Every 24 hours, there would be a battle at one of the 31 online battlefields and players would receive updates from “War Reporters” on recent battle developments, including who had been captured by the opposing army and who of their comrades had been promoted to a higher ranking officer.

By awarding special mobile standby screens to battle winners and offering an increase in rank as well as improved fighting power to players that recruited friends to their army, Tohato was able to promote the viral nature of the game. The “World’s Worst War” became very popular, with over 10,000 participants in total. Players even created communities online to discuss strategy for upcoming battles. Tohato reported that as a result of the campaign, sales increased significantly and page views on their website increased to 100,000 per day.

The success of this campaign is evidence of the shift in power that has occurred in the marketing world. With TiVo, time-shifting and media available online, consumers have become empowered to decide which advertising they view, and to get their attention, marketers must create value for them. The “World’s Worst War” was able to do just that. It introduced new consumers to Tohato products while providing an entertaining experience that consumers appreciated.

So, if even a CPG like Tohato can integrate their product into an exciting online game of war, marketing through games should be applicable to almost any industry.

The main problem is that people who contract such viruses are contagious before their symptoms become visible, making it extremely difficult to determine that a person has caught the virus before they transmit it to others. The Japanese government has recognized this issue as one of the main challenges in fighting potential pandemic and has planned an experiment to see if Japan’s advanced internet and cellular phone infrastructure can be used to help address the issue. As elementary schools are one of the main breeding grounds for contagious illness, the experiment will begin by giving each of the students at a particular elementary school a GPS-enabled cell phone and ‘infecting’ a few children with a fictitious virus. The students’ movements will then be tracked, and the parents of any children that have come in contact with infected students will be advised to take their child to a doctor so that students that do contract the virus can be diagnosed much faster, thus preventing them from spreading the virus any further. Due to the exponential nature in which viruses spread, even a small decrease in the amount of people infected by each carrier of the virus will have a major impact.

Although using GPS to track interactions can only inform people of possible infection and cannot predict the actual spreading of the virus, this strategy has the potential to be effective in slowing the spread of highly contagious viruses that warrant such extreme action. Equipped with the information that they have been exposed to such a virus, people can check with their doctors to ensure that if they have contracted the virus, they will be treated and not spread it further. Whether the health system could handle an influx of checkups in such a situation is a concern, but it is certainly better than dealing with a full-blown outbreak.

Despite the potential that this experiment has to lead to a strategy that could drastically reduce the spreading of an epidemic, the idea that the government could track people’s locations has caused great concern and cries of “Big Brother”. Privacy is a concern that many have when it comes to the internet, but most often, the discussions of privacy revolve around the danger of predators and the concern that corporations are gaining too much personal information about consumers. When it comes to fighting a serious epidemic though, the consequences of inaction are much greater and location information could be the best defence we have.

The first extreme-scale collaborative game created to tackle the world’s problems was the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) World Without Oil. Created by the non-profit public media company ITVS, this ARG explored a world where oil demand had outstripped supply by 5%, and it challenged the ‘citizens’ of that world to cope. If you’re interested in learning more about it, check out Anthony D. Williams’ great post about World Without Oil and the idea that games could be part of the solution to the climate change crisis.The game that I want to discuss is Superstruct, a massively multiplayer game aimed at forecasting the world in 2019 and finding the strategies that humans can use to stop the impending extinction of the human race. Five ‘superthreats’ were created by the game developers: a massive food shortage, pandemic disease, fast depleting energy resources, the erosion of civil rights, and a refugee epidemic. The game engaged more than 8000 players who together created the scenarios of the future. During the course of the game, one player addressed an urban food shortage by creating the idea of a virtual community that rural famers used to share farming information and tips for dealing with the difficult conditions. These rural farmers then brought their produce to be sold in the old, now closed down urban supermarkets that were once supplied by large, commercial farmers. Many players created such scenarios that were small steps toward a solution to the impending disasters they faced.

At the end of April, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) released their initial results from analysis of the game scenarios, and they plan to soon release “Superstruct Strategies” – 7 actionable strategies that emerged during analysis of the game. In their initial findings, the IFTF outlined three scenarios that for the future that emerged:

• The Long Crisis plots a path of slow response, resistance to change, and attempts to maintain current power relationships.
• Emergence follows a course of rapid adaptation from the bottom up, without much unifying direction.
• The Great Transition envisions a world re-made by technology, a challenge to the planetary dominance of humans as a species.

The three scenarios and 50 year forecast released by the IFTF are interesting, but seem quite extreme. The difficulty of using games to develop solutions to real world problems is that the problems are real and the games are not. Therefore, many scenarios that arise in games such as Superstruct that are more extreme than what the world will likely experience. However, the same characteristic that makes these games difficult to apply to the real world, allows people to freely express their thoughts and ideas. These games create an alternate reality that is a safe, creative environment, and isn’t that what every brainstorming session strives to achieve – a safe environment where ideas, no matter how outlandish, are considered? As we age, it becomes increasingly difficult to tap into that creativity we once had as children, and ‘thinking outside the box’ becomes highly valuable. These types of games can engage and encourage creative brainstorming from thousands of people around the world, and therein lies their value. The issues that the human race will face in coming years cannot possibly be solved by a few; only the intelligence of many minds working together will be able to provide solutions. The questions is whether games will be a conduit for that collaboration. I will be very interested to see the actionable strategies created by the IFTF from the game Superstruct. What I wonder is, will they be strategies that are unrealistic for today’s world, strategies that we have already thought of, or strategies that are extremely valuable?

Schwarzenegger reasoned that “Textbooks are outdated… For so many years, we’ve been trying to teach the kids exactly the same way.” Having grown up in a lecture-style learning system supported by textbooks, I must agree that it is not the most efficient way to learn given the more interactive tools available today. Universities, which are known for their lecture-based style, are being criticized for failing to adopt new learning models that are student-focused instead of teacher-focused. Many high schools can be accused of the same faults. As secondary education budgets decrease, class sizes increase, and it is increasingly difficult to customize learning or engage the class. Introducing collaborative, web-enabled games that can help students grasp key concepts could be one way to get students involved and interested in learning. Such learning methods would be particularly applicable to geography or cultural studies, in which the class could learn about another culture or geography by engaging in a discussion and exchanging videos with a class from that culture or region.

In support of his plan to abolish textbooks, Schwarzenegger asked, “Why are California’s school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?” This brings to mind the issue of whether it is healthier to strain children’s backs with textbooks or their eyes with computer screens.

It will be interesting to watch how the plan rolls out and see what kind of opposition the government receives from parents that grew up on textbooks. There are some legitimate concerns about digitizing learning, the most troubling of which is how students that do not have the means to own computers at home will be affected. One way this initiative will fail, though, is if schools simply convert textbooks to a digital format and do not implement any changes to make the learning environment more interactive and collaborative.

In Koblin’s “Ten Thousand Cents”, the overall design was envisioned and controlled by Koblin, so the finished artwork is cohesive. However, such a structured project does not take advantage of the imaginations and creativity of the thousands of contributors involved. True collaboration should take advantage of the unique talents and perspectives of all contributors to create an end product that is greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore, although Koblin’s art opens the mind to collaborative artwork, I do not considerate it truly collaborative.Since art is a sensory (usually visual) expression of a feeling or an idea and is usually very personal, it is difficult to produce meaningful art through true collaboration. The very aspect of collaboration that makes it so successful in most applications – the introduction of multiple styles and perspectives – makes it difficult to apply to artwork, where the finished piece is a single expression of thought or feeling.

In the project “A Million Penguins”, the publisher Penguin Books and De Monfort University created a wiki site on which they started a collaborative novel, open to public contributions and edits. The novel was an experiment whose purpose was to answer the question, “Can a community write a novel?”. In 2008, De Monfort University released a report explaining the results of the experiment:

“Certainly, some of the participants in the project did attempt to ‘write a novel’ but it remains unclear as to whether they succeeded. What today appears not to be a novel as we know it may in time come to be seen as one, just as work once judged not to be poetry is often later brought into the critical fold. But for the moment at least the answer to whether or not a community can write a novel appears to be ‘not like this’.”

So, is it possible to create truly meaningful art through mass collaboration? My opinion is that, right now, it is not possible, given what is considered to be art. As mass collaboration continues to proliferate, however, it may change the face of art, giving way to a new possibility: the expression of hundreds of thoughts and feelings in a single piece of art.

Although this innovative campaign has been very successful, I question Tourism Queensland’s choice to retain almost entire control over the candidate selection. A key strategy in the campaign was to engage the public through their interest in the candidates, and there may have been more engagement if they had allowed the public to choose the 10 finalists, instead of a single wild card, from the 50 shortlisted candidates. By shortlisting candidates and by choosing the final winner of the competition from the ten publicly chosen candidates, Tourism Queensland would still be able to ensure that an appropriate candidate was chosen. In addition, allowing the public to be more involved would result in a winner that has great charisma and would be able to create a large following for his/her blog. Would the campaign have been even more successful if the public had been more involved? The question of how much control should be retained by a company and how much should be left to consumers is becoming increasingly important as more companies begin to include consumers in the development of their products and services.

Another interesting example of an organization incorporating public opinion is NASA’s contest to name the new module for the international space station. The name that received the most votes was Colbert, after the popular comedian, Stephen Colbert. Although NASA did ask for public opinion, they reserved the right to name the module themselves and decided on Tranquility, one of the top ten suggestions from the public. In recognition of the winning name, NASA did name the new space station treadmill the “Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill”, or COLBERT for short. I think that in this case, NASA made the right decision in not allowing a module of the international space station to be named as a result of a joke, but to incorporate the winning name in NASA’a own joke. In other cases, however, it is not as clear, and it will remain a difficult judgment call to decide how much control should be retained by a company working in collaboration with the public or its consumers.