Even in this digital age, there's something intimate about receiving an old-fashioned paper greeting card or a handwritten letter. As you might expect, greeting card companies are looking to bridge the gap between analog and digital with the likes of e-cards, and some are even experimenting with augmented reality (AR) cards. San Francisco-based designer John Littleboy wants to combine the best of both the digital and physical worlds.
Meet Gizmo: It's a selection of paper cards that come to life when you point a smartphone or tablet running a specialized app at them. Your recipient will get a nice handwritten card, but with the added bonus of an AR character—maybe a robot or a mermaid or even a bulldog—that will appear onscreen and make your greeting a little more interactive.
After you pick out your card, you can choose to to make the character wave, dance, go skiing, or do anything you set it to do before you send it to a loved one. All your card recipient has to do is scan the card using an app on your Android- or iOS-based smartphone or tablet, tap a button, and watch the character come alive.
John first cooked up the idea when he attended CES with his company, Artiphany, in 2011. It was there he first met the team at Daqri, makers of the app you'll need in order to see the AR side of the greeting cards.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon