Baseball Cards You Can Really Play With

My friend, Gerardo Obieta, pointed out this really cool video. Topps Baseball Cards used 3D animation to create baseball cards you can play with. This is another great way 3D animation and augmented reality is used to enhance a product. Any baseball card where the player can actually play his position is much cooler than the traditional card. I can't wait to see what other uses of augmented reality appear in the next few years.

GE's Smart Grid Shows Grow Interactive's Innovation

GE's Smart Grid microsite is innovative and inspiring. The purpose of the site is to illustrate how GE is transforming the aging grid infrastructure into an efficient, high-performance, energy-saving asset. Not an easy message to get across. But, I think GE does a good job of coming across as cutting edge. The forward thinking website clearly illustrates GE's forward thinking approach to energy. Using flash animation, voiceovers and 3-D renderings as well as interactive gadgets for the user to "make the power grid more efficient," the site makes the information about what a smart grid is and what it does easily digestible.

Probably my favorite part of the entire site is the Smart Grid Augmented Reality. The Smart Grid Augmented Reality makes great use of FLARToolKit and PV3D to create a digital hologram of Smart Grid technology in your hands.

Basically, you print out the Augmented Reality digital hologram, hold it up to your web cam and you have a 3-D universe. Below is a video by OgilvyPR illustrating how the hologram works. It's pretty incredible.



GE's site was designed by Grow Interactive, an award-winning design studio from Norfolk, Virginia. Looking through the company's website, I'm amazed by much of their work. It is exciting and innovative and definitely a great place to get interactive inspiration.