Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Universal's Augmented Reality edition Blu-rays

An email notification popped up of yet another sale so I took a quick gander. One thing that caught my eye was a bunch of re-released Blu-rays advertised as being "Augmented Reality Versions". Reading the blurb is came out as - download this app then point your camera at the cover. Uh-huh and?

Turns out this app from Universal ties to a map. Visit certain locations and point your phone or tablet at a landmark and characters from that movie will appear interacting. So point it at Nelson's Column and see King Kong climbing it; point it at Big Ben's tower and the Back to the Future DeLorean will fly past; point it at Buckingham Palace and see a T-Rex stomping by. Just a neat bit of fun, however did you spot the subtle connection between those locations?

Yup all these locations are in London. I can't see King Kong clambering through the Bull Ring in Birmingham. At times I just get a little fed-up of the London-centric approach that seems to be a given within the UK.

2 comments:

LazerFX said...

Completely agree - you look at the major shows, events and displays. Inevitably, they'll be in some god-forsaken hard-to-get-to location like Olympia, rather than a centrally-located, easy to access (Globally!) arena like the NEC. I mean - rail, road AND air, all within a few miles, most turning up inside the NEC? And they still put major things down in London where the access is abysmal?

Feh.

FlipC said...

... and the prices are higher.

Wasn't there something about attendance being higher when matches had to be held outside of Wembley Stadium while it was being rebuilt?

I still put much of it down to London's own internal transportation system and the frankly diabolical inter-city links. Hold an event in CityA and if you live in said city it's a case of - visit event, take a car, taxi, bus, train, or a tram home.

Live outside of that city and it's likely to be an overnight stay if the event even nudges into the evening.

That being the case make it easy for the largest population grouping which is London (12%) and hold the event there.

What made me angry though was that this app says nothing about it being applicable only to London and that in theory there's no reason why it should only be tied to one city. Hell why not have King Kong climb Blackpool Tower?