Everything is Toy is a prototype augmented reality device created by
Keio Media Design's Yuichiro Katsumoto, Yu Uchida and Masa Inakage. Rather than cringing from RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags in our consumer goods, these people make music to enrich consumer lives instead.
Here's how it works: when you acquire a new item, the RFID reader checks out the item, reading its code. The system then selects an appropriate musical sounds and then plays them on the user's sound system.
This device is the opposite of a standard iPod, which immerses its user in a separate world that is not related to the user's actual environment. This device provides entertainment by taking specific elements of the user's current space and building them into a play scene.
Check out these other cool augmented reality experiences:
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?' - Robert Castle, 1939.
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Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'