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:
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.' - Robert Heinlein, 1951.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'