Augmented Reality on DSi?

If you thought augmented reality was restricted to the 3DS, then you must have forgotten about the ‘front’ camera on the DSi/XL, because the way that AR works has nothing to do with the 3D capabilities of the 3DS, it works with any camera and the right software.
An example of a use previous to the 3DS was a promotional thing by Cheestrings in which you had ‘Top Trumps’ cards inside of certain multipacks and some of those cards featured the back sillouette image that, with the 3D Top Trumps software, you would be treated to a special animation.

Abylight has announced the development of AfterZoom, an exclusive augmented reality hidden object game for the DSi which will be available through DSiWare.
Some blurb:
Our planet is full of life. Besides all the creatures that can be seen with the naked eye, there are millions of microscopic creatures with amazing features.
Several scientific disciplines study and classify all of these creatures, but there is still much to do and learn.
Some organisms have developed wonderful camouflage mechanisms that make them invisible to conventional microscopes. However, a random series of events has transformed your Nintendo DSi camera into a very special Microscope that allows you to find them.

Creating this project has been an authentic challenge from the start and we are very happy with the end result. AfterZoom is an original game concept that nicely mixes reality and fantasy.” – says Nacho Garcia, designer of the game and Abylight’s CEO. “We’ve also developed some interesting algorithms that are able to detect the console movement and different types of images”.

AfterZoom takes place in a Lab where there are 3 main areas: the Microscope, the Sample Bank and the Chemical Lab.

  • The Microscope is useful to search for organisms and other elements on the player’s surroundings, which may be found in different places and at different zoom levels.
  • The organisms collected are stored in the Sample Bank. Here, one can also feed them so they are healthy. The healthier they are, the faster they’ll grow and the less one will have to check on them.
  • The elements found with the Microscope are stored in the Chemical Lab, which is also where one mixes up new elements for the colonies, based on actual chemistry formulas.