Synopsis: Jawbone.tv presents 40 popular Augmented Reality projects, from the distinguished to the forgettable.

Before every great leap in technology and entertainment, there are baby steps, and right now, Augmented Reality (AR) can barely manage a crawl. Remember though, to arrive at Halo there had to be Q*bert. The Internet needed AOL for a while. Baby steps? What we're seeing today from Augmented Reality is the stuff of embryonics. But it will get better, and perhaps sooner than you think.

What exactly is Augmented Reality? According to Jeff Crouse of the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, "AR is where you have a special symbol on a physical object that a computer can recognize. So when a camera looks at that object, you can superimpose other things in 3D space around that symbol."

Or to put it another way, Augmented Reality lets you see things that aren't really there, but only through a lens (currently your webcam or mobile phone).

It's hard to describe to people - one of those 'you gotta see it' things. But make no mistake, whatever the 'thing' is, it's coming, and it's going to create an entertainment and marketing tsunami that will make the Internet look like a pond ripple. The key shift will likely occur when the lens becomes wearable. Invisible even. Contacts or glasses that look just like the ones you wear now, allowing you to cross into a 3D interactive world seamlessly transposed onto your reality. To quote Keanu Reeves: "... Whoa."

We could go on forever about 'How Augmented Reality Will Work' in the future, but that's not why we're gathered here today. We want to look at current Augmented Reality offerings, see which ones might have value as storytelling tools and, at the very least, distinguish the impressive from the forgettable.

The Cool, Intriguing and Awesome

These aren't necessarly the most fully developed, but they present a glimmer of the true groundbreaking power that Augmented Reality offers. (Some of this stuff is right around the corner.)

levelHead Game

ARhrrrr! Game

Le Monde des Montagnes (World of Mountains)

C.A.O.S Living Book

Augmented Reality Word Series of Tubing

Tattoos

Skin Hologram

Magic (everyone has seen this, but we had to include it)

MScape Game Demo: Roku's Reward

Invizimals

Ghostwire

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