Augmented reality toys, the playtime trend of 2012
At the start of 2012 augmented reality toys, including those from big name manufacturers such as Hasbro and Mattel, caused a big buzz at major industry fairs such as the Toy Fair in London and the Nuremberg Toy Fair, making the previously niche technology one of the big playtime trends of the year.
Augmented reality toys combine a physical object with an interactive on-screen display. For example Hasbro's "Lazer Tag" system combines a real-world toy gun with an iOS app: using the iPhone in association with the toy gun, the app overlays images on aliens, and/or a targeting system on your immediate real-world surroundings which are displayed on the screen.
2012 also saw the release of augmented reality supported toys from makers such as Character Options which released AppGear, a winner at the London Toy Fair, which combines physical objects such as model planes with footage displayed on a smartphone that changes according to the placement of the physical objects; and Spin Master, which released Appmates, a winner at the Nuremberg Toy Fair Toy Awards, which combines toy vehicles with iPad app to display an ever-changing race track as the toy vehicles are moved across the screen.
Releases such as these, and others, led to leading toy retailers, such as Toys R Us, identifying "app enabled," or augmented reality toys, as one of the biggest trends in play of 2012.
The trend looks set to grow in 2013 with several augmented reality toys being named "must haves" for the upcoming Christmas holiday season and the new year
One of these "must-haves" singled out by retailers such as Kmart, Kohl's and Target, is Hasbro's updated Furby. Though the cuddly talking toys first found a place in homes in late 1990s / early 2000s they are now back on wish lists thanks, in part, to an augmented reality update. The new Furbies are compatible with an iPhone app which, once downloaded, lets children virtually "feed" their Furby and access a "Furbish-to-English dictionary" to help them understand what the toy is "saying."
Look for the big toy fairs of 2013, such as the London Toy Fair, January 22-24, and the New York Toy Fair, February 10-13, for example, to once again feature increasingly sophisticated, app-enabled augmented reality toys.
