Adidas Steps Into The World Of Augmented Reality

Put down that Nintendo DS and pick up your sneakers. That’s right -- your new Adidas sneakers. Log into adidas.com, hold your sneaker up to your webcam and a code implanted in the tongue of the shoe will enable a virtual 3-D world that can be navigated using the sneaker itself.

Three games are being developed for an upcoming line of five men’s sneakers by xForm. One will be a skateboard game (the sneaker is the controller that navigates through virtual city alleys); the others are a Star Wars-like game, and a music-based game. The shoes with augmented reality codes will be priced between $65 and $95 and will be available in February.

“The foundation of augmented reality lies in adding a layer to the real world,” says Chris Barbour, head of digital marketing for Adidas Originals. “We have taken a real world item and added a fantastic virtual world on top of that."

Augmented reality (AR) occurs when a direct or indirect view of a real-world environment is augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery creating a mixed reality. The most common example is the yellow first down lines in televised football games, or the location trail showing puck direction in broadcasts of hockey games. While these systems display graphics for a single viewpoint, next-generation AR systems will display graphics for each individual’s perspective.

Adidas AR has taken a quantum leap with sneakers. “We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach,” says Barbour. “The neighborhood is displayed on a two dimensional computer screen, but you can use your shoe to control the angle and depth of view and zoom in and out, giving a 3-D sense of perspective.” Flying by your shoes?

Adidas is one of several companies playing around in augmented reality products.

Vuzix just launched at CES 2010 the Wrap 920AR. It features a built-in stereoscopic camera that blends reality and computer-generated imagery. This augmented reality is comprised of a 1,504 x 480 screen navigated by participants who must wear $800 video glasses to interact with the altered world around them.

And then there’s the “third cloud,” where the next generation smartphones communicating via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will recognize, for example, if a doctor is in the vicinity and alert him if somebody nearby has dialed 911. Or, your smartphone captures an image from a subway station video camera around the corner where someone is in need of help. The augmented reality app Monocle, combines a phone’s camera view with micro tiny tags showing distances, names, and user ratings of nearby restaurants and bars.

AR technology is actually morphing our consciousness into a techno-model for a new level of evolutionary transformation, a global brain with Avatar-like capabilities. So grab those Adidas sneakers -- and fly.