We Are Organized Chaos » Website & Application Development

Zugara’s First Webcam Based Augmented Reality Flash Game Utilizes Its Proprietary Motion Capture Technology

Zugara — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:30:16 +0000

Integrates Facebook Connect To Put Casual Gamers And Their Friends In The Same Game.

August 12, 2009, Los Angeles – Today we’re launching another emerging media application, “Cannonballz”, an interactive webcam based flash game. Obviously it’s not news that an interactive marketing agency has built a flash game. The news is that “Cannonballz” is the first casual game built using Augmented Reality and our proprietary Motion Capture User Interface Engine (A.K.A. ZugMo Technology). ZugMo Technology enables anyone with a webcam (and a Flash plug-in) to physically engage with various elements that are integrated within their video stream. No mouse and no keyboard, it’s all done with gesture recognition. With this immersive technology you no longer just play games, you get to be in them. It’s a whole new experience.

Feel like giving the game a go? You can visit www.cannonballzthegame.com to play it now.

If you just want to see a demo of the game, please check out the video below.

With “Cannonballz”, we’ve used ZugMo Technology to build a casual game to showcase the potential of this technology. We previously used the technology to build an online shopping application called the Webcam Social Shopper. While we hope that people find this game to be fun, it’s not “the star” here. The technology is, and the possibilities of how it can be utilized are really as endless as a company’s creativity. Think about it: educational games for children; an entire section of games on Yahoo; casual games that engage consumers with a brand; product demonstrations; an interactive element in a corporate training session; etc.

“We chose casual gaming as a way to showcase the ZugMo Technology because over 200 million people play casual games every single month” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara. “It’s an experience we’re all familiar with, and we hope will allow people to see the greater potential for this technology. Gaming is also the perfect execution to show the power of social media integration. For ‘Cannonballz’ we integrated Facebook Connect to allow users to not only bring their friends into the actual gameplay, but to quickly and easily share their scores and the game with their friends via their news stream.”

So, what do you think? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below.

About Zugara

Zugara, a member of the Augmented Reality Industry guiding “AR Consortium”, is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York.

www.zugara.com

www.zugarastudios.com

www.freetwitterdesigner.com

www.cannonballzthegame.com

For more information on this technology, including purchase of the Software Development Kit so you can create your own applications, please contact: cannonballz(at)zugara(dot)com.

For all press inquiries, please contact: press(at)zugara(dot)com.

Zugara Launches Online Shopping App Utilizing Augmented Reality And Motion Capture

Zugara — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:19:31 +0000

June 23, 2009, Los Angeles – Here at Zugara, we’re proud to announce the launch of our newest application, The Webcam Social Shopper. Coupling the functionality of both Augmented Reality and Motion Capture, this application will allow anyone with a webcam to shop online right from within their video feed. We like to think of it as “Augmented Reality meets Utility”. This app allows you to seemingly hold articles of clothing up in front of yourself to see “how they look”. And the Motion Capture allows the app to track your movements so you can interact with the site (e.g. cycle through a product’s various colors/styles or take a picture of yourself so you can get immediate feedback from friends on Facebook) while standing several feet away from your computer’s controls. No extra downloads, no new plug-in, no consumer headache.

To see the application in action, check out our video below.

(UPDATE: If you’re having trouble accessing the embedded video – here is the direct YouTube URL)

Now that you’ve seen the application in its “Alpha State”, think about the potential an app like this has as we partner with brands to allow their consumers to do things like:

Livestream their webcam’s feed to friends and loved ones, and get comments and feedback right next to the application in real time.
Receive “clothing care packages” from loved ones who might be somewhere else in the country and set up times to “shop together”… online.
Enter their measurements into the app and get a “fitted image”.
Match entire outfits at the same time, both top and bottom.
Shop right within a branded Facebook application.

It’s not a secret that friends/family recommendations influence a consumer’s purchase decision and beat any other “consumer touchpoint”. Now, we can help brands empower their consumers to integrate their friends and family into their online shopping process like never before. The thinking is that this application will help bridge the gap between how people like to shop offline and how they are forced to shop online, subsequently providing an enhanced interactive shopping experience for the consumer and increased sales for the brand. So, what do you think? Please, feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone, or embed the video above in your own blog. And, as always, we’d love to know your thoughts below…

(UPDATE: We’ve partnered with RichRelevance to integrate their recommendation engine into WSS and create a completely unique application dubbed Fashionista. Fashionista is currently live on Tobi.com and you can read more about that launch on Fast Company.)

About Zugara

Zugara is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York (www.zugara.com) (www.zugarastudios.com).

For more information on The Webcam Social Shopper or ZugMo Technology, please contact ar@zugara.com. For all other inquiries, please contact info@zugara.com.