Qualcomm's best Augmented reality apps

In October 2010, Qualcomm launched an Augmented Reality Application Developer Challenge that asked development teams what AR apps they could make by the beginning of 2011, using the company’s new AR SDK.

From the pool of submitted applications, three winners were announced at Mobile World Congress 2011 to win cash prizes of $125,000 for first place, $50,000 for second place, and $25,000 for third place - a handsome purse.

We caught up with the head of AR at Qualcomm to see first and second place, plus another favourite to see what they were and how they worked.

Paparazzi

The top prize of $125,000 was awarded to a team of two developers from Lithuania, Paulius Liekis and Arminas Didžiokas for Paparazzi.

An interactive game, Paparazzi sees you trying to take a picture of a celebrity with your camera phone without them noticing or stopping you. The more you do the more agitated he gets eventually attacking you and even “virtually” smashing up your screen. It’s a fun game that only requires a specfici image in a magazine or on a card to work.

Inch High Stunt Guy

Second prize of $50,000 was awarded to Defiant Development Pty Ltd. for Inch High Stunt Guy.

This game is all about creating a virtual stunt course on your desk or wherever you happen to be to then get your stunt guy to tackle. The AR not only works using nothing by a tagged image, but you can move your phone around the stunts and course you’ve created to get a different view of all the action. It’s actually very clever.

Backshot

This is one for the street. The idea is that you’ll be able to walk down the street, see what looks like the back board of a basketball hoop, and start playing basketball without a ball thanks to AR.

Of course there is a ball involved, it’s just a virtual one, but it shows what is possible, and shows that you can expect to see in the future for AR examples when out and about.

More...

You can see more videos and AR bits and bobs from the competition at www.qualcomm.com/ar. To create your own application, visit Qualcomm’s AR developer portal at developer.qualcomm.com/a.

For more information on what Qualcomm is doing with Augmented Reality please click: http://www.qualcomm.co.uk/products/augmented-reality