Avatar toys bring you the future in kids entertainment with augmented reality allowing the interaction with surroundings, to make it a more life-like experience.

When Star Wars action figures came out in the 1970s, they were considered to be revolutionary. The small representations of the movie characters sold by the millions, and changed the face of movie merchandising forever. Children played with these figures for hours and hours, even though they had relatively little detail and few points of articulation compared to action figures of today. Toys like this have endured and evolved for many years; however, even George Lucas probably could not have imagined where the future of action figures would take us.

Avatar and Augmented Reality
James Cameron and Mattel bring us that future now, with action figures and toys tied into his latest mega blockbuster, “Avatar.” The film, designed for IMAX 3D, is about creatures on a far-off world called Pandora and their relationship with humans, who visit Pandora and interact with its inhabitants safely through the use of proxies called “avatars.”
What makes the Avatar toys so revolutionary is that they are integrated with augmented reality, a new term for technology that interacts with one’s surroundings to produce real time, real-life results. In the case of Avatar, each toy is equipped with a 3-D web tag.

How the iTAG Works
This “iTAG” can be scanned by any computer webcam. When it is scanned, the toy produces exclusive, special content that can be accessed on your computer screen. This content includes not only static content like biographical information and images, but also 3-D renderings of your action figure in action. What’s really cool is that if you scan two iTAGs at the same time, you’ll be treated to 3-D animation of the two toys interacting with each other onscreen.

The Future of Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is a concept that doesn’t just apply to toys. It can be used with anything from map applications to social media, but integrating augmented reality into such a popular and widespread item as a line of movie tie-in toys probably means good things for this type of product. Expect to see much more from the world of augmented reality in the future, both in your children’s toys and in your adult life.