Hello! Magazine has just jumped on board the 3D revolution by offering ladies the chance to get closer than ever to one of their girlhood crushes. Take That heartthrob turned X Factor judge Gary Barlow who once covered the bedroom walls of many a British teenage girl during the pop group’s dominance of the early to mid-90s now returns to his former cover-boy status to adorn the front of the latest issue looking dapper in a smart suit and tie. But that’s not all ladies..
If you download and install the special Hello! 3D app on your Apple iPhone or Android mobile gadget and hold your device so that the cover of the mag appears in your camera viewer, the Gary in the photo will transform into a three-dimensional figure, stepping right off the cover. Meaning you’ll be able to get up close and (virtually) personal with the Take That singer without compromising that restraining order that we know you still have framed!
All this is thanks to that Augmented Reality (AR) technology which is recently becoming a big trend for smartphones and pocket gadgets. An example of AR’s earliest consumer use was on the Nintendo 3DS gaming gadget which came with a bonus feature that combined “physical” cards with virtual game play. When a symbol on the card’s 2D surface was recognised by the camera software a 3D character or scene would appear on the card when viewed through the portable’s screen.
AR has recently also been used to refresh interest in the humble jigsaw puzzle, as well as offering addition and beyond-the-pages content for Marvel Comics. But one of our favourite implementations of this interesting and fun tech has to be the Blu-Ray and DVD covers released in celebration of Universal Studios 100 Year Anniversary which bring iconic scenes to life including the T-Rex from Jurassic Park and King Kong ascending the Empire States Building – far more interesting for manly men than some old boy band geezer!
Get the Hello! 3D app now from the Apple App Store or Google Play for Android.
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