How might we merge the traditional home entertainment experience with the transformational and location-aware opportunities of augmented reality? Stimulant and I partnered with several teams across mechanical engineering, industrial design, and fabrication to prototype and build a smart TV that included two screens in a double-sided arrangement and two 4k cameras with voice, gesture, and touch enablement. This unique hardware setup was a natural fit for an AR experience.

In the story of “The Three Little Pigs,” the family reads the book aloud as they watch on screen to see the environment of the story appear in augmented reality within the reflected view of their living room. Viewers become actors in the story as position-aware costume masks float on top of each user’s face. The family gathers around either side of the double-sided television screens to play the roles of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs. Children build a virtual house of straw and then scream in delight as the “Wolf” blows the house down…sending a flurry of straw all around the house!