Augmented reality (AR) is the technology that expands our physical world, adding layers of digital information onto it. AR does not create the whole artificial environment to replace real with a virtual one. AR appears in direct view of an existing environment and adds sounds, videos, graphics to it.
The first AR technology was developed in 1968 at Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland created an AR head-mounted display system called The Sword of Damocles. Although he did not call it an augmented reality it is believed that it was the first augmented reality.
In 1990, Boeing researcher Tom Caudel coined the term augmented reality. After that AR entered commercial areas like gaming and entertainment. American inventor, Louis Rosenberg is one of the pioneers of AR, who created the first fully immersive AR system ‘Virtual Fixtures’ in 1992. It was intended to provide an overlay of virtual sensory information on a workspace in order to improve human performance in direct and remotely manipulated tasks. The virtual sensory overlays can be presented as physically realistic structures, registered in space such that they are perceived by the user to be fully present in the real workspace environment.
Following this, lots of tech companies have shown their interest in this technology by releasing different smartphone applications as well as introducing dedicated AR hardware. Google Glass and Microsoft Holo Lens are amongst the popular AR gadgets, where Pokemon GO, Google Translate, and Google Lens are popular smartphone applications that have shown the potential of AR in the future. Pokemon Go is one of all times most played mobile games, which over 1 billion players have played, and has gone viral over a short period of time.
Although all advancements have been made over AR all over the world, almost no application hasn’t made use of this technology until the last three years.
Meda Hunt is a mobile game developed by Engineers at 360 Ground, which makes use of Augmented Reality in the Ethiopian gaming industry for the first time. The concept of the game is hunting treasures by scanning special codes generated, randomly distributed, and posted over places. The game basically involves users opening the Meda Hunt and scan the code which reveals Different mysterious characters, gifts and also penalizing objects and grabbing them wisely before other players scan and take them. This game has been played in 4 separate venues, Ghion Hotel (Taste of Addis Event), Century Mall, Millennium Hall (ICT Expo), and also on selected random streets of Addis which created User Engagement of over 15,000 users in less than three days. Over 9,000 prizes have been taken by players of the game.
Where is Meda Hunt now, and What is the future of Meda Hunt? Meda Hunt now has passed the stage of proof of concept and is more gamified, as well being worked on high user traffic resilience as the second wave of the game is planned to hit different cities of Ethiopia and Support more than 100,000 users. As the main Objectives of Meda ™ is to hit the climax of user satisfaction, a partnership with well-known companies is also being worked on in order to increase prizes and gifts to be obtained by the players.
When shall we expect the next Hunt? The next Hunt season is expected to be right after the End of COVID 19, as the game needs active user engagement and traveling and moving here and there. Keep posted about our upcoming hunts by following us on social media (FB, INSTA, TELEGRAM) and be part of the adventurous game.
You can get Images, Videos, and prize lists of our previous hunt sessions on our official website www.360ground.com/hunt-is-fun.
Keep Posted, stay safe from COVId 19, get your weapons ready for the next Hunt 😉