Mark Cuban, the tech entrepreneur who is also the Dallas Mavericks owner, is teaming-up with Qualcomm to add some augmented reality twist to the NBA tickets. As a result, Android smartphone owners can download a special app (MavsAR) to discover new content “hidden” (or that’s embedded) within their tickets. Support for other platforms is also planned, but not for this season.
The content involved is actually a small game featuring Mavs’ stars Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry. To access the game, Android smartphone owners simple start the app and point the phone’s camera to the ticket – it’s that easy.
It’s good to see Mark Cuban using its influence to push augmented reality to the mainstream consumers. I’m not sure the mentioned game is the best use of the technology, but hey – it’s a start.
Qualcomm on its end is super-bullish on augmented reality, having released an SDK to support the development of AR-based apps. Moreover, last year the company opened a dedicated augmented reality R&D center in Vienna, Austria.
[Via: TechCrunch]