Splat!

Students at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have created Kobito, a bizarre yet oddly hypnotic augmented reality system: a bunch of invisible dwarves push a tea caddy around a breakfast table, and you can push back. And no, this is not a video game: it’s done on a real breakfast table with a little help from magnets, a camera tracking the movement of the tea caddy and a display to reveal the position of the dwarves.

When I look at the pictures of the system in action and watch the videos, I can’t help noticing that the kids using the system have a tendency to get bored with pushing things around and start trying to squash the dwarves. Presumably it’s just a matter of time until someone turns this concept into the next big thing in gaming.

[Via Collision Detection]