Interest
Japanese Town Holds Dennō Coil Contest for Augmented Reality App
posted on by Eric Stimson
The 2007 TV anime series Dennō Coil presents a town, Daikoku, in the 2020s with close connections to the electronic eyeglass industry. Working with the city government, they envelop the whole place in a virtual cyberspace that citizens can interact with using their ubiquitous electronic eyeglasses. It gained some attention in the scientific community — even leading to the development of apps to mimic the show's augmented reality (AR) — but was only licensed in the United States in 2011 via an iPhone app.
The world of Dennō Coil may now be one step closer to reality, as Sabae, a town on the Sea of Japan coast in Fukui Prefecture, is collaborating with the Dennō Coil production committee, Tokuma Shoten, and the electronics firm Seiko Epson to hold a contest for another AR app. While Sabae was not technically used as a model for Daikoku, its prominent eyeglass and IT industries coexisting with historic shrines and temples are evocative of the anime. Epson has recently introduced new AR glasses, the Moverio BT-200, and Moverios will be loaned to those who pass the first test in order to gauge the app's precision.
The contest is open to individuals and groups and also accepts designs. The app must be compatible with Internet Explorer 8.0, Chrome 21.0, Firefox 20.0, Safari 5, Android 4.0, iOS 6, or Windows 8 (or more recent versions of these operating systems). Winners will receive money and Moverios; honorable mentions get special products from Sabae. The deadline is March 20.
[Via Sabae City via Anime Anime!; Image from Kyuu Dennou Jouhou Kouza]
