Augmented Reality Gets Creepy, Just in Time for Halloween

Ready for augmented reality to take it to a new, creepy level?

Creepy Crawlies, a new app available now for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, is taking augmented reality gaming in exactly that direction. Although the app is relatively innocent, its creepy nature begs the question: How far will AR gaming go? Consider the terrifying and realistic level modern video games achieve--and now imagine putting that into your real-world surroundings.

The Creepy Crawlies app provides an immersive environment in which the player hunts down bugs, rats, snakes and the like. It's not a game played sitting down--it requires moving not only your thumbs, but your entire body.

Using your smartphone's camera, gyroscope and compass, the game propels the player into an augmented world. Players get to witness 3-D creatures in the X, Y and Z planar axis, with respect to their parallax and perspective. The player can move the device around to see and attack creatures as if it is happening in the real world.

Download it here, just in time for Halloween.

Helmet Lets You Augment Your Entire Reality

Spice up your everyday life with this Kinect-powered augmented reality helmet, which turns your surroundings into a fantasy world.

The helmet system uses high-definition video glasses and an advanced glove, which features force sensors to add to the experience.

Check out the video of the Hyper(reality) helmet in action at the Geffrye Museum.

GPS Technology is Taking it Up a Notch

The Wikitude Drive navigation system uses augmented reality to show you a real-time camera view of the road and the path to take to your destination. It only works on Android phones for now.