VIDEO: AR Game Uses Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots

Here's an awesome implementation of augmented reality... it is gaming of the future?

Now this is simply cool, even if you're not into smartphone gaming and/or augmented reality. Qualcomm recently attended the Uplinq Developer's Conference in San Diego and demonstrated an interesting use of augmented reality. More specifically, the company teamed up with Mattel and an AR development team from Georgia Tech University to present a playable, AR version of Rock 'Em Sock 'EM Robots.

Although the "game" isn't slated for a commercial release, the demonstration used two Android handsets using Snapdragon processors and the Android 2.1 OS. A physical album-sized game board was place on a table to represent the robots' boxing ring. Using the devices' built in camera, the game created two robots on both screens--the blue controlled by one user and the red controlled by the other.

The video seen below doesn't show Qualcomm's UDC presentation, however you can clearly see the game adding virtual robots to a physical playing field. A directional button is rendered on the left while three action buttons are placed to the right. The robots are also rendered in perspective, giving the impression that they're really fighting on the map when in fact there's nothing moving on the actual, physical table.

Watch the video below... you'll want to own this by the time the last frame is rendered. Could this be the future of gaming?