Reality, if you lived in a James Bond movie

This is definitely the sort of thing Q Branch should get involved with, if they weren't a fictional entity.

This was an augmented reality press ad for Wellington Zoo.
Point your mobile at a barcode type thing in a newspaper ad, and you can see a 3D model of a giraffe, cheetah or bear as if it's right there in front of you. I guess it is relevant in that it made punters feel closer to the animals, but it would be so much better if it was James Bond opening an Italian newspaper, in say Rome, and reading this secret code hidden in a random photo on his mobile and seeing a 3D model of the guy he had to assassinate. See the vid.


Here, you print out a piece of paper, hold it in front of a webcam, it plays you back a video. There's no particular reason for BBC1's Big Weekend to do it, other than it's a new gimmick, and people who didn't get tickets for some gig get to see the Fratellis play to them. However, again, wouldn't it be much more exciting if Bond was stuck in some impossible dungeon with a strange piece of paper and his mobile and he works out that the paper will play a video in which M explains how he can escape? Or not.

Now imagine Daniel Craig getting a quick preview of his new souped -up Aston Martin using this 3D modelling viewed through a mobile. You can ignore the offensive warbling at the end by James Blunt.


Augmented reality GPS tour that takes you back in time. 007 could use this to great effect.
Quite frankly, I think Q Branch has to get with the program.