Whilst I don’t want this to turn into an advert for Moonpig … has anyone seen the TV advert for their new “Video Cards” ?
Apparently, you upload a video to their servers, then send the card you purchase from them … then if the person who receives the card downloads their free Andriod or iPhone app, then points their smartphone at the card, the video appears on the front of the card (as viewed through the smarthphone).
IMHO, that’s a great (yet probably quite simple) application of technology … how much would a card with the capability of playing video “built in” cost ?
Downside … the free Android and iPhone app, is advertised as being for “buying Moonpig cards on the move” with added videocard support … so effectively they’re forcing the card recipient to install an application designed to sell them cards.
But still genius … from both a technical standpoint, and a business standpoint.
I’m not going to link to their videocard page, purely because of the app’s “selling” nature … but you know how to use Google … and you’ll no doubt see the advert on TV soon enough
It’s the fact that you point the smartphones camera at the physical card … and the picture that was printed on the front of the card appears to come to life on the card.
You have to see the commercial to get what I mean … it’s seriously novel … and yeh, gimmicky … but I just thought it a clever use of already existing tech.
On the card, there’s a little a little camera logo just beneath the static picture … that logo seems to have some kind of bar code structure … so I’m guessing they just match the barcode with the upload, and stream the video … quite how they get it to appear ONLY where the stataic picture on the card is (when viewed through the smartphone) even if you rotate the card etc. , I don’t now, but probably not a hard thing to do.
As I said, just a clever use of already existing tech.
Ahh that sounds a little more interesting! I don’t watch TV so I haven’t seen the advert.
I imagine the barcode will link to the video on a server and you just stream it. A little like the scans you see on DVD boxes where you can watch a trailer while in the shop.
that little barcode jobby does raise security concerns though, how easy would it be to modify it and watch other peoples messages I wonder :o … if indeed that is a barcode, it may be that the static image itself contains the link encoded into the picture, or an RFID chip maybe.
That does look pretty cool actually. I wonder how much of that advert was edited before released, it seemed a bit too flawless to me! There was no small print though, I’ll have to check the website.
Either way it is a step forward in terms of using technology to it’s fullest.
I agree on the security concern, I will have to look into how it actually works before I can comment though.
I wonder if it has one of those black and white things that look like barcodes but aren’t. What you can do with a camera on a smartphone still amazes me today. Although it does raise security concerns.
If you look below the static picture on the card … there’s a weird round symbol with a movie camera in it, but with black and whitel lines radiating out from the centre … I just wondered if that was a bar code … it may not be, it may just be the videocard logo (and/or maybe used for video alignment ?) … it was just pure speculation on my part really. ???
@ glitch … yeh, I doubt if it will be as smooth, and immediate as the commercial … but who knows.
@ BkS … If you’re referring to QR codes ? … I can’t see one … but I admit that’s what made me consider the logo/barcode thingy
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You’d also have to ask what safeguards they have in place to stop it becoming some kind of anonymous paedophile distribution channel.
eg. Card bought with a stolen credit card number, video uploaded, card posted anonymously to someone, who can then claim they didn’t know what the video contained :o
I’ve just had a quick scout around the net to see if I can find out some more info. There is nothing on the Moonpig website to explain how the card actually works from a technical point of view.
I will look a little deeper.
QR codes! That’s what I was thinking of. I thought it would be the same technology as that but like Mark said there isn’t one on the card. I think the logo is just a logo and nothing more.
There might be something embedded into the still on the card which when activated brainwashes the customer into texting all their secrets to Pigmoon… or is that a bit too paranoid??
My guess would be there is some sort of “secret” infared beem or something the camera can pick up embedded into the card, it’s the only thing I can think of, unless ofcourse the card has wifi or bluetooth. :o
Moonpig are using Zappar for this little endeavour.
Zappar are, apparently, leaders in Augmented Reality (AR).
On the Zappar website there is a page titles ‘How It Works’. It doesn’t tell you how it works, it tells you what to do. I feel it actually skips the whole ‘how it works’ bit. Take a look for yourself
I’ve figured it out! Each card is a stargate into a parallel dimension which can only be viewed through the app which was created by Xenu to try and audit peoples souls.
