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hi! i’m Tom, founder and creative director of POKE.  i live in CT, work in NYC, munch on tasty digital cookies, collect lunchboxes, take lots of photos and buy lots of t-shirts.  mmm…cookies. i’m passionate about creating a safe internet for kids, cookies, really great Italian cooking, all kinds of dogs, digital photography and the power of technology and how it affects our daily lives. i’d love to tell you i read a lot - but i just don’t. so there. Psychotic.

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augmented reality, your iphone, YOUR KIDS, and you

My closest friends know how much of an evangelist I am interactivity in schools and the positive impact and potential it can have on our children and their education. I’ve had a number of children’s interactive projects over the years (the most recent being KideoPlayer, a family-friendly interactive YouTube filter) but nothing I’ve come across recently has the potential of this…  

Meet The Hidden Park, an iphone-guided scavenger hunt that uncovers trolls, fairies, tree genies, and other fantastic creatures skulking around actual landmarks at your local park. You read that right. It’s awesome. And my boys and I are doing it this weekend.  :) 

Convincing kids to spend an afternoon away from the PlayStation is a tough sell with the promise of xBox and Wii sitting in your living room. (Nature? Booooooringi!) Use your children’s video-game obsession to lure them outdoors where the best games always come to life. 

The Hidden Park, iPhone kids apps, iPhone nature apps, iPhone park apps, nature kids, park kids, eco-friendly computer games, eco-friendly iPhone apps

The ‘augmented reality game‘ can be played in a growing number of public spaces across the globe, including New York’s Central Park, Boston Common, London’s Kensington Park, and Ueno Park in Tokyo. Tapping into your iPhone’s GPS, the app leads families on a quest to help the Magical Wildlife Protection Association prove the existence of magical beings in the park, which is in danger of being bulldozed by money-grubbing developers. (But imagine the themes, and geographies we could bring to this idea? This is just the tip of the iceberg). Does anyone have an land they want to donate? :) I’ll make the app!

The map the game supplies is also enchanted; as you move past specific landmarks, it throws out riddles and puzzles to clue you in on where to go next. The cool factor comes into play when your kids use the iPhone’s built-in camera to document their discoveries. Just like magic, the park’s mystical denizens make their presence known.

                              

Maybe fresh air isn’t overrated, after all.

Get it here:  The Hidden Park $6.99 at Apple iTunes Store

Learn more here :  The Hidden Park

Reader Comments (1)

what about a version of this game that uses science and "unseen reality" to show kids the cool stuff under the surface of the world and let them learn about it at the same time... there could be many levels depending upon knowledge levels, and they could include science archeology, history as well as imagination. Perhaps you could figure out stories about how the seed for a certain plant got there, or who was living there 1000s of years ago.
Seems like it would be a really cool extension to build - let's do it!
August 11, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterphilmang

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