"Augmented Reality" or "AR" is really taking off in the kid's play space this year, after a few tentative steps at the holidays in 2016. Most AR aps work similarly, they superimpose a graphic or animation over a scene captured by a smartphone or tablet's camera. We've tested picture books, and even quadcopters that use AR. Because most AR apps don't require a headset, there is usually a low price and low technologal barrier to entry. If you have a current smartphone, you probably have all you need to get started.
At $39.99, Dr. Panda Home Designer has gone for a different price point. By adding heavy duty, wipeable flash cards and a set of twelve dry erase markers to the box, the cost has been pushed way up, maybe too high for what it offers in play value.
Home Designer is aimed at the youngest early adopters of AR. The set comes with cards that show characters and objects you'd find around the home, like "chair", "bed" and the like. One side is colored in; the other is just outlines, coloring book style, and you can use the twelve (included) dry-erase markers to make them your own. After downloading the app, giving permissions to the app to use the camera, the app presents two ways to play: a sandbox-mode where you can explore, and a more directed "quest" mode.
The mechanics are pretty simple and a bit magical. When you view one of the cards through your phone's camera a 3D version of it pops into view on top of the card. You can move the card around and see the object from various views. If you are shooting the side you colored, your "art" shows up on the object. There is a bit of a "spelling" game on each card, as you're asked to match the jumbled lower case letters to their correctly placed outlines to spell the word-name of the object. However, it is easy to skip past it by clicking on an icon. Once in, you can place the object into one of the rooms of the house. Many of the objects are animated and respond to touch once placed in the room.
A bit surprising, given that the program is working with 3D objects, is that you can't rotate them within the scene. This makes for some rather strange looking home designs, since everything faces the missing "fourth wall". Some of the objects are animated, and respond to touch.
In the "quest" mode you are asked to find specific cards and scan them in. Beyond that the activity is pretty much the same.
The game might be fun on a long plane ride, as the activity is fairly self-contained. On the other hand, the set is bulky and heavy, not something I'd want to lug around an airport. There is a bit of creativity in the coloring book side of the cards, about on par with a coloring book, but the real draw here, so to speak, is the AR: seeing the objects pop into 3D, then transform into 2D when they are placed. However, at $39.99, and even taking into consideration the twelve markers it comes with, Home Designer seems overpriced for the limited play value of what amounts to a hi-tech coloring book.
