Tech designer Abhishek Singh has made it possible for The Ring‘s Samara to crawl out of your television, via a new augmented reality (AR) movie experience. By utilizing Apple’s new AR Kit, Singh was able to recreate the scene from The Ring film in which Samara’s possession of a videotape transcends technology – not unlike Singh’s expertise itself.
This isn’t Singh’s first attempt at bringing a pop culture franchise to life with AR, either. He utilized this technology to turn Super Mario Bros. into an AR game and to create an AR version of Star Wars’ BB-8, which you can see on his website. In the Super Mario Bros. AR video, Singh himself is portraying the titular plumber, explaining that he is recreating “the iconic first level World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros as a life size, first person AR experience using the Hololens.” He also adds that it “went kinda viral,” which is an understatement. On his YouTube channel alone, the video has reached over 1.6 million views.
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In The Ring (as well as the original Japanese film on which it was based, Ringu), the character Samara has the ability to possess an unmarked videotape. After someone watches the tape, they receive a phone call warning them of their imminent death in seven days time; and once the seven days are up, Samara crawls out of their television and kills them. With AR Kit, Singh was able to capitalize on this budding tech, making it appear as though Samara was crawling out of his own television. He posted the video on his personal Twitter page.
I reenacted a famous scene from ‘The Ring’ to bring #horror movies to life in AR#madewithunity #ARKit pic.twitter.com/fRU2ul56ki
— Abhishek Singh (@shekitup) February 21, 2018
Another developer (Mike Woods) created a similar AR experience with Samara, with the specific intention to terrify his young daughters. You can watch that video over on Woods’ YouTube channel.
AR technology received a major boost in popularity following the release of Pokemon Go in the summer of 2016. It allowed users to leave their home in order to collect digital characters via iOS or Android devices. What’s more is that it encouraged simultaneous physical activity alongside digital gaming, which has been a major focus for the future of gaming ever since Nintendo released the Wii back in 2006. Companies like Apple and Google are pushing AR technology, even hinting at AR glasses, which would allow wearers to access information from the cloud via personal eyewear (think Snapchat Spectacles, but with considerably more features beyond 10-second-long fisheye lens videos).
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Source: Abhishek Singh
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