The three key aspects of AR toys: technology, scenario, and content

    My company, Moaike, spent about 2 years developing an AR early childhood education toy. I have walked through many pitfalls and detours during this process, and I have some thoughts to share with you.

    Toy manufacturers must consider three factors when developing AR toys: technology, scenario, and content, all of which are indispensable.

    Generally speaking, to develop a toy supporting app (iOS+Android platform), it takes at least 2 IT programmers and 1 artist, and the time is 2 months. Based on this calculation, the labor cost alone is around 80000 to 100000 yuan. Traditional toy manufacturers generally do not have programmers, and if they recruit themselves, time and labor will have to increase. Obviously, for traditional manufacturers without IT programmers, developing independently is very uneconomical. The best way is to collaborate or find an outsourcing company. However, there are too many outsourcing pitfalls that everyone who has done them knows. Find a reliable AR technology company to collaborate on development, joint sales, and in-depth cooperation, so that the risk is much smaller. If we want to make AR toys our main business, we cannot use a collaborative model. We must recruit and cultivate our own IT and operational personnel in order to ensure development quality, user experience, and timely maintenance in the later stage.

    In terms of AR development platforms, currently the mainstream ones are Metaio under Apple and Vuforia under PTC. Vuforia currently has 175000 registered developers and supports over 20000 apps; Metaio has 140000 developers, and the two are on par. In addition, there are open-source ARToolKit, paid Wikitude, and Catchroom. In China, there are Liangfengtai HiAR and Shichen EasyAR. Compared to foreign SDKs, domestic AR development platforms are relatively easy to use, with fast technical support response and low server latency. In terms of specific image recognition and tracking, 3D animation model rendering, video overlay, and special effects, it is completely not imported into foreign platforms. Recommend using the two major domestic AR development platforms.

    Another point to consider is whether to develop based on AR glasses or mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets. AR glasses are currently too expensive and their effectiveness has not reached a very practical level. The AR program on the mobile end does not require consumers to add any additional hardware costs, making it easy to develop and currently mainstream. However, when watching a lot of AR content, constantly using a camera to scan, the experience is not as good as AR glasses.

    Not considering the usage scenario can be one of the main reasons for the failure of many AR toys. The elements of person, time, location, problem, and purpose make up the scene. When designing AR toy products, the first thing to consider is the children‘s usage scenarios. A very good example is the AR Stuffed toy Gomo abroad. Children have a sense of fear and anxiety when they are examined in the hospital. Before the examination, medical personnel scan the Gomo doll to show human bones, and tell the children about organ operation and body composition, which is both educational and safe. When pediatric patients need to enter a CAT scanner or magnetic resonance machine alone, they can hold the Gomo doll to relieve fear and anxiety.

    There are three aspects of usage scenarios: objects (users), actions (needs), and scenarios (time and space). Taking Mo Ai Ke‘s early education toy "Moke Tu Hua Le" as an example, one of its usage scenarios is: parents and children (2-6 years old), learning English, and after dinner. That is to say, the scene is about the question of "who needs to solve what in what situation". In this scenario, the demand is for children to learn English, and there are many ways to solve the demand: attending training classes, hiring English tutors, and self-learning with MOAIKe AR English textbooks. There are many factors that determine which way users choose to solve their needs: effectiveness, cost, safety, parent-child interaction, and so on. We have set usage time limits in our products to effectively protect children‘s eyes, taking into account parents‘ safety concerns for their children; There is a photo sharing function in the app because it takes into account the need for parents to interact with their children after work.

    The scenarios mentioned above are macro scenarios, and in addition, we also need to consider micro scenarios, which are specific user usage details. For example, what posture does a child use to hold the AR children‘s book "Magic Painter Music"? How much force is it? How to open a book? When designing ‘The Magic Painter‘, we did not consider that children and adults have completely different attitudes towards books. Children do not have the concept of ‘reading‘, only have the idea of ‘playing with books‘, and habitually tear down a page from the book to play with. So, in the subsequent AR reading book "Dora Love Adventure", we designed the book to be tearable for children to easily tear and then play and learn separately. After all, for children aged 2 to 6, playing is learning.

    Considering the essence of the scenario is to design products that truly meet user needs from a user centered perspective, rather than creating a bunch of toys that toy manufacturers want behind closed doors, rather than children‘s toys.

    Next is the content. The content is king, that‘s absolutely right. In fact, the technical threshold for many AR toys is not particularly high at present, unlike AR glasses, which only have a few manufacturers. As long as there are suitable IT technicians, it can take a few months to break through the technical bottleneck, only to see who can do more detailed work and have a smoother experience. So, what determines success or failure is the content. The content must have a strong visual sense, as animals and cartoon characters are very suitable. Remember, AR is the form, content determines the form, and never AR for AR‘s sake. Developing AR toys is only when the content is suitable for ARization; If the content is not suitable, don‘t add insult to injury. Don‘t blindly add AR elements to products just because AR is trendy and the future trend. Why do we need to create AR preschool English textbooks? It is precisely because this type of content is suitable for presentation in AR format, which can effectively integrate and utilize forms such as sound, video, animation, text, and images to stimulate children‘s senses and visualize English words in a three-dimensional manner. This way, children can easily remember words and develop interest in English learning. Interest is the best teacher. After gaining interest, it is up to the child to learn on their own, rather than being forced to do so by their parents.

    Technology, scenario, and content are interrelated and indispensable. To create a high-quality AR toy, it is necessary to thoroughly consider these three elements.