For Māori Television’s 2019 Ngā Whetū o Matariki Awards, InGame and the Jean Swainson Foundation added an extra Augmented Reality experience for event attendees and viewers at home.
The Matariki AR experienceuses viewers’ smartphones to bring Matariki to life in augmented reality without needing to download an app. The Matariki experience shows ideas around Matariki and the four founding concepts of Māori Television.
The Matariki AR experience uses the world’s first markerless Web AR platform. The experience works directly from many smartphone webbrowsers, such as Chrome, Safari and Explorer with no need to visit an app store or download an app. The devices will need good internet connection and use data during the experience. The experience does not need a trigger or QR code like many augmented reality experiences, but uses surface approximation technology to project the 3D graphics onto.
“I really wanted to do something different for this year’s awards, that not only made the event memorable, but also educational,” Matariki awards producer Lanita Ririnui commented. “I am fascinated by how technology can transform traditional media experiences, and after working with Cam from the Jean Swainson Foundation, we came up with this AR experience.”
“To be honest, I was fearful that we may not be able to pull off the ideas she had in mind,” Cameron Swainson, founder of the Jean Swainson Foundation, says. “But we found a way to do it, and I’m really excited for New Zealanders to give it a go.”
“I really like how the second tap on the screen takes you inside the experience, hopefully giving you a sense of being part of it,” Lanita continues.