New Magazine Ad Displays 3D Car in Augmented Reality

We’ve seen webcam-based augmented reality before, like in NSFW Japanese dating games and the PS3’s Eye of Judgment. But in a publicly distributed Mini Cabrio ad? A realtime 3D rendering is actually useful.

What appears to be little more than a black and white advertisement in three recent German automotive magazines becomes a 3D holographic model of the Mini Cabrio through a webcam and the Mini website. Sure, it still takes a good deal of effort on the user’s part (they have to go somewhere other than the main ad to really see the ad), but I’d do it for the next year or so before the novelty wears thin. [MediaPost via technabob]