NFT IRL [Tools and Apps]

Purchase NFT's that interact In Real Life with an Augmented Reality App.

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Inspiration

I work with art on a daily basis and after seeing a NFT craze develop and after seeing the common man not understanding how art (especially digital art), can derive value into the millions. I decided to see if I could come up with a demo that helps garner attention and add to the innovation of NFT's. I've been experimenting with how 2D images can trigger various animations and the interest that creates. NFT's like physical artwork often derives its value from exclusivity, paintings being one of a kind or a limited print follows the same logic of collectables. To draw on the popularity of collectable card games like Yu-gi-oh or Duel Masters where the characters and animations pop up out of the cards I decided to build on that idea. Buy the NFT, either print it out or scan the digital image, the AR character animation is then triggered and plays upon recognising the limited edition image. I know generally speaking the world is struggling to see the value of various crypto currencies and NFT's, with the debate being that NFT's are intangible and what true value can intangible objects carry, partnered with the debate of "How can crypto currencies have value if what you can spend them on is limited?". This is a project where we can show the value of both, creating validity, controlling the distribution of objects that prompt real world interaction and displaying the marketability of the use of cryptocurrencies and NFT's. Hopefully this can act as a case study of how if we give a crypto currency more utility features it can justify its value. Like when established art galleries accepted to auction off NFT's or how Tesla is entertaining the idea of accepting bitcoin as payment moving forward.

This was a project I've adapted a few times to suit what can be done with AR and the idea of an app the only does one thing seems to be hopeful in its success roadmap. I'm hoping that this also opens the way to show how innovative projects can be a collaborative processes. Eg: NFT IRL can link to a payment portal, marketplace, and create opportunities for artists and animators to lend their skillsets and work together all create by different people or companies.

(It is important to note that I am not a Riot employee and the characters and animations are sourced purely as demo materials of how you can implement AR and 3D animation to interact with 2D objects)

What it does

The App acts as a portal to NFT marketplaces, acts as a sign up and registration link for a wallet and payment platform, as well as an Augmented Reality compatible mobile app, coded to interact with NFT's and real world representations of those NFT's.

How we built it

Using Unity as a game engine coupled with the Vuforia plugin to allow for AR functionality built for android, iOS and windows. Attached with a link to NFT marketplaces (The way it is developed, is that the web links are interchangeable "go to" scripts, so any established marketplace and/or wallet can be added to the app design).

Challenges we ran into

Trying to get people to understand and embrace a new technology that the aren't used to is a general problem I find myself trying to navigate around when introducing interactive AR to market. (Client Education, as I've recently been told its referred to as). I seem to spend a lot of time explaining AR than my actual solutions, which leads me to always have a demo on hand. Since NFT's are still a relatively new tech, a lot of the apps code function had to be replaceable to be scalable and accommodate any requirements by partners, so the link to the wallet platform as well as the marketplace are just simple "go to" scripts. So anyone who jumps on board with the project I have to explain the customisation options and that nothing is set in stone, which some companies are used to seeing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

About 4 years ago I decided to learn game design, I taught myself C#, Unity, SparkAR, music editing, graphic design and started my own game design company. I published games on The Apple app store (where my one game made it to the number 1 spot in its category) as well as the Google Playstore. I won MTN app of the year best gaming solution 2020 and was nominated for 2 Huawei innovation awards in the same year. I got accepted into a development programme in the UK and now get to explore making educational games for schools and other educational institutions in 2021. My Instagram Augmented Reality filter profile currently has 29 million impressions, which is all insane for a self-taught theatre major on a 2012 Macbook.

What we learned

A lot about NFT's and how they actually operate.

What's next for NFT IRL

I plan on following up on NFT news and see where the technology goes, but I'm a fan of AR, Art and collectables so it is definitely a featured technology that I'll keep tabs on to see how else they are potentially integrated into my fields of interest. Over the next couple of months I'll be working to implement AR in educational resources. I'm also planning on investigating the potential to have NFT marketplaces to act as distribution platforms, allowing limited releases for certain collectibles while cutting printing and shipping costs.

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