At this time many of us will be charting a course home to family and friends for the holiday period, as we look to spend some time in the company of those we hold dear and taking stock of both the year behind and the year ahead. Of course, not everyone gets to go home. There are those that can’t travel due to one thing and another, those who are busy with work, and those who have no choice in the matter.
For those battling serious illness home is not four walls, cards on the mantlepiece and waking up in your own bed every morning. The reality is corridors, doctors and nurses. Of waking up in a hospital bed and another hard day making it through to the next one. Christmas time is magical, especially for children but for those in hospital… not so much. Some though were recently treated to a bit of augmented reality (AR) magic care of Honda and Psyop.
Honda is a long-time supporter of the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) and back in September it came up with the idea to send the ultimate ‘get well soon’ card in the form of an AR experience, one that would transform the room around kids into a dynamic winter wonderland and would also bring the kids messages of hope and inspiration from around the world, brought together through Honda’s activity on social media.
“Sending warm wishes to others is one of the best traditions of the holiday season.” Explained Honda’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing Susie Rossick. “And through a little Honda innovation we’re using augmented reality to send messages that will brighten the lives of young patients at Children’s Hospital of Orange County,”
The fact that car manufacturer Honda are behind the tech should not really surprise you, this is after all the same Honda that have been investing in robotics for years and have, particularly over the last two decades, been increasingly engaged about how technology can be used to better mankind. This, though on a much smaller scale to some of their efforts, certainly raised some smiles.
You can see the experience for yourself here, care of Blippar’s website and the reactions of the kids it was shown to below. Honda will donate up to $100,000 (USD) to CHOC and PBTF based on likes/loves for the video on its social media channels. Although, whilst information from Honda indicates this to be related to Facebook at the time of writing this could not be found on Honda’s Facebook channel.
For more VRFocus stories about the latest uses of AR from around the world click the ‘augmented reality’ tag above the story.