Halloween Special: The Dark Side of Augmented Reality

Eva Triantafillopoulou

Halloween, nowadays, is most commonly associated with spooky costumes, trick-or-treating, haunted houses, horror movies, excessive amounts of candy, and scary pranks.

But, what originated this tradition?

With a little help from Wikipedia, one soon learns that the word Halloween is actually a contraction of All Hallows’ Evening – the night that precedes the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day, a time dedicated to remembering the dead.

Back in the mid 700’s, it was believed that the link between the afterlife and the physical world was thinned on All Hallows’ Eve. For that reason, people would disguise their identities with costumes or masks in order to prevent being recognized by vengeful souls. That explains a lot.

Thinning the link between reality and fiction

Modern tech In a modern technological association, some believe that augmented reality is thinning the link between the physical world and the digital world. If that is true, will there be a time in which we will have trouble distinguishing what is real and what is not? Some futuristic fictional storytellers seem to believe that is the not-so-distant case.

Despite the glaring benefits that augmented reality is bringing to various segments across the board, imaginative minds, as with all else, attempt to predict the outcome of a possible dark side of AR. In other words, how a benevolent technology could take, accidentally or not, a rather sinister path.

Unsettling AR films to watch this Halloween

If you are a tech and/or horror genre fan, be inspired by the spookiest season of the year, gather your favorite peeps, plenty of popcorn, and schedule a Halloween AR Movie Marathon. Below you will find a few movie recommendations – read till the end to find out how you can prank your gang with a good AR scare.

Strange Beasts

This short film revolves around an AR game called Strange Beasts that allows players to create and interact with their own virtual pets. The digital animations are perceived directly in the user’s field of view with the aid of special contact lenses. The short film has an unexpected twist that shows how physical isolation could play a great role in futuristic settings.

Black Mirror: Play test episode

Black Mirror: Men against fire episode

Soldiers of the future use complex technologies and augmented reality to improve their overall combating skills and effectiveness. On a specific mission, set to protect villagers from invaders, one of the soldiers will have a full-scale experience.

Let’s Be Evil

A group of gifted children, kept in a maximum-security underground facility, rely on Augmented Reality to boost their advanced learning program. However, the newly hired student chaperones soon learn, the hard way, that something is terrifyingly wrong about the situation.

No Halloween get-together is complete without a decent prank. So after watching the above-mentioned films with your friends, be prepared to give them an AR experience they won’t forget anytime soon.

Access our Augmented Reality Halloween App Tutorial to learn how to create your very own scary prank application. All it takes is 13 lines of coding! Use our award-winning AR SDK and get started!