Last week, I told you about the Princess Retailtainment event at Walmart to celebrate the release of the classic Disney animated movie, “Cinderella” on Blu-Ray/DVD. Â Rosie dressed in her Cinderella-finest (Walmart costume) and we headed over for some royal fun! Â Before we went, we downloaded the free Disney Princess Royal Ball app onto my iPhone. Â Well, it’s a week later and Rosie is still playing with the app! Â (Okay, me a little too!)
When you first start the Disney Princess Royal Ball app, there is a sweet introduction with your invitation to the Royal Ball.
There are three main areas to play in!
- Princess Boutique – you can choose your dress, tiara, jewelry and shoes to be stunning at the ball! Â After you complete your outfit, you can superimpose your face into the outfit. Rosie had fun putting me in to the frame. Â The app will create a picture that you can save to your library, or even email to someone. Â After creating your favorites, you can save outfits into a wardrobe for future play times.
- Carriage Shop – you design your royal carriage at the Carriage Shop. Â This is also where you can access a 3D image of your carriage by holding your phone up to the cover of the Cinderella DVD (see images further on in the post)
- Royal Palace – here you arrive in your carriage at the ball, walk up the staircase, and dance! Â To beautiful waltz music, you can watch your dance twirl as you spin around the room. Â (Yes, I was spinning around in Walmart. Â Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!)
I have to admit a fascination with Augmented Reality – how do they do that? Â If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to take a look. Â You AND your kids will be amazed.
What is Augmented Reality?  Wikipedia says, “Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.”  Are you even more confused?  Me too.  An example that we’ve all probably seen and not known what to call it is,  “the yellow first-down line seen in television broadcasts of football games showing the line the offensive team must cross to receive a first down.”
Even more fascinating than that yellow first-down line are the 3D images that I’ve seen using apps and a smart phone. Â Here is one of the ones in the Disney Princess Royal Ball app. Â In the “Carriage Shop” you can create a carriage and then see it in 3D! Â So cool! Â You can actually pan around the carriage and see it from all sides.
Those options on the side, let you change the undercarriage, body, and top of the carriage.
Notice the marker in the picture above. Â I put that in so you can see how the augmented reality isn’t just a picture, it puts a 3D object into your surroundings.
Convinced yet that this is really cool? Â And it’s free! Â The games and pictures are all things you can do without any purchase at all, just download the free app to your Apple or Android device. Â I searched in my App Store to find it, using Disney Princess Royal Ball. Â You do need to scan the front of the Cinderella DVD and/or store displays to see the 3D objects however.
If you’d like to see more pictures of the Retailtainment Event at Walmart, take a peek at my #DisneyPrincessWMT Google Plus Album.
To connect with Disney, Social Channel, and Walmart, use these links:
Disclosure of Material Connection:  All opinions are my own unless otherwise stated.  I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Disney Consumer Products, Inc. #CBias #SocialFabric
I never thought about the yellow first down line being AR – this is WAY cooler, for sure!