Tech Company First to Market 3D Affordable Toys in the US
Popar Toys debuts books, interactive paddles and action figures at New York Toy Fair
Digital Tech Frontier, LLC a leader in cutting edge technology for more than fifteen years, creating innovative concepts and growing product lines within the digital technology space officially announced a new toy line division this week at the New York Toy Fair called Popar™ Toys. The Augmented Reality series bridges the gap between digital technologies such as video games and traditional reading formats transforming the way children engage with the world around them. The toys provide an interactive experience as ‘real’ 3D objects and animations pop off a book page or in a room.
“As a technology company our entire line of toys are based on Augmented Reality and its capabilities that allow us to constantly enhance and evolve a multitude of products on a regular basis,” said Scott Jochim, CEO and owner Popar Toys. “This is not first generation tech play. Our team provides animations and interactivity on every single page as opposed to selective pages when it comes to our books. We let our consumers play with our products in an array of different ways to appeal to multiple types of interactivity. One of the coolest features is that we allow you to turn into your favorite character at the same time and give you the option to create your own videos and pictures to share with friends and family using the technology.”
Digital Tech Frontier has been on the forefront of a vast array of applications from motion simulators, to cancer therapy, to offering K-12 students with the opportunity to use virtual reality as a teaching modality to learn differently.
“As forward tech thinkers, we are seeing s a natural transition from virtual reality to augmented reality. Imagine giving the ability to a child to hold the earth in the palm of their hand and understand the relation to the sun in the other hand. There is current disconnect in the learning space between written and oral information. Kids need creative and unique ways to process and comprehend information outside of school and teachers and parents need to be engaged. Our job is to create an environment that shapes its information, tasks and organization in kinesthetic ways so that we don’t recreate or follow blindly but that we comprehend it and find the best way to bring technology forward,” Yochim said.
The team at Digital Tech Frontier is constantly working to develop new products. Toys that are in the current product line include:
- Bugs, Planets and Construction Books: Interactive 3D books that include 12 3D realistic models, heavy duty interaction ‘i’ paddles, 3D interactive sounds on each page, security sealed PC CD-ROM, 12 separate toys, virtual reality games and 36 rich, detailed, fat filled, illustrated colorful pages and Sunburst web cam that utilizes an amazing USB video class device
- Popar Digital Toys: Provide the ability to see 3D objects and animations through utilizing a web cam such as excavators, shuttles, tarantulas, rovers and more.
- Popar Be It: 3D technology that allow one to transform into a Popar Book character. Utilizing a Marc-E Magic Costume Closet full of heads, wings, jet packs and planet heads. Allows one to make a viral video or snap a silly photo and share the images with friends on social networks.
The groundbreaking concept uses a computer, a webcam, and special black and white patterned markers. The technology works on either a PC or a Mac-based computer and requires a Webcam. Webcams do come for free with a purchase of a Popar Book.
What happened to blocks, Etch-A-Sketch, and plain PLAY? I know much of these new things are really terrific, but exploring the outside with an active imagination trumps ANYTHING high tech! Getting dirty and muddy – how much fun is that!?