Red Bull's augmented reality app will give you wings, possibly a sugar-induced coma

Red Bull, the energy drink brand of choice for red-eyed college students and marathon gamers, has launched a new iOS augmented reality app which lets users design virtual car racing tracks by setting up real Red Bull cans in a connect-the-dots fashion.

Launched on Tuesday, Red Bull's Augmented Racer app uses the iPhone's natural feature recognition abilities, accelerator and gyroscope to first identify Red Bull cans and then stitch together a racetrack according to their placement, elevation and the speed at which they are scanned. The data is then translated into game code and – voila – a mediocre racing game is born. Confused? Maybe full-time NASCAR star, Kasey Kenneth Kahne, can bring you up to speed.

The Red Bull Augmented Racing app is available in the App Store now for free, and supported by online leaderboards, track sharing, and other social features via Red Bull's USA website.

According to the company, a good sized track can require anywhere from 6 to 100 cans to build. According to common sense and health warnings, however, no human (super or otherwise) should ever consume more than a few Red Bulls a day. Could this be the first app to justify an FDA label?

[Source: Red Bull USA via HotBloodedGaming]

Mar 3, 2011

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Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.