Episode 9: Paul Hill - M.A.D tronics with BestViewsReviews

Apurv : hello listeners welcome to another episode of the product live this is your host Apurv Sibal from best views reviews where we give you the unbiased rankings and ratings for top products and 8 000 plus categories we have recently launched a new feature called Magic quadrant which defines different brands according to Ford access one of them is great leaders do check them out when you are making your next purchase decision so today we have with us Paul so Paul thank you so much for joining would you mind introducing yourself

Paul : my name is Paul Hill I am the CEO of medtronics and augmented reality uh production type company

Apurv : how did you come to start a ugmented reality company that's not a common career path

Paul : uh you know um I started in Film Production and um my son was uh learning a gaming how to create games and I thought that was uh really fascinating and so I just stuck my head in just a little bit to see how it's about the process of it and I really loved it so I thought that I would um Implement that as well as my uh Film Production Implement that into one of my skills

Apurv : well makes sense so could you tell us a little bit more about your company about your product?

Paul : yeah so we uh we do two um augmented reality type uh products one is uh augmented reality board games uh that we create and um the other is the augmented reality headgear that uh We've created ourselves that actually works underwater so those are the two um products that were mainly focused on right now

Apurv : got it so first talking about the second product the headcare that you have created so how is it different from other major head gears in the market like Oculus you mentioned it works underwater so is that like one of the only products that does that

Paul : so some of the differences um compared to other head gears that's out there right now is like I said arrows work on the water so you can go underwater and have interactive uh challenges um with the AR um also it's uh the headphones actually separated so um you can use it as regular headphones it's Bluetooth and uh it's probably the only Bluetooth headphone right now that can actually be submerged from about 12 feet for five hours

Apurv : wow and could you give me a use case where someone would actually want to use AR underwater

Paul : so a great thing is uh is uh we're starting to focus on business to business so hotels Resorts because most of the time people go to the hotel the swimming pool is it's it's fun to be in a swimming pool but it's even better when you can interact with sharks or dolphins or fish while you're at the hotel swimming pool

Apurv : got it well that sounds like an experience so could you tell us a little bit more about your board game

Paul : from the AR board game um we got the idea from a TV show that we created it's the first augmented reality competition TV show and so after we filmed uh 12 episodes we were like man we really want to do more with the AR so I was like let's just make some board games with it and so we we came up with a couple of ideas on some board games based on the uh the AR challenges from the show and we ran with about four of those and uh one of them is uh action adventure the other is uh fantasy and then two of them are AR sport games Sports uh basketball and soccer so we uh we wanted to uh you know try to roundabout get a a decent sized audience that would be interested and we wanted to you know make these board games you know just really fun and and just you know something that would really bring it to life got it too

Apurv : that's actually quite interesting uh so given that FIFA is currently going on like so how does one play soccer in AR?

Paul : um what we have is uh for this for this particular game it's a Target image AR and so the person would use their cell phone and they would uh point it down at a Target image in a uh soccer ball would appear and then they would either kick it or try to throw it with their hands and try to score against the goalie there's like an augmented goalie that's that's there to block them.

Apurv : Got it uh so the augmented ball that appears so can you just like walk me through how would you hold the phone and kick at the same time

Paul : yeah so when you're holding a phone you could actually just hold it with one hand if you want to and you can use the other hand if you were like if you wanted to use your hand uh otherwise you would have the target image right there in front of you on the floor and all you have to do is kick right in front of the target image while you're holding the phone down in the soccer ball will fly away and then as you raise up your phone you'll see this the the goalie trying to catch the ball or miss it or whatever the case may be.

Apurv : well that sounds quite interesting so uh is it similar to Pokemon go

Paul : uh it's it's it's not similar to Pokemon go we are working on a uh game that's similar to Pokemon go uh with Pokemon go you have the GPS um the Google GPS that works on that with Pokemon go and um another type stuff but this one is just basically just just your phone and and in the app that you would download to your phone for the game but um but yeah we are actually working on um a game that's called um it's a scavenger hunt game um that we're trying to set up for us the city of San Francisco right now and to play

Apurv : well sounds really cool so what were the other two games that you mentioned?

Paul : so the uh so we have the soccer we also have the the basketball AR basketball and so there's a an augmented reality basketball player and what you're trying to do is you're trying to block his shots um and then as part of the game in another part of the game you're trying to make free throws and then then there's the Fantasy games

Apurv : yeah could you tell me a little bit more about the Fantasy games

Paul : so the fantasy game is uh we have one which is called um Atlantean shark Shores and uh the Atlantean shark Shores is basically what it is is that one is AR markless so you don't need a Target image for that one all you have to do is punch your phone down to the ground there's a graph that'll appear you touch the graph and then this these sharks will appear and then all you have to do is just try to hit the screen to kill them

Apurv : got it uh and what is the second one

Paul : and then the other one is um it's it's more of an action adventure board game uh that one is pretty fun um so with that one there's there's actually several um several things that is happening with that one on you're basically traveling through a jungle so you have to fight um some alligators uh another one you might be uh swimming through the ocean so you have to dodge the bite of of a shark and then the last one is uh trying to kill some scorpions

Apurv : wow all three sound quite interesting nice so yeah like you mentioned that you're working with uh working to create underwater Fantasy games that you mentioned earlier was is that a part of those experiences experience that you mentioned earlier

Paul : yeah so with the uh like I was in the TV show competition TV show our competition um there's land competitions and there's underwater competitions that you're actually on the water to compete and so we took that idea for the board game so you're not underwater you can actually play this board game underwater though it is what it's waterproof so but yeah so we we got the board game to where you can um some would have an experience um not actually being on the water but if you wanted to you could actually be underwater and play the game and get a full experience of the sharks or the Alligators or whatever the case may be but other than that yeah it's it's just all kind of designed from the TV show and then just implement it in a simpler way for the board game

Apurv : wow it sounds really really interesting so if people want to try out this game where can they actually get get it

Paul : what happened by the board game right now if they go to our website they're able to purchase the board game the uh the first two the fantasy one and the action adventure one the fantasy one uh the Atlantean shark Shores or the um um the other one which is a AR uh AR dangerous artifacts and so um the AR dangerous artifacts works on your Android as well as your iPhone uh but the uh Atlantean um one only works on uh right now just Android

Apurv : good and to download this uh can they purchases directly from the Android play store or the

Paul : for the Android one we actually send you the link to just download it to your phone and for the iPhone they just go to the uh the App Store

Apurv : makes sense well this is actually really really really exciting to get to know more about AI games

Paul : thank you because you know AR is it's becoming a big thing it's it's the you know everyone's moving towards uh realistic entertainment

Apurv : yep makes sense seems like this is the future so thank you so much Paul for coming on our episode it was great getting to know you and the AR games

Paul : thank you so much for having me