As graphical user interfaces replaced text-based systems in the 1980s and '90s, computers often came with one or two games, such as Microsoft's Solitaire (above right), intended to help people become comfortable with the technology. Today, games are playing a similar role for augmented reality, which overlays digital data on the physical world (as in 2009 TR35 hon-oree Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense system (above left). A number of new games, which take advantage of the dramatic improvements in consumer-grade computing and vision hardware, are demonstrating the potential of the technology to new users and helping create a demand for even better hardware and software, especially for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.
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