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Toii leverages AR, LBS, mobile gaming to promote retail and tourism

Yihan Li, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES Asia

Based in the US with a branch in Taiwan, Toii is dedicated to creating brand-new gaming experience integrated with AR (augmented reality) and location-based service (LBS) and mobile gaming, according to company founder Allen Yu.

Yu said that by leveraging the combination of gaming and LBS, his company has entered cooperation with Canal City Hakata in Japan. Under the cooperation, Toii has set six locations inside Canal City locations as gaming backdrops, and players have to use smartphones to spot the six locations after the GPS system zeros in on the places, so that they can pass all the levels to beat the game. This way, Canal City shopping mall can effectively increase visitor traffic at busy trading spots.

Yu said that the technologies can also be applied to tourism for promotion. He said in designing gaming contents, important scenic spots can be incorporated into the levels in games, so as to better inspire players to visit the spots. In addition, backend system can also analyze the number of visitors to the spots in the games and build tourism data.

Yu continued that feedback from and experience sharing among game players will serve as useful references for his company to improve the designs of movement lines of scenic spits and details of levels in next game.