Dentsu London and Berg are developing Suwappu, a set of toy woodland creatures that create signposts for an augmented reality. When you view the creatures through a tablet or phone, you see a new world spring up around them. Enough explaining; let’s just watch it in action (skip to 2’36” to learn more about how it works).

I also really enjoyed the video for Helicopter Taxi, an iPhone game where kids can see a helicopter on their screen, floating above everything. When they put the phone down, it can pick up passengers.

It seems like AR has found a home in toys. While I do think there will be apps that are incredibly useful for adults once they become seamless — building them into glasses or contacts and displaying contextual information when I want it — we’re starting to find real value today. Of course, it is weird that we are creating a fantasy land for kids instead of letting it live in their imagination, but they’ll let us know what they think with their (parents’) pocketbooks.

[Suwappu via @chrisfahey, Helicopter Taxi via Andy Budd]