Pacha’s Pajamas, a story that comes alive via augmented reality

Pacha’s Pajamas is an impressive work. It’s a CD with 38 tracks, a physical book with about 190 pages, and an augmented reality app that lets the pages spring to life and in some cases run right off the page.

Pacha’s Pajamas is an environmentally conscious book that if you’re feeling granola and hippy with a twist of tech is probably what you want. Set before Earth Day Pacha has to figure out how to save the planet using a nature festival.

You don’t require the augmented reality app or the CD to enjoy the book if you’re concerned about screens, the book stands by itself as a story, so no worries if your battery is low or you just don’t want to put something with access to YouTube Kids within reach of your little one. Additionally there’s a connected dance app that we have not had a chance to test.

It’s currently funding as an Indiegogo campaign, which you can back and get the set at a discount, or you can wait a bit and see what pricing is after it’s released.

We’re still reading through the book as someone managed to get grounded from technology last week, so I am not ready to give a full review of this book even though I’ve probably had enough time.

I’ve attached a video here of what the augmented reality looks like. There are a few bugs to be worked out with the apps, but this is still technically pre-release I’m guessing. Issues I encountered included the app doesn’t like taking pictures on the Note 8, it hangs loading if the network connection is abysmal and can’t unload on an iPad 2, sometimes it doesn’t recognize certain images in certain lighting. All surmountable.

It’s also got an annoyance if you’ve got a bug and it crashes that you’re forced to re-watch the intro video. Maybe that’s cool with kiddos, but I’m trying to get the app up and that’s a game-design no no.

The reviews of the story are great, which I’m guessing are right from what I’ve read… as stated, it’s been a slow slog with the grounded 4yo, my drama with Pocketables, and I think the age this is designed for is more the 6-10 crowd, but we’re powering through which shows something for that it’s at least captured her attention (even without AR.)

You can check out more at Pacha’s Pajamas, or go and back the Indiegogo campaign

We’ll be doing a review of the book and CD as soon as we manage to get through them (should be in a day or two)