Augmented reality Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots running on Android (video)

Developed for Mattel, the creator and owner of the original plastic Rock 'Em (also on display on its booth), by Qualcomm's sparkling new AR games studio at Georgia Tech University, the new game uses an Android 2.1 handset with a Snapdragon processor, its camera and a game board target to place controllable rendered robots in a boxing ring. It combines both graphics and the real-life camera feed to create a virtual play arena for two players (on two phones).

The robots can be manoeuvred around the target and, essentially, belt seven shades of rust out of each other, with the winner being the last one standing. Now, this kind of two-player action isn't especially new or different, but the way that each phone display uses both real-world and rendered visuals, scalable the closer you get to the mat, adds a level of immersion and physicality not usually associated with two-player mobile games.