These Augmented Reality (AR) dinosaur cards are absolutely awesome. A couple of the reviews said they didn't work well or were difficult to use. It's possible they've improved the app since then, but I found them very easy to use and very reliable. The quality of the models and animations is very high, arguably just a notch or two below Jurassic Park movie quality. The app downloads for free in just a few minutes. The cards come with a serial number to unlock the app, which can be loaded onto a total of three devices. I tested it on an iPhone SE and an iPhone X. If the time comes to get a new device, you can unregister the serial number from the old device and transfer it to the new one. The pack of cards contains 20 prehistoric creatures (not all of them are technically dinosaurs), with the exact list included in the attached photos. All the popular dinos are there, with the exception of Stegosaurus. Once the smartphone (or iPad) camera focuses on the name printed on the card, the creature magically appears on top of the card. I found it works best to lay the card down on a stationary surface, such as a desktop, but the phone can be handheld without any problems. Moving the phone around changes your view of the creature accordingly, and you can also scale it up by touching your thumb and forefinger to the screen. I discovered you can activate multiple creatures simultaneously by carefully arranging the cards so that they're all in focus. Once brought to life, each creature fidgets and moves, in addition to having one or two "actions" which you can activate, such as roaring, walking in place, rearing up on its hind legs, flapping its wings, etc. There's also a "fun fact" which you can bring up on the screen. In addition, the T. rex, Giganotosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Triceratops have two extra modes - Skeleton and Drive. Skeleton toggles the skin and muscles off to reveal just the dinosaur's skeleton going through the motions. Drive mode allows you to make the dino walk in a specified direction, so you can make it leave its card and amble around your desktop. Independent of the cards, the app also comes with Virtual Reality scenes featuring five of the creatures. To be honest, it's a half-hearted effort, with the forest backgrounds being blurry and only the creatures themselves being in sharp focus. The sensor limitations of the smartphone also limit the effectiveness of the virtual reality - you can't, for example, move from one side of the animal to the other; sitting in a swivel chair and tilting your head up and down are the only perspective changes each scene can accommodate. If you don't already own a smartphone virtual reality headset, it's not worth purchasing one just for this. Having said that, my favorite VR scenes were the ones with Triceratops and Giganotosaurus. There's also a combination AR/VR mode which splits the AR card effect into two images, to be used with a virtual reality headset. Here, though, the VR headset has to be one which doesn't block the phone's camera. Since the camera only has one lens, there's no 3D effect - I believe the point is to be able to view the cards and change your viewing perspective "hands-free". There's also a "Holo Mode" which shows the animal simultaneously from the front, back, and both sides. It's meant to be used in conjunction with a device called a HoloPrism, which must be purchased separately. If you plan on showing the dinosaurs to several people at once gathered around the table, this will prove useful. Finally, the app includes a library of the same 20 creatures, with additional information about each, separated into pre-school and 1st-3rd grade learning levels. Also included is a visual size comparison of each animal to an adult human. This last element is fascinating in itself, driving home how big some of these dinos really were.
