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Thursday, August 11, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
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spring and summer terms by students
at the University of Michigan. One copy
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Collegiate Press.
Dingell calls
for renewed
conservation
legislation
Local startup’s game helps
children cope with treatment
See RESTORATION, Page 8
GOVERNMENT
BUSINESS
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LAZY DAY
App utilizes
augmented reality
to turn books into
digital adventures
By BAILEY TUCZAK
For the Daily
With Pokemon Go’s explosive
popularity, augmented reality
has recently been brought to
the forefront of news. However,
Niantic — the company that
produced Pokemon Go — is
neither the first nor the only
company to successfully market
the technology. A local startup
company, ALTality, is exploring
ways to utilize augmented reality
to aid patients in the hospital
setting.
Augmented
reality
is
an
enhanced
version
of
reality
produced by technology’s adding
of a digital layer to the real,
physical world. Ann Arbor based
tech startup ALTality’s first
product, Spellbound, is a mobile
app used in hospitals to distract
children from scary or painful
moments by turning books into
engrossing
multidimensional
adventures by using the camera
on a smartphone or a tablet.
“Basically, you hold up your
phone screen to a children’s book
and the pictures on the pages
come to 3D life and move around
like a Pokemon moving around
on your screen,” Bob Miller,
spokesperson of the Michigan
Economic
Development
Corporation, said.
Miller said some of the game’s
benefits
include
increasing
compliance with treatment and
reducing trauma for the children.
Christina
York,
CEO
and
co-founder of ALTality, said both
parents and children have had
incredibly positive responses to
Spellbound. The game, currently
helping
the
University
of
Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s
Hospital patients every day,
started out as an idea that came
to her while reading in bed one
night. York, an avid reader, said
the idea came to her after having
to pull out her iPad to search
for the difference between two
boats described in her book.
“Why can’t I just hold the
device up to the book and have it
recognize what I’m looking at?”
York said.
York then participated in
the Detroit Startup Weekend
with her idea for ALTality, then
called MagicBook. York was
able to build a team, pitch the
idea and win the competition.
York’s team then collaborated
with Ann Arbor SPARK, a
local organization dedicated to
economic development whose
bootcamp helped launch the
company to its current standing
today.
When asked about the effect
of Pokemon Go has had on her
company,
York
was
almost
entirely positive.
“Pokemon
Go
is
helping
augmented reality in general
because it exposes it in a way
that is fun and non-threatening
and cool,” she said. “It helps
people envision the possibilities
of the technology.”
York said that, while the
game helps kids get up and
moving, which is important
for
being
healthy
for
treatment, it is not without
problems.
“The downside is that the
game has patients wandering
into
areas
they
aren’t
supposed to be in,” York said.
While the company has
already made its mark, with
its pilot project having 25
life specialists — pediatric
specialists who help children
cope
with
their
illnesses
—
utilize
Spellbound
to
help their patients at Mott,
ALTality plans to further
expand within the hospital
network.
The company has had many
requests to develop a platform
to help adults and veterans
cope with their sometimes
frightening
visits
to
the
hospital. Whether it bepost-
traumatic stress disorder or
the loss of a limb, York said,
augmented reality can be an
incredible mechanism to help
At Ann Arbor press
conference, U.S.
Representative touts
benefits of grants
By KEVIN LINDER
Daily Staff Reporter
Local leaders gathered at the
Washtenaw Food Hub in Ann
Arbor Charter Township for a press
conference to discuss the need to
reauthorize the Great Lakes Fish
and Wildlife Restoration Act.
Last
month,
Congresswomen
Debbie Dingell (D–Mich.), Candice
Miller (R–Mich.) and Darin LaHood
(R–Ill.) introduced the bill for
reauthorization. The act, which was
first introduced in 1998 to provide
assistance to local groups and
designed to encourage conservation
and restoration projects, has not
been reauthorized since 2006.
The bill was submitted by a
partnership
of
organizations
including the Michigan Department
of Natural Resources, The Great
Lakes Fishery Commission and
nonprofit group Ducks Unlimited.
All three of the aforementioned
groups
had
representatives
attend the event and speak on the
importance of the legislation to
work that they do.
The Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife
Restoration Act of 2016 authorizes
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
to provide financial support to
states and organizations to develop
and execute proposals to conserve,
restore and manage fish and wildlife
populations and their habitats.
Since 1998, the GLFWRA has
provided more than $24.4 million
dollars in federal funding to 157
research and restoration projects.
According to a press release
from Dingell’s office, the bill would
authorize
$6
million
annually
through
2021
to
implement
restoration
projects
and
FWS
activities related to the Great Lakes
See REALITY, Page 9