Infinity Puzzle
An Augmented Reality Experiment
By
David B. Beleznay
The Infinity Puzzle is an AR game, which uses a series of “markers” as puzzle pieces to form a single whole video image.
In this experiment I wanted to explore how Augmented Reality holds within it the capacity to infinitely re-imagine and re-define reality as we know it. Like a mirror fun house the AR markers can be used to reflect back on themselves, creating multiple levels of artificial reality. But is it less real? One could easily argue that by using the markers this way we glance at the infinite Multiverse just outside of our perception, therefore putting our own theoretical reality on very shaky footing.
My original goal was to create personally designed unique marker patterns, which would form a real life puzzle image along with an AR image when assembled correctly. This “real life” puzzle image would be a larger marker, which in turn would trigger a separate AR image, as part of a greater puzzle.
The separate AR image would also be a marker image which when reflected back from another screen would correspond to a 4th marker image, part of an even greater puzzle, and so forth to infinitum.
The markers would be glued on each side of 36 wooden cubes, which would then be lined up 9 at a time on a wooden board to form the puzzle image or made into an AR Rubik’s Cube. The point of using 6 individual markers on cubes is the great number of possible puzzle combinations. If we consider that the 9 marker line up could also form many possible larger marker images and they in turn could form even greater puzzles, we arrive to a large enough number of possible combinations as to be considered near infinite.
This deeply layered puzzle could be used to open inquiries into the very nature of Augmented Reality, and help question our own.