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With the World Cup fast approaching, football fever (that’s soccer mania, for our American readers) is taking over fans everywhere, but perhaps nowhere more so than in already football-manic host country Brazil.

One fast food chain there has hit on a football-related promotion far more fun than the usual athlete endorsement: allowing customers to turn their food trays into a 3-D video game and shoot penalty kicks at a smartphone-sized goalie.

According to their promotional video, popular fast food chain Giraffas found that 90 percent of their customers fiddled with their smartphones while eating. Seeing a chance to bring a little fun into the experience, they has special football pitch tray liners printed. One end tears off to form the ball. The customer’s smartphone is placed at the opposite end like a goal. Then the customer can take a penalty “kick” by flicking the ball at the screen.

Of course, a touch screen doesn’t respond to paper, but using the front camera and mic, the application is able to tell where and when the paper ball hits the screen and have the goalie respond accordingly.

The app even has a two-player mode so you can challenge your friends and, as the video puts it, “mock him on social media when he loses.”

Seems like a pretty neat way to pass the time while eating and a pretty cool bit of technology. I just wonder how many brawls are going to start when someone gets accidentally pinged in the back of the head with an errant ball…

Source: IT Media
Image and video: YouTube