Baseball cards go 3-D via webcam

Few things have remained as unchanging -- and as outright boring -- over the last 50 years as the humble baseball card. In fact, these little rectangles of cardboard haven't really evolved at all since they removed the bubble gum from the packs. The only thing truly different today is the relative paucity of mustaches in the pictures.

This year, that's about to change, as Topps is finally taking baseball cards into the modern era by letting collectors bring players "to life." How? Hold the card in front of your computer's webcam and you'll see a miniaturized, 3-D version of the player on the card pop out of it on the screen. Rotate the card and the player rotates with it, giving you a look at everything from the number on his jersey to the muscle tone of his glutes.

The New York Times notes that the baseball card biz needs something -- anything -- to improve its fortunes, having faded from a billion-dollar business to just a $200 million one today. Now owned by former Disney chief Michael Eisner (and partners), market leader Topps is hoping to reinvent itself, and in a hurry.

Will the so-called Total Immersion technology be a hit with younger collectors, or will it be seen as a mere gimmick? Even if you don't collect baseball cards, you can give a similar technology a spin for yourself. If you have a webcam, check out Augmented Reality from General Electric. Here, you can print out a special picture on any printer, then hold it in front of your webcam: A wind or solar farm will "pop out" of the screen right before your eyes, and you can rotate and interact with the 3-D image that results. It's just like what Topps is doing, but without all the 'roids.