Fast algorithms and heuristics for real-time object recognition and tracking have enabled a new hybrid world technology in which one can manipulate a real world object and have its virtual world counterpart move correspondingly. This technology has been developed as part of a teaching head platform that was initially designed for language teaching but is now also being used in a range of health-oriented contexts. In this paper, the requirements of the technology are motivated and elucidated, with direct comparison of our proposed heuristics with well known object recognition algorithms.