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2010-05-15T11:59:00.006-03:00

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2010 Horizon Report: Educational Serious Games Adoption - 2 To 3 Years

2010-04-22T12:24:00.002-03:00

We know more about how games work and how to apply them to teaching and learning than we ever have

THE WEB VERSION: 2010 Horizon Report: The K12 Edition

THE PDF VERSION: Download the 2010 Horizon Report: K12 Edition (430k PDF)

Education In General Is Still A Few Years Away From Embracing Games As Mainstream Practice

The Horizon Report series is the most visible outcome of the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Project, an ongoing research effort established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe.

This volume, the 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition, examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative expression within the environment of pre-college education.

Each edition of the Horizon Report introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use in the educational community within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. Each report also presents critical trends and challenges that will affect teaching and learning over the same time frame.

The six technologies featured in each Horizon Report are placed along three adoption horizons that indicate likely time frames for their entrance into mainstream use for teaching, learning, or creative applications in the K-12 environment.

The second adoption horizon is set two to three years out, where we will begin to see widespread adoptions of two well-established technologies: game-based learning and mobiles. Both games and mobiles have clearly entered the mainstream of popular culture; both have been demonstrated as effective tools for learning in a number of schools already; and both are expected to see much broader use in pre-college education over the next two to three years. Mobiles make a repeat appearance this year. According to the report “both have been demonstrated as effective tools for learning in a number of schools already; and both are expected to see much broader use in pre-college education over the next two to three years.

Game-Based Learning Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

Excerpts

The interest in game-based learning has accelerated considerably in recent years, driven by clear successes in military and industrial training as well as by emerging research into the cognitive benefits of game play.

Developers and researchers are working in every area of game-based learning, including games that are goal-oriented; social game environments; non-digital games that are easy to construct and play; games developed expressly for education; and commercial games that lend themselves to refining team and group skills. At the low end of game technology, there are literally thousands of ways games can be — and are already being — applied in learning contexts. More complex approaches like role-playing, collaborative problem solving, and other forms of simulated experiences have broad applicability across a wide range of disciplines, and are beginning to be explored in more classrooms.

According to the report game-based learning is an expansive category, ranging from simple paper-and-pencil games like word searches all the way up to complex, massively multiplayer online (MMO) and role-playing games. Educational games can be broadly grouped into three categories: games that are not digital; games that are digital, but that are not collaborative; and collaborative digital games. The first category includes many games already common in classrooms as supplemental learning tools. Digital games include games designed for computers, for console systems like the Nintendo Wii, and online games accessed either through a special game client (like IBM’s Power Up) or through a web interface like Whyville.

The three most recent cohorts of kids - those born in the early 1980s, the early 1990s, and the early 2000s - define our school populations, and throughout their lives, they have always been immersed in the culture of digital games; it is like the air they breathe.

Games are a natural way to reach young people today, and a great deal more is now known about how to develop good games both for entertainment and for education.

Research and experience are starting to show that games can clearly be applied very effectively in many learning contexts. Games can engage learners in ways other tools and approaches cannot, and their value for learning has been established through research. We know more about how games work and how to apply them to teaching and learning than we ever have, and that understanding is increasing.

Education in general is still a few years away from embracing games as mainstream practice, but given the exciting results coming from game-based research, they are clearly a space to watch.

Anecdotal Evidence Of Jesse Schell's Game Design Futuring - NOW!

2010-03-04T18:50:00.002-03:00

Jesse Schell on games and real life colliding in unique ways

Playful (Persuasive) Toothbrush

Despite the skepticism when Jesse Schell explored hypothetical scenarios such as teeth brushing earning sponsored awards from Crest, here is an example of Playful (Persuasive) Toothbrush by students Yu-chen Chang, Chao-ju Huang - Via: iCare Research Projects

It is about a playful toothbrush to assist parents in motivating and getting their young children into a habit of proper and thorough tooth brushing. The system includes a vision-based motion tracker that recognizes different tooth brushing motions, and a fun tooth brushing game in which a young child helps a cartoon character clean its dirty virtual teeth by physically brushing his/her own teeth.

Reflections on Jesse Schell’s Superb Presentation at DICE 2010: Design Outside The Box

Jesse Schell’s talk, at a DICE Summit session in Las Vegas last week, went far beyond an entertaining delivery from a CMU Professor: it may well represent a “stake in the ground” for game designers getting sensitive to the magic behind trend-changers and the rising of new core values for game creation, amongst them:

• The perceived entertainment value (approached by Jesse in the context of “Psychological Tricks”, derived from changes in the real-world physique);

• The value of "realness" (when Jesse challenges game makers obsessed over creating fantasy as a disconnect);

• The value of rewarding game-life achievements (please find also Ian Bogost’s recent post: On the Achievementalization of the World)

• The value of embedding games in our everyday lives (which Jesse translates into “a world of opportunity for game designers).

Here is the link to Jesse Schell’s 28-minute provocative futuring:
http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/

And here is the anecdotal evidence:

Playful (Persuasive) Tray

by students Tung-yen (Dori) Lin, Jen-hao (Arthur) Chen, Keng-hao Chang, Shih-yeh Liu

It is an interactive, persuasive game built into an ordinary food tray to assist parents to improve dietary behaviors of their young children. The persuasive game is played over a playful tray. By eating from the playful tray, a child can see his/her favorite cartoon character being colored or running in a race. The playful lunch tray incorporates both the context-awareness (of pervasive computing) and the persuasive media (of persuasive computing), enabling the creation of a smart object that is not only aware of human behavior but can also influence and shape human behaviors through their natural interactions with the object.

Nutrition-aware Kitchen

by students Pei-Yu Peggy Chi, Jen-Hao Chen

This work is a nutrition-aware kitchen with UbiComp technology to improve home cooking by providing calorie awareness of food ingredients used in prepared meals during the cooking process. The kitchen has sensors to track the number of calories in food ingredients, and then provides real-time feedback to users on these values through an awareness display.

Diet-aware Dining Table

by students Keng-hao Chang, Shih-yen Liu, Tung-yun Lin, Cheryl Chen

It is a dietary tracker built into an ordinary dining table. It is a "smart" dining table that is "aware" of our natural eating behavior. It can automatically track what and how much we eat from the tabletop surface. The goal is to provide users with information about their eating patterns, therefore, help them sensible and healthy eating. The dining table is augmented with two layers of weighting and RFID sensor surfaces to detect and recognize multiple, concurrent person-object interactions occurring on the table.

The dashboard of the Ford Fusion shows how fuel efficient the driver is operating the vehicle with a vine on the right-hand side that grows and withers

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Serious Games Presentation @ Barcamp Derry

2009-10-21T15:49:00.013-02:00

The History of Video Games and Serious Games

The best of Serious Games that challenge us to play at building a better future

Via: Burkey’s Blog - Slides from Barcamp Derry - The History of (A) Video Games and [B] Serious Games

A Barcamp is an informal, free, and participatory conference style event where the content is provided by the participants. They take place all over the world (including some great recent events in Belfast and Dublin) and are open to anyone who’d like to come along.

Not only is Barcamp a great chance to learn and discuss ideas in an informal environment but it’s also a great social event.

Held on October 10th 2009, at the University of Ulster, Magee, Barcamp Derry was an informal, one-day event for anyone interested in the web, technology or digital media.

James Burke was one of the speakers with the presentation Video Games - More Than Just Violence, Gore, Murder, Carjacking and World of Warcraft.

His talk aimed to show that Serious Games research is constantly providing positive results in relation to games being used to teach, train, educate and rehabilitate.

James has included a very brief history of video games, a round-up of Serious Games (e-learning, exergame, rehabilitation) and a look at his ongoing research at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, where he is investigating the use of video game design for post-stroke rehabilitation.

At the end of the talk, he promised to upload his slides to his blog and they are now available on SlideShare, so they can viewed online or downloaded for offline/viewing or editing.

Side A – A Brief History of Video Games

Side B – Serious Games & My Work at UUC

Serious Games New Book By Nicola Whitton

2009-10-20T16:04:00.002-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

Via: Play Think Learn and Educational Games Research

Nicola Whitton is Research Fellow at the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is interested in the potential of using online games for learning, teaching and assessment - particularly in Higher Education but also in the context of all sorts of adult learners.

She has recently completed a PhD in the potential of collaborative computer games for learning in Higher Education at Napier University in Edinburgh. Her recent background has been in computing, human-computer interaction and e-learning and she has worked in various research, development and teaching roles at Napier University, Heriot-Watt University, MultiVerse (RIP) and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Learning with Digital Games is Nicola Whitton's first book and is based on practical lessons learned from the research carried out during her PhD.

It is designed as an introduction to the use of games-based learning in universities for lecturers, learning technologies, researchers and anyone else who is interested really.

There is also a website to support the book, and any feedback or comments would be most appreciated. Email: n.whitton at mmu.ac.uk

According to the website:

"Written for Higher Education teaching and learning professionals, Learning with Digital Games provides an accessible and straightforward introduction to the field of computer game-based learning."

"Up-to-date with current trends and the changing learning needs of today’s students, this text offers friendly guidance, and is unique in its focus on post-school education and its pragmatic view of the use of computer games with adults."

"Learning with Digital Games enables readers to quickly grasp practical and technological concepts, using examples that can easily be applied to their own teaching situations. The book assumes no prior technical knowledge but guides the reader step-by-step through the theoretical, practical and technical considerations of using digital games for learning. Activities throughout guide the reader through the process of designing a game for their own practice, and the book also offers:

•A toolkit of guidelines, templates and checklists.
•Concrete examples of different types of game-based learning using six case studies.
•Examples of games that show active and experiential learning.
•Practical examples of educational game design and development.

This professional guide upholds the sound reputation of the Open and Flexible Learning series, is grounded in theory and closely links examples from practice. Higher Education academics, e-learning practitioners, developers and training professionals at all technical skill levels and experience may find this text is a great perfect resource for explaining "how to" integrate computer games into their teaching practice.

Serious Games, Serious Gamers & Climate Change

2009-10-16T16:05:00.001-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

The scale of involvement in the day has been impressive, according to CNN: 10,000 bloggers around the world, reaching about 15,000,000 readers, have been writing about climate change for Blog Action Day 2009!

Earlier today, lead organizer Robin Beck shared with participants, via a "Blog Action Day is AMAZING so far!" message, quite a few breakthroughs, starting at the stroke of midnight when UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown surprised us with a Blog Action Day post on his blog saying that "climate change is the biggest threat to all our futures". The White House also sent us greetings from Washington by posting A Green Blog Action Day.

From there we have seen thousands of interesting posts from bloggers in 150 countries. Global Voices Web site -- a community of over 200 bloggers -- has also helped to promote the event in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe

Blog Action Day has been the top Google blog search today.

According to the organizers, this has already been an amazing day and the Blog Action Day team couldn’t be more impressed with how many bloggers from all parts of the globe have come together for such an important issue.

Niche Topic: Climate Change & Video Games

Mitu.nu - Adventures in Video Games, Research and Saving The World, addresses two interesting topics in today's earlier posts:

1. What About Popular, Successful, Commercial Games?

Okay, so we’ve seen games which are quite openly political/environmental. Some of them are really rather good. But, what about the games we play every day, though? What about popular, successful, commercial games? After all, these aren’t about climate change, and if they were, surely nobody would buy them anyway if they were about a ’serious’ issue?

What if games were to address climate change without being explicit about climate change?

Plenty of mainstream games refer to climate change in that they are set in a “near-future world ravaged by global warming”; however, in such games, “climate change is part of the background”. There are of course many, many games set in some kind of post-apocalyptic environment. However, these do not necessarily compel players to think about their real-world environment.

2. Why Gamers Would Be Rather Good at Fighting Climate Change and Saving the World

Moving aside from the old “gamers are used to saving the world all the time” thing (ha!), more seriously, one thing that countless years of playing video games does help you with is a) thinking strategically and b) resource management. These are potentially great tools which can be harnessed in the fight to mitigate climate change.

Robin Beck believes this coming together of otherwise incongruous bedfellows under the umbrella of climate change is a unique strength of the event. "It gives people who write about niche topics the chance to confront an issue of global importance with others around the world," Beck said.

Beck's ambitions for the day are straightforward. "For me," he said, "the best possible result would be spreading the conversation to places where it is never held."

Serious Games as Mobile Learning At School

2009-10-06T16:23:00.001-03:00

Serious Games Using The Technology That Children Use Every day For Learning

Via: Learning and Teaching Through Technology - Sheffield School Pioneers Mobile Phones For Learning

Students at Notre Dame High School in Sheffield will soon be enabled to use their personal mobile devices - including mobile phones - in the classroom and around the school. This radical move is the result of recognising that mobile devices have a role to play in the modern curriculum, says Paul Haigh, Notre Dame’s assistant head teacher, with a responsibility for specialisms and innovation.

“Pupils are using a whole range of devices that can be used on the Internet - mobile phones, gaming devices, MP3 players," he says. There’s a huge untapped resource staring us in the face.”

He adds that many pupils now use their own laptops and netbooks in schools, and it’s hard to know where a netbook ends and a large smartphone begins. In other words, there’s little logic in allowing pupils to use a netbook in school while banning mobile phones, many of which can access the Internet, record sound and take digital photographs.

Notre Dame is a Catholic co-educational comprehensive with more than 1,400 students (more than 400 in the sixth form) and uses ICT extensively. The school has worked with Hallam CLC on a project that has seen pupils using smartphones loaded with Wildknowledge ecological software to record field data.

Hallam City Learning Centre is sited in the grounds of Notre Dame High School. Hallam CLC Partnership comprises five partner secondary schools; High Storrs, King Edward VII, Notre Dame, Silverdale and Tapton, as well as the local feeder Primary schools.

As part of the Excellence in Cities initiative, the Partnership has set out clear plans to impact on the teaching and learning in these schools by the leading edge use of ICT across the curriculum.

Using The Technology That Children Use Every day For Learning

Paul Haigh says that mobile devices today are in the same situation that calculators were in the 1970s. “You can see a situation where a student might take their mobile phone out of their bag to take a photograph of the equipment they’re using in a science experiment and then pasting the picture into their written report of the experiment. Or they could use the phone as a digital recorder to record an interview in an English lesson.”

The school is now developing a policy for students to use their own mobile devices around the school, and the school’s wireless network is being reconfigured so that pupils will be able to log on to the network and use their device in a secure, filtered and monitored environment.

“The school network will become a wi-fi hotspot for pupils and their mobile devices,” says Paul Haigh.

The new mobile device policy is currently being discussed by Notre Dame’s IT Strategy Group before being presented to the full school management. The aim is to start implementing the policy this month, starting with Year 13 students, before rolling it out across the rest of the year groups. “This is about blending IT with traditional learning. It’s using the technology that children use every day for learning,” says Paul Haigh.

Find also Mobile Phones May Help Learning in Schools and Exploring Cellphones as Learning Tools

World Community Grid: Serious Games For Your PC To Play

2009-10-06T16:17:00.001-03:00

Serious Games volunteer your PC or laptop’s unused time to World Community Grid

Via: World Community Grid

The next time you step away from your desk for a quick latte at your local coffee bar, your computer can get to work....doing calculations for AIDS research. Or genome comparisons for drug development. Or sample analyses for better cancer treatments. In fact, your computer can do the calculations while you’re actually using it for something else.

It’s possible when you volunteer your PC or laptop’s unused time to World Community Grid (WCG), created by IBM. Grid computing joins together thousands of individual computers, establishing a large system with massive computational power equal to a supercomputer. Because the work is split into countless tiny pieces and done simultaneously, research time shrinks from decades to months.

So why not donate something you don’t need, use or even think about-your idle computer time-and help make the world a better place? Here’s how it works.

This is one out of eight projects I'm currently participating

Active Projects

Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy - Phase 2

Influenza Antiviral Drug Search

Help Fight Childhood Cancer

The Clean Energy Project

Nutritious Rice for the World

Help Conquer Cancer

Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2

FightAIDS@Home

Your first step is to go to worldcommunitygrid.org and download a free, small software agent onto your PC. It is similar to a screensaver. An icon will appear in your lower right-hand icon tray. Your computer is ready to go to work. Then, this agent will request a set of data-or an assignment-from World Community Grid’s servers, located at an IBM facility. These servers send out the “job” assignment (in the form of a data packet) in triplicate-to three separate PCs-as a security measure.

Turn Your PC Into a Tireless Serious Gamer

When idle, your computer performs the calculations and sends the results back to the servers. An average task runs 10-20 CPU hours. The servers wait for the other two sets of identical data to be returned. The results are compared to ensure that they are identical and no hacking has occurred. The servers then send out a new work unit to your PC.

Only when your computer is turned on, and the agent senses it’s idle, will it be “volunteered” for research work according to the guidelines you set. Even when your applications are up, your system is idle about 80% of the time and this power can be used. You’ll know when your computer is being used for research because a screen saver appears, charting the progress on your current task.

Power in Numbers: The Grid

As of early February 2007, about 500,000 individuals from 200 countries have registered some 1,400,000 devices, contributing 279,755 years of run time to the Grid. It ranks among the top five supercomputers worldwide.

You can track results here.

World Community Grid has also hundreds of teams where you can contribute as part of a university, country, city, website community, or many, many other themes. Joining a team does not affect your individual contribution, but it does allow you to participate as part of a larger group.

To search for a team to join, click here.

IBM Community Grid Servers

But the work is far from over. A World Community Grid advisory board continues to look for other potential research projects that would benefit from grid technology, above and beyond those it is already working on. Future projects might focus on infectious diseases, hunger and natural disasters.

The promise of World Community Grid is as real as it is seductive. In a time when the mysteries of science and human health continue to elude us, untold amounts of computing power lay dormant in millions of machines around the globe, holding some hope for the future.

Microsoft's Multi-Touch Mouse Becomes a Serious Game

2009-10-06T16:08:00.001-03:00

MS presents novel input devices

Via: Interactive Multimedia Technology - Preview Mouse 2.0: Multi-Touch Meets the Mouse

Lynn Marentette has just reported, hot off the press from Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group at UIST 2009.

MS presents novel input devices that combine the standard capabilities of a computer mouse with multi-touch sensing. The goal is to make multi-touch interaction more widely available and applicable to the desktop environment. To chart the design space, they present five different multi-touch mouse implementations. Each explores a different touch sensing strategy, which leads to differing form-factors and hence interactive possibilities.

The following video is courtesy of Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group:

Music: "Motion Blur", by Bjorn Hartman. The researchers on the team: Nicolas Villar, Shahram Izadi, Dan Rosenfeld, Hrvoje Benko, John Helmes, Jonathan Westhues, Steve Hodges, Eyal Ofek, Alex Butler, Xiang Cao and Billy Chen.

"With the emergence of multi-touch, we now have the opportunity to manipulate digital content with increased dexterity. But whilst multi-touch has been incorporated into many different form-factors – from tabletop to mobile phone – it has yet to find a place on our desktops. This may seem surprising, particularly given that for many computing tasks the desktop setting still dominates."

MS explore the possibilities for bringing the benefits of multi-touch interaction to a traditional desktop setting, comprising of a computer, vertical display, key-=board and mouse. They refer to these novel input devices as multi-touch (MT) mice. In addition to serving as devices for common pointer-based interactions, MT mice conceptually allow the user to reach into the GUI – enabling them to manipulate the graphical environment with their fingers, and to execute commands via hand-gestures without the need to physically touch the display.

The paper Mouse 2.0: Multi-touch Meets the Mouse presents a detailed description of hardware and software implementation of prototypes, discusses the relative strengths, limitations and affordance of these novel input devices as informed by the results of a preliminary user study.

Serious Games Reinventing Community News

2009-10-05T16:28:00.007-03:00

Serious Games delivering news and information to geographically defined communities

Via: MediaShift Idea Lab - A Serious Look at Serious Games

Knight News Challenge Competition Offers up to $5 million for Community News Innovation -- Deadline Oct. 15

The Knight News Challenge is part of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Media Innovation Initiative, and funds innovative ideas for using digital media to deliver news and information to geographically defined communities.

Their strategy is experimental, but they believe that the more experiments they seed, the more likely to find innovations that will serve communities and strengthen journalism in the digital age.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, a contest awarding as much as $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. The deadline for applications is Oct. 15.

The 2010 Knight News Challenge is the fourth year of the contest. Knight Foundation plans to invest at least $25 million over five years in the search for bold community news and social media experiments.

Do you have a big idea for informing and inspiring a geographic community? Does it include innovative use of new digital tools or processes such as social media, mash-ups or wikis? How about new ways to exchange information via hand-held devices like cell phones? Knight Foundation wants to know. “You invent it. We fund it!” is the 2010 contest slogan.

News Games - Serious Games To Play With The News

News Games are a genre of non-fiction games that expose players to the news-making process and help them understand the complexity of issues in the news.

Link TV’s interactive Know the News Challenge, tests players’ news literacy skills, while showing users how news are covered in different countries.

Knight News Challenge winners have received grants to create games for community engagement.

As an example, Nora Paul, director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute for New Media Studies, modified the Neverwinter Nights game to create Playing the News, starting with You be the Reporter: Ethanol as Fuel, where players can explore the environment and gather information on the complex energy issue of using ethanol as a fuel.

Under the umbrella of The Knight Foundation’s News Challenge that looks for ideas that “use innovative news methods to help citizens better connect within their communities, the award-winning Playing the News was pitched as a game prototype for a news scenario-building program allowing citizens to “play” through a news story, interact with the stakeholders in the issue and, hopefully, result in a more in-depth understanding of complicated and ongoing news issues.

Knight News Challenge winners blog about their games on PBS’s Idea Lab.

About MediaShift Idea Lab

MediaShift Idea Lab is a group weblog by innovators who are reinventing community news for the Digital Age.

Each author won a grant in the Knight News Challenge to help fund a startup idea or to blog on a topic related to reshaping community news. The authors will use Idea Lab to explain their projects, share intelligence and interact with the new-media community online.

Idea Lab is produced by MediaShift and hosted by PBS. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation provided a grant to MediaShift to produce Idea Lab and to upgrade MediaShift with audio and video.

Idea Lab bloggers post directly to the blog, with MediaShift and PBS providing editorial oversight. The Knight Foundation will be choosing future Idea Lab bloggers based on who wins the Knight News Challenge in future years.

Serious Games Make National Parks Sustainable

2009-10-03T16:32:00.008-03:00

Serious Games for Participatory Management of National Parks

Via: SimParc Project

A Serious Game for Participatory Management of National Parks and Biodiversity Conservation

SimParc (Simulation Participative de La Gestion de Parcs) is a French-Brazilian interdisciplinary research project, conducted by Pontifícia Universidade Catolica (PUC-Rio), Computer Science Department, RJ, Brazil, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), EICOS Program, RJ, Brazil, and Universitè Pierre et Marie Curie, Laboratoire d'Informatique de Paris 6 (LIP6), CNRS, France.

The Research Project has recently reported the experience in the design, use and evaluation of a Serious Game for national parks’ participatory management, aiming at biodiversity conservation and social inclusion here.

Helping the various stakeholders understand conflict dynamics undermining natural resources management and collectively agree upon strategies for conflict resolution is a major project objective.

Examples of inherent conflicts biodiversity related are irregular occupation, inadequate tourism exploitation, water pollution, environmental degradation and illegal use of natural resources.

The Serious Game prototype combines distributed role-playing games, support for negotiation and artificial agents. It is based on the observation of several case studies in Brazil. The project team, however, chose not to reproduce a real case study in order to leave the door open for broader game possibilities.

SimParc Role-Playing Game

Initially, SimParc game has an epistemic objective: helping each player to discover and understand conflict dynamics.

The game considers a certain number of roles, each one representing a certain stakeholder. Depending on the profile and the elements of concern in each of the landscape units (e.g., tourism spot, endangered species…), each player has to perform the designed/selected role with its respective postures and agendas.

To facilitate role-playing, SimParc offers a set of personas to represent him/her during the game.

The current prototype was tested by subject matter players, including professional park managers, earlier this year, when SimParc was evaluated as a game that reached the goal of creating a virtual management arena.

Serious Gaming With Social Networking Future

2009-10-02T16:46:00.006-03:00

Social networking may work as Serious Games in the future

Via: Matthew Buckland.com - The Future of Social Networking – A Concept Investigation

Matthew Buckland's post dated October 1, provides a few great insights on how social networking may work in the future focusing on mobile and Augmented Reality (AR).

Below are some concept designs created by Matthew Buckland together with Philip Langley, inspired by some brilliant AR concept drawings, such as:

"After some brainstorming and quite a few mockups, we came up with the below. Admittedly AR is the new hype. But you can see how valuable (and scary) this could be when applied to a social networking paradigm. It assumes amazing resolutions, facial and object recognition, and more accurate GPS — none of these far off", says Matthew.

"Imagine holding up your phone or other digital device against a person you’ve just met or passing by. You’d instantly have information returned about that person within seconds, gleaned from an automatic web, public profile and social network search. You’d discover common friends, talking points — and then have the ability to add him/her to your network. Using a semantic scan, you’d discover negative or positive comments on Google or elsewhere relating to this individual. It would be instant insight into the guy standing right in front of you."

"Tapping into public databases and directories, discover who lives where and if and how you are connected — then call them, email them, add them to your network right then and there."

Matthew explores some privacy implications, but he also considers the fact that, as almost everyone will be mostly in the same boat, we might well evolve into a society that’s highly transparent and accountable.

About Matthew Buckland

Matthew Buckland is a web guy. He heads up an innovation startup called 20FourLabs. He is the former GM of Mail & Guardian Online and co-founder of blog aggregator amatomu.com and group blog, Thought Leader (Webby Honoree & SA blog of the year).

One of his proudest moments was when some of the world's biggest blogs Techcrunch and Mashable, his favourite site Wired.com and technology site Techmeme tried to break his servers by linking to this blog in the space of a few days over his Jimmy Wales revelations. His next proudest moment was when this blog scooped "best business blog" at the 2008 SA blog awards.

Serious Games For 3D Military Training

2009-10-02T16:44:00.004-03:00

Serious Games for interactive military 3D multi-user simulator

Via: Program-Ace – Military Training

Military Training is an interactive 3D multi-user simulator which allows army forces to work through various situations that can happen to troops, developed by 3D Ace Studio.

3D Ace Studio is the creative & graphics production division of Program-Ace LLC., the parent company focused mainly on Research & Development of proprietary 3D technologies for industrial applications.

The Ace 3D Engine provides a high visual quality in fully interactive mode. Through the technological expertise in the sphere of multi-user client-server solutions and communication systems, Military Training can be useful to train the actions during hostage taking, evacuations, terrorist attacks and local fights.

In case of co-development or full-cycle custom game development projects, 3D Ace Studio grants a license for next gen Ace3D Engine technology free of charge.

Being a visual company, its website does not have a lot of promotional text – but the portfolio speaks for itself.

Here is a demo video, made for interactive military 3D multi-user simulator and based on Ace 3D Engine.

Serious Games Add AR Overlay On The iPhone

2009-10-02T16:36:00.005-03:00

Serious Games as Paris Metro Augmented Reality App

Via: iLounge News - Paris Metro Augmented Reality App Hits App Store
(Thanks to Marcelo Negrini via Twitter)

Metro Paris Subway 3.0 from PresseLite has been released onto the App Store with augmented reality features, possibly becoming the first application released to offer such functionality.

Augmented Reality applications utilize the iPhone’s Internet connection, GPS, Compass, and camera to overlay information atop a stream of video showing the user’s surroundings.

Metro Paris Subway Your New Eye features a unique augmented reality functionality (only available to Apple iPhone 3GS users) that enables you to see the nearest stations and POI! Elements located at a distance less than 1km (0,621miles) only will be displayed.

The new version of Metro Paris Subway application has also added the push notification support that allows you to be notified in background, even if you have closed the application. This new feature allows you to receive Paris Metro alerts in real time, when a disrupted line is detected, a notification is automatically sent to your iPhone / iPod Touch.

Paris Bus is now available for the first time in the same application via in-app purchase. This option allows you to switch between the underground and bus systems at any time using the same application. This add-on includes the official Paris Buses map from RATP with the key bus routes, locates the nearest bus stations, and also offers a Journey Planner tool.

The application is fully compatible with Google Map. It is now possible to locate the nearest stations from your position on Google Map within the application, each station is represented by a red pin, a popup shows you the distance of localization for each station, and it's updated live via GPS as you walk in the streets of Paris!

It is now possible to add new Point of Interest (POI) databases to Metro Paris Subway application via in-app purchase. These options allow you to activate Food & Drink POI, Restaurants POI, Coffee, Pastry & Ice Cream POI, Leisure POI, and Accommodation POI in all over France. You will be able to locate all nearby POI on Google Map.

Convergence Is A Serious Game

2009-10-01T16:48:00.003-03:00

Did You Know 4.0?

Did You Know 4 0 : The Media Landscape

The original ‘Shift Happens‘ presentation by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman was turned into a video and uploaded to YouTube in June 2007. The video was then remixed, becoming a serious YouTube hit called ‘Did You Know?‘ and attracted over 6.5m views.

A new / updated version of the Did You Know film, appropriately called “Did You Know 4.0?” has now been created together with Xplane and The Economist for their Media Convergence Forum (The Moment of Truth: Consumers, Technology and Commerce), to be held on October 20-21, 2009 in New York, NY.

The video illustrates the changing media landscape, from the decline in traditional media to the continuous rise of social media and mobile.

Launched on September 14, the video has become a YouTube Hit with more than 400,000 views.

Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE, http://www.xplane.com/.

For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit

http://mediaconvergence.economist.com/ and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/.

Serious Games For IT Managers In Crisis

2009-09-30T16:50:00.007-03:00

Serious Games to play the IT manager of a small company with global ambitions

Via: Intel Software Network Blogs - It Manager, Your Game Has Evolved: IM3 Unseen Forces Has New Challenges!

In IT Manager 3: Unseen Forces, you play the IT manager of a small company with global ambitions. Part of your job is ensuring that everybody’s desktop PCs, laptops and servers keep running smoothly. A huge number of things can – and will – go wrong. There are dozens of different software and hardware faults to tackle. Sometimes these are easy to repair; sometimes they aren't.

Using a collection of technologies (cooling, security, mobility, multi-core machines) you have to keep the servers running and the people working. Some skills are locked at the beginning, but experience gives you opportunity to add them to your arsenal.

The problems users face range from virus attacks or slow computers to broken disks or strange beeps. And the problems you face range from simultaneous support requests to spam in your inbox.

IT Manager III: Unseen Forces is a game designed to entertain IT professionals whilst communicating the role Intel technologies have to play in a modern enterprise. The game is web-based and free to play.

Much of the renewed interest on the game comes from its newest feature: Crisis!

Management suddenly slashes your department’s budget and your mission is to make the business case for upgrades.

If you appeal the budget cut, you are invited to a meeting with your CEO. This is your chance to put your argument. It’s up to you to convince the boss to keep investing in IT. Only if you address your CEO’s concerns will your department’s budget be restored. Fail to make a compelling argument and you will find it more difficult to meet your objectives. However, those who master the art of successful negotiation can win a new medal.

In case you didn't sign for the game yet, go to IT Manager 3: Unseen Forces and start having fun while you learn.

Here is the game trailer: IT Manager 3: Unseen Forces on Intel’s YouTube channel

Flyar: Serious Games To Visualize Tweeter

2009-09-25T16:50:00.008-03:00

Serious Gaming with your tweets

Via: YDreams - Twitter Visualization Using Augmented Reality and Gesture Interaction

Flyar is a free Twitter Visualization application, which lets people interact with tweets in a physical environment. You can set it as your screensaver or just play around with it.

It uses your webcam to create an augmented video image, enabling you to visualize incoming tweets (from your account or a general feed) in a twitteresque setting that you can interact with.

How Does It Work?

Flyar uses your webcam to create an augmented reality image where birds fly or hang around tree branches and fly towards you to deliver tweets. The birds represent incoming tweets, and their color represents different types of messages: blue for normal messages, green for replies and red for direct messages.

Flyar: Augmented Reality Twitter Visualization App from YDreams on Vimeo.

When a bird is standing on a branch it means you have a new message. With just a tap you can “call” him and he’ll fly to your side to deliver the tweet (only one bird at a time). You can also interact with the birds by disrupting their flight patterns, or affect the falling leaves. The flock of birds flying around tells you how many messages you have waiting to be read.

Flyar only runs on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

You just need to download and execute the file. It will check your system for some pre-requisites: NET Framework 3.5 SP1, updated DirectX drivers, Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 Redistributable SP1. These can be found in most recent versions of Windows Vista, but if you don’t have them already they are also provided on installation.

After installing you can jump right into the application or take a look at the settings. You can choose between viewing the Public Timeline, a particular word or hashtag search (e.g.: #followfriday) or your own account. You can also fine tune your render and webcam settings (btw, most people will most likely prefer having the camera on mirror mode).

You can download the application and more information here.

Application Background

Flyar stems from an R&D project, where YDreams use its proprietary platform to create different ways of visualizing and interacting with information.

YDreams developed Flyar to test some aspects of its Augmented Reality composition framework (YVision), and decided to share it with the community.

About YDreams

YDreams is a Portuguese technology solutions provider founded in June 2000 by internationally renowned specialists in information technology, telecommunications, image processing, geographic information systems and environmental engineering.

The company develops pioneering, patent-pending technology in a variety of fields, namely spatial data mining, interactive media, augmented reality and pervasive gaming. YDreams develops products, customized solutions and services for four major markets, through independent divisions: Advertising, Entertainment, Education and Culture and Environment.

YDreams' products have drawn broad attention in Portugal and abroad with a simple premise: persistently break new ground in the use of interaction to seamlessly mix virtual and real environments – boosting customer experience, product perception and brand value.

eVirtuoses: Serious Games Case Study Conference

2009-09-25T16:47:00.006-03:00

Exploring Serious Games Market potential

Via: Les e.Virtuoses 2009 - 23 Novembre - Lille - La Convention des Producteurs de Serious Games

On the 23rd of November 2009, the second e.Virtuoses Serious Games Developers Conference will be held, at the Lille Grand Palais, in Northern France.

The conference teaser reads as follows:

"Find the solutions Serious Games bring to you"

e.Virtuoses 2009 has taken a stand towards no Serious Games big speeches. Instead, only case studies on mature achievements combined with work sessions on future projects.

Here is another stand: specific, well-segmented applications, business by business, sector by sector aiming at addressing specific concerns of development studios, researchers, and cluster leaders in each area of expertise.

The conference, organized by the Valenciennois Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the support from the North Pole Pictures-Pas-de-Calais, aspires to become a major European event dedicated to further exploring the potential of Serious Games emerging market and promoting collaboration among its major players, including the public sector.

The 2009 edition programme can be found at http://www.e-virtuoses.net/programme.php.

The 10 workshops

Health 1
Serious Games to improve training for careers in Health
Health 2
Serious Games to support the therapeutic process
Sales
Serious Games to optimize the performance of vendors
Transportation
Serious Games to support the transportation revolution
Industry
Serious Games simulating the business and the industrial production process
Human Resources
Serious Games to recruit, train and evaluate business mind-set
Risks
Serious Games for training and education in hazardous jobs in the enterprise
Defense
Serious Games for National Defense
Games4Change
Serious Games for re-inventing the world after the crisis
Ecology
Serious Games for a generation of eco-citizens

Registration is open at http://www.e-virtuoses.net/inscription.php

Forterra's Serious Games Large Scale Deployment

2009-09-23T20:37:00.004-03:00

Seious Games and IT readiness

Virtual Emergency Operations Center Workers Assessing an Event

Via: Forterra Systems

PRESS RELEASE

Forterra Systems' Virtual World Software Supports Production Deployment Capabilities

OLIVE 2.3 Release Provides IT Readiness and Usability Enhancements Along With New Collaboration and Training Features

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forterra Systems, a market and technology leader in enterprise virtual worlds, announced today that it will ship the 2.3 release of its OLIVE ™ (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment) software platform early next month.

The release includes IT readiness enhancements for web process integration, user authentication, and client packaging, as well as user adoption features to improve the initial download and orientation experience for first time users.

Many large commercial and government organizations had successful pilots with OLIVE in 2008, some of which were captured as case studies in the Recipe for Success with Enterprise Virtual Worlds whitepaper.

In response to these organization’s positive feedback Forterra has developed the IT readiness features so these organizations can integrate OLIVE with their IT systems and web infrastructure in preparation for larger scale deployments.

IT can now integrate OLIVE based virtual meetings into web based intranets, extranets or portals, and be assured of the user’s identity based on authentication systems like LDAP. The 2.3 release enables integrating 3D meetings and events into existing web-based communities to foster enhanced brain-storming and design sessions, faster decision-making, and rapid relationship building.

The OLIVE 2.3 release improves the simplicity and speed for new users to join an OLIVE meeting. The small download install process embedded into web-based user registration processes mean new users can participate in a 3D virtual meeting within 5 minutes of an invitation. The new audio tuning wizard enables new users to quickly talk and listen with a headset using the spatially accurate 3D audio in OLIVE.

The addition of an API to integrate artificial intelligence middleware with a new Scenario Editor and a Media Dashboard feature will enable virtual Emergency Operation Centers to embed rehearsal environments around the various disasters team members must prepare for. Homeland security departments can now invite associated agencies to participate in drills or situation assessments virtually without having to be co-located.

"Everyone is excited about the transformational capabilities that virtual worlds will provide to business processes, but there have been historical challenges getting the platforms IT ready and widely used by all types of users,” noted Dave Rolston, Forterra CEO. "We are pleased to provide the features to now support the large-scale deployments our most advanced customers are planning for."

The key OLIVE capabilities being released this month include:

Flexible User Authentication that now enables OLIVE developers or IT staff to implement any authentication mechanism they desire. The new process enables independent client-side and server-side components for authentication, which allows for support of single sign-on (SSO) systems, as well as common account repository systems such as LDAP.
Web-based Content Management System (CMS) integration that supports web processes for registration of new users, client download, user authentication, and joining OLIVE meetings. A reference CMS package from Drupal is provided but these web processes can be implemented with any CMS through the PHP-based APIs provided.
Custom Installer Process that enables customers to bind their custom developed and/or supplier provided 3D content into a small download installer that simplifies how users can participate in OLIVE based meetings.
User Interface Enhancements including an Audio Tuning Wizard that embed the important navigational and communication functions into a Control Bar for easy access. The audio tuning wizard allows users to quickly and easily verify that their headset and microphone is working and adjusted to the appropriate levels. A companion Side Bar widget enables facilitators to shrink the OLIVE interface while presenting applications in-world when using one monitor.
Telephony Integration that expands access to virtual meetings by providing a way for users with standard telephones to call in and participate (using voice only) with in-world participants. The telephony feature enables users without a PC to use any type of phone system, including mobile, PBX, and soft phones, to call into or be called from an in-world participant or speaker phone.
Media Dashboards that enable mixing a variety of media like streaming videos, MS PowerPoint slides, desktop or web-based applications onto many 3D screens within an overall dashboard framework. A specific media source can be selected for display on larger screens.
A Scenario Editor that collects all of the elements needed in OLIVE to practice a set of repeatable training procedures. The Scenario Editor assembles the 3D scenes, props, interactive objects, and camera positions for recordings needed to play out a scenario with the roles and outfits of supporting cast members.
An Artificial Intelligence (AI) API for non-player character development. Now 3rd party AI middleware vendors can be integrated to OLIVE to create and control computer generated avatars inserted into training scenarios.

About Forterra Systems

Forterra Systems is a leader in providing enterprise-grade virtual world technology for the corporate, healthcare, government, education, and entertainment industries.

Forterra's software enable organizations to collaborate, train, rehearse, and hold events using mixed media technologies integrated into a compelling 3D virtual world. Using the OLIVE™ (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment) platform and industry standard PC hardware, customers can rapidly deploy realistic, collaborative, secure 3D Internet solutions that scale from small group applications to large scale simulated environments supporting many thousands of concurrent users for public and private use cases.

View this YouTube video for an introduction to OLIVE-based virtual worlds. http://www.forterrainc.com

Serious Games For Nintendo DS: Learn Series

2009-09-21T20:48:00.014-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

Via: Serious Games Source - Dreamcatcher Interactive Expands Its Learn Series Of Educational Titles For The Nintendo DS

Games publisher Dreamcatcher Interactive has announced Learn Geography, an educational title for the Nintendo DS aimed at students between the first and fourth grades to be released on November 17, 2009.

In Learn Geography, students will piece together parts of a world map, and will learn to identify the countries within each continent. A selection of jigsaw puzzles and sliding puzzles are available for each region.

Learn Geography includes three gameplay modes, each containing multiple lessons on world geography. Exercise Mode consists of a series of timed quizzes, while Training Mode identifies country names and locations on a world map. The title also includes a selection of minigames that test geography knowledge.

Learn Geography will be the second title to be released as part of Dreamcatcher's Learn Series of educational titles for the Nintendo DS, following up on last year's Learn Math.

At the outset, players are welcome to the castle and asked to enter their name and grade level. This information is stored, so it's easy for multiple players to set up characters on the same DS unit, making it a great choice for families on the go or students who want to compare results with their friends on the bus.

Once they're ready to play, kids will start working through lessons as little green vampires, and they'll have the opportunity to progress through 10 different topics, learning new concepts, practicing them, and repeating lessons to ensure that they stick. They'll also be tasked with mastering brief quizzes that provide an incentive for practicing skills until they are perfect.

More advanced students will even get a chance to earn stars and other rewards by racking up right answers to division and multiplication problems, just like they do in real classrooms.

Two additional titles are scheduled for release later this year:

Learn Science

Learn Chess

About Dreamcatcher Interactive

Dreamcatcher is a leading worldwide publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software. Dreamcatcher Interactive is owned by JoWooD Productions, an Austrian based video game publisher traded on the Vienna stock exchange.

Dreamcatcher products include titles for Windows® as well as leading hardware platforms – the Xbox 360™, PlayStation® 3, Nintendo DS™ and Wii™.

Dreamcatcher is located in Toronto, Canada. Visit http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/ com for more information.

Serious Games And The World As Interface

2009-09-20T16:55:00.006-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better world

Via: Interactive Multimedia Technology - The World Is My Interface

Lynn Marentette, is the author of three superb Blogs: Interactive Multimedia Technology, TechPsych and Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction, that work as online filing cabinets open to the world.

They are possibly the most comprehensive Blogs over the Web on how interactive technology can support collaboration, communication and engaged learning.

The World Is My Interface is the new title of her Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction blog, focusing on off-the-desktop natural user interfaces interaction, and user experience.

On the first post Lynn explains how she came up with the idea for the new title, departing from the vision that the interface can be real-world locations and public spaces, educational or social networks and settings, as well as virtual worlds - simulations, games, VR, or augmented reality - just about anything humans interact with in their daily lives.

Lynn Marentette is a school psychologist in her day job, with training in educational and clinical psychology, special education, and social science. Her journey into technology began in 2003, initially inspired by the desire of creating interactive multimedia games for young people for use on mobile devices as well as interactive whiteboards.

Serious Games Extending AR To Mobile Apps

2009-09-16T17:20:00.018-03:00

Serious Games bring AR to mobile devices

Via: Total Immersion and int13

PRESS RELEASE

Bringing Its Augmented Reality To Mobile Applications,
Total Immersion Partners With Smartphone App Provider Int13

Embedded Mobile AR Solution to be Available on Variety of Platforms

LOS ANGELES and PARIS (September 14, 2009) -- Total Immersion, a world leader in augmented reality, today announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution partnership with int13, a French software firm that specializes in next-gen smartphone applications.

Total Immersion and int13 will integrate their respective technologies to market embedded augmented reality applications through Total Immersion’s D’Fusion Mobile® platform. Compatible with the majority of next-generation mobile phones, the initial application will operate seamlessly on Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, with iPhone and Android support following thereafter. The application will be released early in Q4.

Total Immersion’s patented D’Fusion® augmented reality technology integrates real time interactive 3-D graphics into a live video stream.

The partnership between Total Immersion and int13 expands the D’Fusion platform to mobile devices. D’Fusion Mobile complements Total Immersion’s D’Fusion Professional, D’Fusion@Home and D’Fusion Web browser implementations.

“At int13, we recognize the value of augmented reality as an engaging new way to interact with consumers,” said Stéphane Cocquereaumont, Managing Director of int13. ”Our aim is to develop games and augmented reality applications that make the most of what smartphones have to offer. With this distribution partnership, we look to benefit from Total Immersion’s premier market position as the company brings our combined technology to a global audience.”

”This is a win-win for both companies, and for consumers,” said Bruno Uzzan, Total Immersion CEO. “int13 has developed one of the most dynamic augmented reality libraries for mobile phones. With this agreement, Total Immersion enters the booming smartphone application space, marketing a compelling augmented reality experience on mobile devices.”

About Total Immersion

Total Immersion is a global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D’Fusion™ technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. The company maintains a presence in Europe and the U.S., and supports a network of partners worldwide.

Total Immersion bring ‘space age’ marketing to the UK

The software company has been working with several big brand names since opening in the UK earlier this year unveiling its campaign to promote the launch of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The http://www.weareautobots.com experience used face-tracking software to superimpose Optimus Prime’s helmet on to user’s heads.

Dan Light, Head of Interactive at Picture Production Company, said: “We are always looking for new ways to engage with movie fans; however, augmented reality has exceeded all our expectations; it has allowed us to take fan interaction to a new level, creating an engaging movie marketing experience that has never been seen before.”

Total Immersion UK sales director, Myles Peyton, explains: “Augmented reality is really starting to take off in the UK and revolutionise the way that firms market themselves. As a marketing tool, augmented reality is extremely powerful, not only in terms of creating compelling new brand experiences, but also in terms of its undeniable ‘wow factor’,” he said.

“Although Total Immersion is still in its infancy in the UK, in France and the US, we are already working in a number of other different markets, from exhibitions and trade shows, to museums and tourist attractions,” he said. “We have also developed a number of applications for company presentations, as well as for retail, publishing and consumer products.”

About int13

int13 is a mobile game studio that creates original and innovative content for all mobile platforms. int13 develops its own cross-platform middleware and own mobile augmented reality technology to power its games.

Find also Why Int13 Got in Bed with Total Immersion at Games Alfresco

Serious Games For Interactive Geography On The iPhone

2009-09-13T17:25:00.009-03:00

Serious Games making geography really enjoyable

Via: Geosense - An Online World Geography Game

As anticipated on my post dated January 14, 2007 IPhone: A New Vehicle for Serious Games, there are a number of existing Serious Games that could be easily adapted to make use of the touch screen interface/input device: Geosense has become available on the iPhone as of August 29.

Find Geosense iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

Geosense is essentially an interactive geography test created using Ajax technology, that allows you to test your knowledge, alone or against another online player.

Geosense has been one of the top Google ranked geography games for over 5 years and is now available in a compact version for iPhone and iPod touch users.

First, choose which map you want to play: United States, Europe, World, and Advanced World. The game itself is all about location, location, location. It consists of a series of rounds, each of which involves clicking on the map where you think the given city is located. You receive points for speed and accuracy, although the latter is given more weight.

High scores for individuals are recorded along with country rankings. So who really knows their geography? Americans? Europeans? Asians? Geosense has players from over 70 countries competing for bragging rights.

If iPhone traffic warrants it, the plan is to set up a separate server. Players would have the choice to play exclusively with other iPhone (and iPod touch) users or with the general public (desktop browsers).

Here is what Geosense looks like on an iPhone or iPod Touch

NeuroSky Now Connecting Brains To Serious Games

2009-09-10T17:38:00.012-03:00

Serious Games with brain-control

Masamine Someha, an engineer at NeuroSky, demonstrates applications that use brain control. Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Via: San Francisco Chronicle - New Technology Closer To Harnessing Mind Power

Brain-control interface technology is in the midst of a big coming-out party this year as it reaches the mass market for the first time in the form of a handful of games and toys.

It also could be used to assist people with disabilities or test the efficacy of medical treatment and monitor patients.

San Jose's NeuroSky is leading the charge with a half-dozen products, while rival Emotiv of San Francisco plans to start selling a mind-control headset in time for the holidays.

The basic technology, which has been around for decades, involves reading a wide spectrum of brain waves and isolating patterns to understand moods and psychological states. From there, applications can be written to help understand the brain-wave profile and turn certain mental functions like heightened attention or meditation into catalysts for real-world actions.

"This is the first time the technology is really venturing out of the medical lab into the real world," said NeuroSky CEO Stanley Yang. "This is the first time people can have brain-control interface technology as a consumer product."

NeuroSky CEO Stanley Yang demonstrates Mattel's Mind Flex game, which uses the company's brain-control technology. Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Making Brain-Control Technology Accessible

In the past, researchers were able to get at the brain wave data only through complicated and bulky headsets with dozens of sensors that required gels to facilitate contact.

Companies like NeuroSky and Emotiv have been able to simplify the headset into a familiar form while whittling down the price. NeuroSky's MindSet sells for $199 while Emotiv's Epoc headset will sell for $299.

When combined with an open software development kit, the technology has the potential to spread quickly among outside developers who can build a new class of accessible brain-control apps.

As reported earlier this week by Serious Games Source, NeuroSky announced that its MindSet Development Tools SDK is now available as a free download from its NeuroSky Store.

Developers at NeuroSky released the software as a free download in response to requests from developers of serious game applications.

The Mindset Development Tools allow developers to create software that can be used with NeuroSky's MindSet hardware.

MindSet is a head-mounted device that enables users to control video game elements through a combination of brainwave activity and facial movements.

According to SSG, NeuroSky communications Manager Tansy Brook informed that they are currently working with a number of partners like the Serious Games Institute in the UK, who are sponsoring beneficial games applications, but decided to make the MTD free to expand the opportunities for both Corporate and Independent Developers.

Serious Gaming With AR In A Contact Lens

2009-09-10T16:58:00.008-03:00

Serious Games might use a contact lens platform

A new generation of contact lenses built with very small circuits and LEDs promises bionic eyesight. The technology is still in its early stages, but in recent trials, rabbits wore lenses containing metal circuit structures for 20 minutes at a time with no adverse effects.

Via: IEEE Spectrum: Bionics - Augmented Reality In A Contact Lens

Babak A. Parviz reported earlier this month that his team of scientists at the University of Washington have successfully built a human contact eye lens with a LED powered wirelessly with RF.

Photos: University of Washington

"A contact lens with simple built-in electronics is already within reach; in fact, my students and I are already producing such devices in small numbers in my laboratory at the University of Washington, in Seattle" says Parviz. "These lenses don’t give us the vision of an eagle or the benefit of running subtitles on our surroundings yet. But we have built a lens with one LED, which we’ve powered wirelessly with RF. What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology."

According to Parviz, these lenses don’t need to be very complex to be useful: with basic image processing and Internet access, a contact-lens display could unlock whole new worlds of visual information, unfettered by the constraints of a physical display.

Health Monitoring Apps

Besides visual enhancement, noninvasive monitoring of the wearer’s biomarkers and health indicators could be a huge future market.

Parviz and his team have built several simple sensors that can detect the concentration of a molecule, such as glucose. Sensors built onto lenses would let diabetic wearers keep tabs on blood-sugar levels without needing to prick a finger.

"The glucose detectors we’re evaluating now are a mere glimmer of what will be possible in the next 5 to 10 years. Contact lenses are worn daily by more than a hundred million people, and they are one of the only disposable, mass-market products that remain in contact, through fluids, with the interior of the body for an extended period of time. When you get a blood test, your doctor is probably measuring many of the same biomarkers that are found in the live cells on the surface of your eye—and in concentrations that correlate closely with the levels in your bloodstream. An appropriately configured contact lens could monitor cholesterol, sodium, and potassium levels, to name a few potential targets. Coupled with a wireless data transmitter, the lens could relay information to medics or nurses instantly, without needles or laboratory chemistry, and with a much lower chance of mix-ups."

The Promise

Babak A. Parviz states that the true promise of this research is not just the actual system they end up making, whether it’s a display, a biosensor, or both. He already sees a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today, with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions.