FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES

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2013-02-28T06:17:00.000-06:00

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Serious Games @ Calculation Nation

2009-10-22T13:37:00.006-05:00

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

Via: Mark Oehlert RT @iThinkMedia: [Blog] Trust Me: Math Can Be Fun w/Calculation Nation!

Calculation Nation is a free, easy to use, mathematics game site, offering Serious Games for most K-12 students. Calculation Nation offers students the opportunity to practice their mathematics skills individually or in a head-to-head format playing against other students. For parents and teachers, Calculation Nation offers suggestions for using Calculation Nation.

Calculation Nation™ uses the power of the Web to let students challenge opponents from anywhere in the world. At the same time, students are able to challenge themselves by investigating significant mathematical content and practicing fundamental skills. The element of competition adds an extra layer of excitement.

The National Council of Teacher’s of Mathematics (NCTM) hired Interactive Knowledge (IK) to design a system for middle school students to play math-related online games against live opponents. The site features five online games and a customized game room where thousands of students can challenge one another to test their math skills. Before going live, Calculation Nation was tested by hundreds of math teacher’s during NCTM’s annual conference held in April 2009.

The game Factor Dazzle, for example, is dazzle-icious! Find all the factors of a number to earn points. Then, choose a number for which your opponent must find the factors.

Factor Dazzle

In the game Slam Ball, the math concepts covered are symmetry, reflection, angles, and patterns but I wouldn't have guessed this when I started playing because it was so much fun and I wanted to win!

Slam BallHit tokens, collect points! Slam the ball into the sides of the game board, and use your knowledge of angles, symmetry, and reflections to choose the best path.

Another great feature of the site is the supporting material and information. As a parent or educator this site provides you with the math concepts each game addressed along with giving you hints and tips on pointing to these concepts when using the site as a teaching tool.

“The games on Calculation Nation™ provide an entertaining environment where students can explore rich mathematics,” said Jim Rubillo, Executive Director of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). “Through these games, students are exposed to the same mathematical topics that they see in class as well as those that are recommended in Curriculum Focal Points.”

Calculation Nation™ “Governance”

Calculation Nation™ is part of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Illuminations project, which offers Standards-based resources that improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for all students. Its materials illuminate the vision for school mathematics set forth in NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and Curriculum Focal Points.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is a public voice of mathematics education, providing vision, leadership and professional development to support teachers in ensuring equitable mathematics learning of the highest quality for all students.

Illuminations is also part of Thinkfinity.org, a comprehensive educational website funded by the Verizon Foundation to provide free educational resources to parents, teachers, and students. Thinkfinity.org is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation’s literacy, education and technology initiatives. The goal of Thinkfinity.org is to improve student achievement in traditional classroom settings and beyond by providing high-quality content and extensive professional development training.

#SeriousGames Will RT @google

2009-10-21T22:50:00.005-05:00

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

Via: Official Google Blog - RT @google: Tweets and Updates and Search

Google Blog posted a couple of hours ago:
10/21/2009 02:09:00 PM
"At Google, our goal is to create the most comprehensive, relevant and fast search in the world. In the past few years, an entirely new type of data has emerged — real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic."

"Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."

Last April, TechCrunch in a certain way anticipated this move, under the post Sources: Google In Talks To Acquire Twitter (Updated) , reporting rumors sourced from two separate people close to the negotiations: "Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter."

On the same post, Michael Arrington explores the reason why would Google want Twitter:

"We’ve been arguing for some time that Twitter’s real value is in search. It holds the keys to the best real time database and search engine on the Internet, and Google doesn’t even have a horse in the game."

In a prior post called It’s Time To Start Thinking Of Twitter As A Search Engine, Michael Arrington also wrote:

"More and more people are starting to use Twitter to talk about brands in real time as they interact with them. And those brands want to know all about it, whether to respond individually or simply gather the information to see what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong. And all of it is discoverable at search.twitter.com, the search engine that Twitter acquired last summer. People searching for news. Brands searching for feedback. That’s valuable stuff."

According to Michael, "the deal Google wants: a real time feed of Twitter updates to speed indexing."

"Without that feed Google must independently index each Twitter user periodically to look for updates. That means it’s dreadfully slow in grabbing all those Twitter posts. And it’s also very expensive from a computing resource standpoint. A real time feed would be of huge value to Google, and they’d be smart to nail down a long term deal sooner rather than later."

"A real time feed of Twitter posts would negate much of the head start Twitter has in the nascent real time search space. It would be a coup for Google to get the Twitter milk without having to buy the cow. The real question is, does Twitter fully understand the value of this feed?"

3D Browser Serious Games For Senior Executives

2009-10-21T18:17:00.007-05:00

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

Via: Visual Purple - 3D Browser-Based Virtual World, Winning in Wireless: Year 1

A few months back I highlighted Visual Purple’s launch of the downloadable Serious Game Winning in Wireless: Year 1, on my blog post Serious Games For Senior Executives.

They are now releasing a beta version of the 3D browser-based application and here is today's press release.

PRESS RELEASE

Visual Purple Launches Beta 3D Browser-Based Virtual World

San Luis Obispo, CA – October 21, 2009 – Visual Purple, LLC. a leading advanced simulation technology firm proudly announces the launch of its first ever beta version of a 3D browser-based virtual world Winning in Wireless: Year 1. Initially launched in April of this year as a downloadable application, Winning in Wireless: Year 1 is a pilot program that BTS and Visual Purple embarked on by taking an existing BTS Computer-based training (CBT) simulation and transferring the content into a realistic virtual world environment complete with Non-Player Characters (NPCs).

This entirely 3D based virtual world application allows for automatic updating. Advanced features that are offered include a custom plug-in for behind the firewall, ability to work off of an LMS, playability on private networks and a standalone mode.

In following the trend of virtual worlds moving into the web browser this is just one more distinct advantage that Visual Purple can offer its clients by allowing its customized and low cost virtual world simulations to be viewable in any browser. This is a big step in offering companies full deployment behind their firewall or through a firewall plus the ability to run a typical PC. This complete 3D browser based virtual world solution allows for anytime, anywhere play.

Winning in Wireless: Year 1, provides an interesting environment and experience for the single-player (can be designed in a multiplayer format) and, at the same time, will show how a single-player can be taught key skills and develop empathy for the roles and skills of others within an organization. Successfully navigating Winning in Wireless: Year 1, the player learns critical insight and knowledge about the role of the CEO and why a strong CEO is valuable and important; it will provide a refresher on developing forecasts and plans, decision making using an “iTool”, and alignment of the company’s vision, values and mission. Three months after its initial beta launch to the public with a downloadable version of Winning in Wireless: Year 1 is now an entirely browser-based 3D virtual world that runs directly from the browser.

About Visual Purple, LLC

Visual Purple is an industry leader in advanced simulations and technologies throughout the Virtual World, Embedded and Decision-Based training sectors. The Company’s core technologies allow for the rapid development of training objectives within its simulations through a collection of 3D elements, videos, and other high-fidelity content. Visual Purple training solutions allow for the most complex training missions in a manner that is cost and time efficient for the organization and enjoyable and effective for the trainee. Training packages are designed to accelerate the ability of corporate and government employees to master complicated material and increase performance in making appropriate work-related decisions. Visual Purple, LLC is certified on the Central Contractor Registration database as a Women-Owned Small Business.

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Serious Games Presentation @ Barcamp Derry

2009-10-21T13:44:00.010-05:00

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. You can find them below, right after "About James Burke" summary.

James Burke In His Own Words

James Burke is currently a PhD student at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, investigating the potential benefits video game design and novel technology can bring to stroke rehabilitation. Video games, music and geeky technology are his main passions in life, as well as a love for anything that adds a bit of fun and enjoyment to life.

He has programming experience in the realms of C#, Microsoft XNA, C++, Java, PHP, Javascript and HTML. In addition to these languages he is never to shy away from learning new things.

You can find me him various social media sites such as Facebook, Last.fm, LinkedIn and Twitter, so its not exactly difficult to stalk him if that's your game. If you’re interested in his academic achievements, you can find a list of his publications here or get in contact via his email address - james [at] burkazoid [dot] com.

Side A – A Brief History of Video Games

Side B – Serious Games & My Work at UUC

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Serious Games New Book By Nicola Whitton

2009-10-19T23:37:00.003-05:00

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.

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Serious Games As Immersive Internet

2009-10-17T21:31:00.007-05:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Via: LinkedIn Group - NORTEL's Web.Alive Developers and Users

Immersive Internet Overview PPT Presentation Excerpts

Immersive Internet is a collection of emerging technologies - Virtual Worlds and Campuses, immersive learning simulations, Serious Games, 3 D business applications - combined with a Social Culture of IMs, twitter, and blogs that deeply engage the user, providing experiences that people feel are real.

The expected results would be new dimensions in engagement that would lead to increased workforce collaboration and stakeholders, retention.

Immersive Internet is a nascent technology – projected to be mainstream in 5 years.

Major Drivers (according to the presentation):

- Kids playing multiplayer videogames and engaging in social networking – are tomorrow’s business leaders, partners, employees, decision makers . They will expect this technology.

- Pressure on corporate costs require different ways of doing business – travel expense hit hard. Companies are becoming Carbon Aware!

- Large technology companies are getting involved: Accenture: 2nd life for recruiting, ROI in 5 or 6 world events; Microsoft: ESP training simulation; IBM: University Collaboration and 2nd life; Sun: Wonderland Open Source; Nortel: Web.alive.

Consumer Trends

Immersive Internet can also help you and consumers connect in an immersive shopping experience., facilitated by:

-Increasing consumer consumption of product information online versus in-store.

- Increasing desire for continual touch points with brands online (e.g. expect more than just a simple website today).

- Increasing expectation of after purchase support (e.g. Apple Geniuses).

Find more here: Immersive Internet PowerPoint Presentation

Accenture's Serious Games

2009-10-17T10:17:00.010-05:00

Accenture’s Forgery Game

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Via: Accenture - Interactive Wall Technology: Seeing the Big Picture
Inspired by: Interactive Multimedia Technology

Accenture’s Interactive Wall is a scalable in size, networked, high resolution, touch screen interface. It gives users the "big picture," whether in a strategic decision-making context or a retail and advertising environment.

Strategic Decision Interface

The Interactive Wall has a role to play in strategic decision-making, as a command or nerve center for controlling operations. The "big picture" view draws decision-makers together, whether in relaxed debate around the screen in an office or tuning in through wireless connections via locations in the far corners of the globe. The Interactive Wall fosters collaborative practices, allowing data to be manipulated and quickly assimilated by broad groups of people in diverse locations.

By mimicking the Web in its ability to track usage patterns and user preferences, the Interactive Wall offers personalized, targeted, information while integrating with other networked or mobile devices to create innovative solutions for users and organizations alike.

The Interactive Wall's super-sized, physical screen combines with Accenture's groundbreaking patent-pending software to deliver greater insight, faster.

Whether applied to advice consumers about products and services or employed to act as a nerve center for command and control operations, the interactive wall is more than just a pretty face.

Read about the technology behind the Interactive Wall and how industries can realize benefits from its massive scale and versatility.

Seeing the "Big Picture": Technical Talking

Developed by Accenture Technology Labs, the Interactive Wall is hardware agnostic and massively scalable in size as well as being low maintenance.

Different types and sizes of screens from a variety of vendors can be used. The hardware that powers the software player for the interactive wall can be any type of Microsoft or Intel-based server.

High-end graphics cards are required to drive displays, along with high-resolution cameras and off-the-shelf software to provide the touch capabilities.

The touch screen can be rugged enough for outdoor use or rendered child-proof for use inside. Accenture has developed patent-pending software that developers can use to build custom applications for the Interactive Wall.

Recent Application
Accenture’s Interactive Wall for the Louvre Exhibit at the High Museum

Louvre Atlanta used Accenture’s Interactive Technology to explore the changing nature of masterpieces, with a 7-by-10-foot touch screen that enhances user experience at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece” exhibition.

The wall enables visitors to select their favorite “masterpieces” from the works on show—and then compare their selections with those made by other visitors as well as curators from the Louvre and High.

Visitors vote for their favorite art with interactive touch screen

Based on the visitor’s preferences, the wall offers recommendations on pieces that may interest them from the High’s permanent collection.

Interactive Wall helps to educate visitors about art

In this way, Accenture harnesses the power of technology innovation not only to enhance the visitor’s experience but also to provide a way to capture and manipulate information that could help museum curators and art critics understand viewers' trends.

Forgery Game (find image at the top of this post)

Visitors will also get a chance to experience another technology innovation from Accenture: The Forgery Game is a new, interactive game that presents the visitor with a mystery to solve. The game not only educates, but provides a fun, engaging experience as players investigate a possible forgery by comparing two pieces of sculpture linked to ancient Egypt.

The game can be played at four 32-inch individual touch screens kiosks along-side the works of art in the exhibition. Visitor can view and analyze the same data collected by the museum experts and arrive at their own conclusions.

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Serious Games Transforming Learning Ecosystem

2009-10-15T23:32:00.012-05:00

Serious Games changing Singapore's learnscape

PRESS RELEASE

Transforming the Learning Ecosystem through Media - MDA Sets Aside S$6 million to Champion the Use of Games for Learning

Memorizing the important parts of the periodic table of elements in chemistry may soon become child's play for students with the roll-out of more games titles to aid education and learning.

As part of efforts to champion the use of media in work, learn and play, the Media Development Authority (MDA)'s new initiative - Media in Learning - will support the development and deployment of up to 24 game titles over the next three years to aid effective learning in not only traditional school-based education, but also other domains such as defence and healthcare.

At least S$6m will be set aside for this initiative, which includes the setting up of a resource centre to facilitate the growth of this niche sector. To be ready mid next year, the resource centre will guide the development and building of games titles by providing developers with access to toolkits, platforms and facilities to accelerate the project development efforts. The centre will also partner with local and international organisations to conduct courses to increase the awareness and competencies in the Media in Learning Space.

"The Media in Learning initiative represents a paradigm shift in the way we promote the media. Beyond media for entertainment purposes, we are leveraging on media being a powerful tool to be pushed out in the learning and education sector. Through this initiative, not only would we see the pervasive use of media extensively, it will help to groom the publishing industry further. We hope to capture a significant slice of this market for Made-with-Singapore content," says Dr Christopher Chia, Chief Executive Officer of MDA.

The move to promote the use of games in the learning sphere comes against the backdrop of growth in the overall games industry. A study by PricewaterhouseCooper* shows that by 2011, the global games sector is expected to grow to $48.9 billion with a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% during the last five year period. Conservative estimates show that the market for "serious games" is about $9 billion.

Another change driven by the Media in Learning initiative is in the transformation of the business model to a large-scale distribution model, which will enable Singapore made learning games to reach a global audience in the most effective way. Currently, the traditional model for development of serious games is a work-for-hire model, with the contents highly customised for and owned by a single client.

With this initiative, MDA will collaborate with publishers to co-invest in promising projects which can be "re-skinned" and re-developed into generic commercial off-the-shelf titles of a similar nature for different clients and purposes. A Call for Proposals (CFP) will be launched on 23 October together with other Future-of-Media CFPs. More details will be available on http://www.idm.sg/ then.

Industry players have applauded the initiative. "The Media in Learning initiative is a very timely move. ST Electronics (Training & Simulation Systems) has been actively involved in the Simulation and Education space for over three decades. We harness the benefits from the use of new interactive & digital media, such as simulation, games and virtual world in training, teaching and learning; and have seen very positive and significant outcomes for our learners," says Mr Eric Chan, Senior Vice President from ST Electronics (Training & Simulation Systems) Pte Ltd.

Local games company Playware is glad to see the games ecosystem taking new shape as it moves into the education sector. "Education is a multiple trillion dollar industry worldwide and is many times larger than the entertainment industry and given the goodwill enjoyed by Singaporean education, Singapore is singularly well-equipped geographically, culturally and economically to not only do well in this space but to emerge as a world leader," says Mr Siddarth Jain, co-founder of Playware.

For Games Exchange Alliance, it is confident that such initiative will be beneficial to the growth of the games industry. "The GXA is looking forward to collaborating with the MDA to cultivate the industry awareness of Serious Games. While the initiative is able to accelerate the process of adoption, the education of the end-user (B2B) customer is needed. Most brick and mortar companies are unaware of the potential savings in communication, training and education. Real world examples need to be demonstrated and the value proposition to potential buyers explained," says Mr Aroon, co-founder of GXA.

* Figures are from PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report 2007.

About MDA

Formed in 2003, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) plays a vital role in transforming Singapore into a Global Media City and positioning it at the forefront of the digital media age. MDA spearheads initiatives that promote developments in film, video, television, radio, publishing, music, games, animation, media services and Interactive Digital Media. At the same time, in ensuring clear and consistent regulatory policies and guidelines, MDA helps to foster a pro-business environment for industry players and increase media choices for consumers. For more information, visit http://www.mda.gov.sg/ and http://www.smf.sg/.

QUOTES FROM OTHER INDUSTRY PLAYERS

“New Media is a trend that can be harnessed for positive learning outcomes. MDA's Media-in-Learning initiative can help schools to consider new ways to engage students through pedagogically sound methods. For RI, it would be interesting to consider if games can be developed for imparting and honing 21st century skills such as leadership,” says Lim Lai Cheng, Principal of Raffles Institution.

####

"It is difficult to instill passion into learning. However, good game designers are trained to bring out the passion in gamers. The same approach may be used in support of learning. IAH welcomes Game-In-Learning initiative by MDA and believe in its ability to make a difference by instilling passion in learning while making it fun and exciting,” says Mr Roderick Chia, Vice-President of Strategic Projects at Infocomm Asia Holdings Games.

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Serious Games, Serious Gamers & Climate Change

2009-10-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

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."

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BLOG ACTION DAY: Climate Change Serious Games

2009-10-14T20:34:00.002-05:00

Today, October 15, we celebrate Blog Action Day 2009, when the blogosphere will have a unique opportunity to mobilize around the theme of Climate Change.

Below are some prominent examples of Climate Change Serious Games, as a contribution to this annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

The issues particular to a Climate Change serious game are usually global warming related. Commonly included are CO2 emissions and the emission of other greenhouse gases, the melting of the polar ice caps, global sea-level rise, natural disasters and massive changes to lifestyles caused by global warming.

The primary objective, universal to climate change Serious Games, is to develop the player's familiarity and knowledge on the issue of global warming.
Another objective is to make the player aware of the challenges and obstacles that are faced when addressing global warming.

Occasionally, the games encourage players to develop ideas and solutions to global warming, e.g. World Without Oil.

Logicity Game

LogiCity is a Serious Game produced by Logicom and The National Energy Foundation, an independent educational charity, based at Milton Keynes in the UK, that works to help people and businesses combat climate change by reducing their carbon emissions.

LogiCity is a game set in a 3D virtual city where players are set the task of reducing the carbon footprint of an average resident. As players work their way through the game they will pick up information about Climate Change, and some of the main ways in which everyone is currently contributing to the emissions of the main greenhouse gas (CO2) that causes Climate Change.

It places individuals in a virtual environment and lets them experiment and experience the potential effect that individual actions can have on the planet before it's too late. Users can travel to the future to see the direct results of their actions in real time by quickly fast forwarding to the year 2066.

PREVIOUS POSTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE GAMES:

Serious Games For Climate Change - Keep Cool and Winds of Change Games

Global Warming Interactive - A Serious Game Prototype – CO2FX Game

Serious Games To Check Out Your Carbon Footprint - V GAS Games

Serious Games Beyond IPCC: Adventure Ecology - Adventure Ecology Game

Serious Games: You As The President of European Nations – BBC’S Climate Challenge Game

Serious Games Rehearsing The Future – Stop Disasters Game

Serious Games Review: Planet Green – Planet Green Game

Geoterra: Serious Games For GE's Ecomagination – Geoterra Game

Serious Games Increasing Public Awareness About Energy Usage – ElectroCity Game

Serious Games To Decide On Environmental Policy For 21st Century - Operation: Climate Control Game (OCCG)

Serious Games Illustrate The Impact Of Lifestyles On The Earth – Consumer Consequences Game

Serious Games Try To Illustrate Complexities Of Energy Supply – Energyville Game

Serious Games Shaping Cultures And The Environment - SimCity Societies Game

Serious Games Challenging Teenagers To Save The Planet – PowerUp Game

SOS 21: Serious Gaming In A Virtual World To Save The Real One – SOS21 Game

Environmentally Themed Serious Games via Xbox Live - City Rain Game, ECOThink Game, Future Flow, Clean Up Game, Image Earth Game, Megalopolis Game

Serious Games For Home Energy Management – SHASPA

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Serious Games For Architecturally Accurate Environments

2009-10-13T09:15:00.000-05:00

Via: MellaniuM - Titanic Leap For Virtual Worlds - MellaniuM Infohub on NORTEL's web.alive

NORTEL's web.alive is now hosting a MellaniuM environment which not only contains models with well over one million polygons but also supports anti-aliasing for superbly rendered immersive quality and can accommodate 300 concurrent avatars.

With just one click on http://ec3v3.projectchainsaw.com/ you can be walking around this trial domed environment.

There have been innumerable announcements about virtual worlds to support the meshes import, which allows for development of truly realistic and architecturally accurate environments.

NORTEL's web.alive is a web-browser embedded client which is based on the UNREAL 2.5 platform and is capable of dealing with models generated with static meshes in millions of polygons. So the ultimate question to be addressed now is not whether a virtual world platform can import meshes but if it is capable of dealing with large numbers of high polygon models needed to create a rich, detailed space.

The MellaniuM Infohub environment now available contains almost 2 million polygons and the Titanic model (especially when viewed with the anti-aliasing feature) can be examined by zooming using the mouse wheel in the finest of details.

As you may well imagine in a not-so-distant future MellaniuM is poised to add more domes containing various areas of interest to architects, engineers and museum curators with models of a most detailed nature.

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Enterprise VWs: Serious Games To The Value Of $10 bi

2009-10-09T18:10:00.005-05:00

Via: GigaOM Pro - Report: Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise Market

Serious Games, Serious Business

Report Summary: Enterprise 3-D virtual world applications have proliferated during the past several years. What began as fun and games is becoming a serious business with a lot of upside.

A host of new, innovative 3-D virtual world applications have been introduced to the marketplace targeting the enterprise. Some of these applications have been created by established technology companies, such as IBM, Sun Microsystems and Nortel, while others are being developed by emerging players, such as Forterra Systems, ProtonMedia, Qwaq and Unisfair.

This report profiles 14 key players and provides market forecasts for enterprise deployments of virtual world applications over the next decade.

Here is a Taste of It

3-D Virtual World applications for enterprise use will grow into an industry earning $8 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue by 2014, according to the new report from GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

Today, Virtual Worlds are primarily associated with role-playing games and avatar-based chat, but analysts Kris Tuttle and Steve Waite say they will gain widespread corporate adoption as a platform for long-distance conferencing and training, job fairs, and other business uses in the years ahead.

Companies are likely to embrace virtual worlds for such applications first, the authors argue, because they offer a cost-effective, productivity-boosting (not to mention “green”) alternative to air travel.

After reaching a critical mass in the next 12-24 months and doubling year over year, the industry will soon be earning billions of dollars in annual revenue. (Anticipating skeptics, the authors note that the existing market for online enterprise training and collaboration already earns that much just in direct costs alone.)

As for the major players in this burgeoning space? Tuttle and Waite name IBM and Cisco, two companies that have been developing virtual world/online collaboration solutions for years, with Adobe, Citrix, Oracle, and Dassault Systems as other contenders to watch closely.

They also note that the market’s growth will provoke fierce competition among the many enterprise virtual world solutions already out there — OLIVE, Second Life, OpenSimulator, Project Wonderland, to name just a few — leading to a shakeout in the industry. After this tumult, a few dominant behemoths and successful niche players will emerge, though it’s still unclear if the winners are already on the market, or still in development.

In any case, the report recommends that companies large and small should immediately start pilot programs based around virtual worlds. “Because the technology is delivering cost savings and improved operations,” they argue, “the time to begin is now.”

Tuttle and Waite’s full report, Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise Market, is now available on GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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Digitell’s Serious Games: The Future Of Conferencing

2009-10-07T22:05:00.003-05:00

Via: Digitell, Inc. – Serious Games Broadcasting Your General Session Into A Virtual Environment

Digitell is a multimedia company specializing in servicing the association market with digital services.

Digitell offers a suite of digital solutions like content capture, abstract management, digital directories, automated evaluations and accreditation, and 3D virtual business applications on gaming software.
Digitell is currently focusing its efforts on meetings and conference solutions and runs 2 public events a month where guest speakers are invited to come and talk about what they do and how they see their technology fitting into these. It is all run at Digitell’s virtual auditorium - VirtualU.

About VirtualU

VirtualU provides an immersive, interactive, 3-Dimensional experience that replicates its real-life counterpart in a realistic online environment.

If you are currently running webinars, tele-seminars, or live educational sessions, VirtualU can easily transition your event into Digitell’s virtual platform allowing you to convey your message in a highly-effective format while increasing your ability to interact with attendees through text chat, voice over IP or integrated social media.

Running a virtual event is a way to broaden your reach, spread your message and create excitement surrounding your association or company.

Digitell is an industry-leading company offering a turn-key package for ease-of-entry into using virtual technology. Whether you know absolutely nothing about virtual worlds or are a seasoned user, Digitell will handle everything you need, from branded registration pages to customer support and training.

Digitell offers both a 2D and 3D experience, so your education and message can be watched by anyone with Internet access, PC or Mac.
Mac users and those not wishing to create an avatar can view the presentations in a 2D environment; PC users can enter the 3D world for a totally immersive experience. All participants utilize the same chat screen, Q&A, Polling and downloading materials.

If you need to reach out to international markets, Digitell translates your Event into multiple languages for global outreach.

VirtualU Promotional Video

Hybrid Meetings & Events

A lot of time, thought, and money goes into the planning of your general session. It’s the highlight of your annual meeting. You choose topics and speakers that will captivate and excite those in attendance, but your membership is much larger and broader than just those who are able to attend your meeting.

Digitell will staff your meeting with the professional technicians and equipment needed to capture your event and stream it in real time into the VirtualU platform. Attendees will be able to interact with each other in the VirtualU environment through text chat and integrated social media, and they will also be able to communicate with live attendees through built-in micro-blogging technologies.

Live attendees will also be able to ask questions of presenters through VirtualU’s built-in Twitter ports, if they choose to not step up to the microphone.

VirtualU’s hybrid events combine the excitement and intimacy of a live event with the convenience of the Internet to create a unique experience that can extend your reach to the world.

VirtualU Hybrid Meeting model combines live on-site education and virtual technology

Technorati Tags:serious games seriousgames future-making serious games virtual worlds

Microsoft's Multi-Touch Mouse Becomes a Serious Game

2009-10-06T19:03:00.000-05:00

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.

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World Community Grid: Serious Games For Your PC To Play

2009-10-06T18:04:00.002-05:00

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.

Technorati Tags:activism games serious games seriousgames future-making serious games

Serious Games as Mobile Learning At School

2009-10-06T12:21:00.008-05:00

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

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Blog Action Day: Climate Change Serious Games

2009-10-05T18:17:00.002-05:00

In anticipation of the upcoming Blog Action Day 2009, to be held on October 15, when the blogosphere will have a unique opportunity to mobilize around the theme of Climate Change, here are some prominent examples of Serious Games that focus on the subject.

The issues particular to a Climate Change serious game are usually global warming related. Commonly included are CO2 emissions and the emission of other greenhouse gases, the melting of the polar ice caps, global sea-level rise, natural disasters and massive changes to lifestyles caused by global warming.

The primary objective, universal to climate change Serious Games, is to develop the player's familiarity and knowledge on the issue of global warming.
Another objective is to make the player aware of the challenges and obstacles that are faced when addressing global warming.

Occasionally, the games encourage players to develop ideas and solutions to global warming, e.g. World Without Oil.

Logicity Game

Serious Games Reinventing Community News

2009-10-05T11:46:00.003-05:00

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.

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Serious Games Institute Could Help Recession Hit Industries

2009-10-04T20:53:00.011-05:00

Via: Birmingham Post - Coventry-based Serious Games Institute could help firms through the recession

Built on the site of a former Rolls-Royce factory in Coventry, the Serious Games Institute is carrying out pioneering work which could help recession-hit industries find new ways to reach customers. Anna Blackaby immerses herself in Serious Games to understand how they can help give the West Midland economy a shot in the arm. Here are the extracts:

"The West Midlands is carving out a niche for itself as a hub for research and development into the area of Serious Games. The term covers uses as diverse as conferencing, training Highways Agency staff on how to deal with potholes on a busy motorway or simulating life in prison to help youngsters at risk of offending understand the consequences of their behaviour."

"The Serious Games Institute, based at Coventry University’s Technology Park, combines high level applied academic research with incubation space where spin-off companies and start-ups can receive the physical, and virtual, support they need to gain a toehold in this emerging market."

"It’s perhaps symbolic that the site of the technology park is built on a former Rolls-Royce engine factory – an example of how the region’s tradition of innovation in manufacturing is finding a new lease of life in the gaming sector."

"Serious Games Institute director David Wortley believes the Serious Games industry can have a powerful regenerative effect on Coventry and the wider region. And not just on the digital-focused firms resident at the institute who are at the forefront of developing the new technology but also on more traditional manufacturers and retailers who could tap into new ways of interacting with customers from all over the world."

David describes how Serious Games are opening up new possibilities for companies selling their products online:

"Where we will start to move towards is how we use the tools that we are involved in to give more traditional industries some competitive advantage,” he said.

“For example, one of the projects which we have got a funding bid in for is the next generation of electronic commerce. Currently e-commerce is what I call ‘man shopping’. It’s not a pleasurable experience – the online technology has been developed to help you place your order and the intelligence is built around remembering what it is you like to buy."

“There is a different kind of shopping which has not really been properly developed – I call it ‘experiential shopping’. “That hasn’t been a possibility until now so we are a complete thought leader in the area of virtual commerce.”

One example of this is a virtual farmers market, developed by a Serious Games Institute virtual tenant, which allows the shopper to wander around various stands and view a 90-second clip of the farm owner talking about the produce for sale.

As well as retail, manufacturing firms could also gain a lot by looking into Serious Games and how they can help them interact with customers and showcase their products, according to Mr Wortley.

“When you look at the more traditional industries, Serious Games can be used by manufacturers to show designs in 3D and clients can have a look at their technology in the virtual world,” he added.

“These are the things that will give traditional industries competitive advantage.”

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Serious Gaming With AR As A Sales Tool

2009-10-03T20:33:00.002-05:00

Via: doughyper

Augmented Reality at Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting 2009

Technorati Tags: seriousgames augmented reality games serious games future-making serious games

Serious Games Making National Parks Sustainable

2009-10-03T15:42:00.004-05:00

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

Technorati Tags:serious games seriousgames future-making serious games ecology games

Serious Games Add AR Overlay On The iPhone

2009-10-02T18:45:00.008-05:00

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.

Technorati Tags: seriousgames augmented reality games serious games future-making serious games

Serious Games For 3D Military Training

2009-10-02T15:29:00.005-05:00

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.

Technorati Tags:serious games seriousgames future-making serious games education games

Serious Gaming With Social Networking Future

2009-10-01T22:11:00.003-05:00

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.

Technorati Tags: seriousgames augmented reality games serious games future-making serious games