Mobile Pocket Projectors

This describes a mobile Pocket Projector, created by the head of the MIT Media Lab, Ramesh Raskar. I'm adding this here because it would be useful for a mobile Landmarks game.  Once the student/gamer finds the right location, several fake RFID tags could be posted in different directions, seen from the same spot or street intersection.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/pocket.html

This could be used to register whether the student/gamer had arrived at the right spot to see the landmark or view.  Also, they should take a picture of what they see and the software should be able to compare whether it's the same view, within a certain amount of leeway ("tolerance").  Using RFID tags posted on lampoles, etc. would pin down someone's success or failure quicker, because image recognition by computer software is still tricky.

Mobile game sketch and long paper - my project

Click on game sketch to enlarge it. Summary is written below.

Game
1. Shown picture: "Where is this landmark?"
2. You have 3 ways to find the landmark:

• your memory of the city
• a math problem (adapted to your level)
• a street map (like Google maps or Mapquest)

3. Orientation and location: Given a starting place, and facing a certain direction.

4. Follow the pathway virtually within a 3D scene (Google Earth), a zooming panorama (GigaPan), a flat or topological map, or actually in the physical world.

5. The player draws in straight lines, step by step (node by node) until reaching the goal...using a cube interface.

6. Each new segment automatically begins at the point the last one stopped.

QR code
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code 

7. See if goal you reached is correct, by pointing your smartphone towards a QR code or RFID.  There will be a few fake ones to mislead you!
8. Picking landmarks: Don't make it easy. Even if someone knows the city. their memory won't be enough:

• optical illusions where a road disappears (what's behind the bend?)
• within a different era (bridges torn down)
• different size (tiny gargoyles)
• hidden views (behind trees, smoke, darkness....) that need tools to view them.
• unexpected scale or perspective
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This grew out of my 1993 Masters' thesis,
           http://slmasters.biz/Masters'%20Thesis,%201993%20(OCR).pdf

about a set of games, a cognitive tutor that connects them, and a 2d/3d interface for authoring, which I call Funfunctions.  It's about a 4 MB download.

Appearance of One Game I'd Like to Create - Landmarks

This is a short game I began to create in VB that I'd like help finishing:

http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/~smasters/Game.htm

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Also, pick landmarks that can be optical illusions with other landmarks, such as roads that appear to go one way but go another, or are hidden until you follow the directions!   Any volunteers?