The mobile phone is used as an interface between the physical world and the mechanics of computer games running on the device.The scenarios are developed considering the potential of mobile phones to activate social networks.Below are five examples of using mobile phone features and sensors in games developed for mobile devices. Each feature is used to trigger corresponding in-game-events. All scenarios are based on existing game titles.
Via GPS the user is able to determine the current position. This information can be used in a mashup which combines the cartographic data of the user and location information like crime statistics. Various crime mapping applications can be found for different towns worldwide.
Crime statistics of the user’s position are attached to the crime rate in the game. The user has to use either in-game features to fight the crime or change the geographical position.
This scenario is still a work in progress. You can see a prototype here soon…
For the following scenarios the build in digital camera of the mobile phone is used as a sensor for performing various computer vision techniques. For “Age Of Empires 3” the RGB values of images are used to modify gaming data. For example the red value is used to trigger attack commands in combat situations.
Via blob detection specific shapes can be assigned to geometries in puzzle games like Tetris. The shapes can be everything from small objects to bigger architecture.