Mobile Interaction 2.0

In the past, mobile game developers have been handcuffed by a lack of manufacture support for advanced APIs used to access devices embedded in mobile phones. This meant GPS, internet connectivity and cameras had largely been off limits to developers.Fast forward to today. Mobile manufactures have begun to give developers the tools they need to utilize the aforementioned mobile features. The stage is set for a renaissance of mobile gaming.

One company taking advantage of these new opportunities is Superhappyfunfun with its latest offering 3D Tilt-a-World. The basic premise of the 3D Tilt-a-World is rooted in old-fashioned tilt maze games, where you physically tilt a game board at an angle to move a ball through a maze. By using recently implemented APIs to access camera data on mobile phones, Superhappyfunfun has faithfully recreated a classic.

Using the camera APIs, data streaming from the camera is processed and compared to an original image. Minute changes between the new data and the original image are then interpreted as changes in the phone’s angle. Developers can then use this information to manipulate the ball accordingly: if the images are significantly different the ball will increase speed in the direction of the tilt, if the images are similar the ball will continue merrily in whatever direction it was moving before. Superhappyfunfun has recreated the functionality of a gyroscope using just a mobile phone camera creating a whole new way of interacting with the phone using existing hardware components coupled with new software.

By taking this intuitive approach to game control instead of relying upon traditional key-mapped movement Superhappyfunfun has created an original innovative game that is much more memorable than standard the mobile game fair. They have also created an interesting technological show piece for the next generation of mobile games.

But don’t think that Superhappyfunfun is the only company experimenting with new methods of interaction. During this year’s World Cup, Siemens marketed c-lab’s Kick Real, a mobile game that allowed players to kick goals by pointing their phone’s camera at their feet to record a real kick. As early as last year, Georgia Tech announced it had created a series of games based on motion detection technology using camera phone APIs.

As more embedded device are opened to developers, new methods of interaction with mobile phones will be just around the corner.

John Boxall