If you haven’t seen it already here’s an example of Nintendo’s Wii controller in action. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was bound to be a flagship project, and they seem to have picked the perfect example of what Nintendo’s new control system will be capable of. Can’t wait to get playing.
Bit of a techie one, but ’tis still well important. It’s announced finally that Flash Player 8 is now able to handle upto “32 simultaneous sound channels” instead of the previous maximum, 8.
However, use sparingly as, “This limitation is by design.” since Flash Player is run off the CPU and not DirectX. So making that multitrack mixing device you’ve always planned in Flash is still gunna chug!
Ollie recently showed me these video stings (opens in new window) for MTV’s new mobile phone channel. Nice pieces of work all by themselves, they also suggest the idea of using the phone as a window through to another dimension.
We were recently discussing this very idea with a couple of SubSub’s mobile developers.  The ability to use your Camera as an interactive window, using basic video tracking software to evaluate basic landscapes.
The guys at the Interactive Institute (actually, it’s one of the girls) have already been playing with the idea. Can’t find a direct link to the project, but if you’re interested you can read a whole lot more about it in Anders’ Thesis (pdf). The project, ‘Ghost Catcher’ tracks the devices movement to super impose ghosts onto the live video footage. Their success came from using a modified mobile device, with movement being tracked from motion and GPS devices… definitely not your bog standard Nokia.
But as technology quickly progresses, and more devices including motion detection as a standard interface, I can’t see it being too long until we could be trampling through our own virtual landscape’s, crushing everything in our path.
Saw this little beauty - which was run at ComeOutAndPlay - and it made me laugh. Not a new idea, pong must be one of most ‘adapted’ games (e.g. big, small), but never has it been done with quite such silly hats.
The game relies on the players to hear the ball, then run to position to hit back. More explanation can be seen at www.sonicbodypong.com
Last night was Bristol’s first official Dorkbot evening. The event - dubbed as “people doing strange things with electricity” - was a relaxed affair of drinks and a few people showing off their gadgets.
It’s purpose was get an idea of interest and gather ideas for future events. This seemed to go well with the next few months already booked in.
We’re looking forward to future events where we can expect more projects and more conversation. Although if they just bring back the remote control car covered in Play-doh I’ll be happy.
Future events will be advertised on http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotbristol/
Submerge and a number of other Bristol’s creative technologists are going to meet up next Tuesday to discuss how we get ourselves our very own festival of digital ‘real world’ gaming. Focusing on City Wide Gaming (CWG’s), where the basic premise is running around the city - usually carrying some kind of digital device, but not always - we’ll be attempting to put together a realistic plan to set up a one day event of general digital antics.
Bristol’s home to so many digital researchers and companies, while it also supports the UK’s largest open wi-fi coverage. So why let the Valley & New York have all the fun?
More news after the event.
