What is the iBall?
The iBall is a new ubicomp prototype that seeks to combine the physical with the digital world through the use of low-cost sensors embedded in a ball and a wireless connection to a smartphone. Now users can play games with a ball as gamecontroller, whilst their phone keeps track of the scores and enforces the game rules.
This way, the iBall enables new social outdoor multiplayer games with a low threshold so anyone can play, anytime, anywhere. This is a big step from the contemporary trend of gaming on immobile consoles and pc's in living rooms where you only connect with other players through the internet.
The iBall is also very extendable. The sensors allow for dozens of different physical games which developers can distribute using the well-known application stores of the smartphones. We provide a programming interface to easily interpret, debug and use sensor data to create fun and engaging games.
The iBall is fun, social, physical, mobile, accessible and extendable gaming.
What's inside the iBall?
The iBall uses three different sensors:
- Accelerometer: how is the ball moving?
- Different activities: jerk, throw, still, shake
- Capacitive sensor: IF someone is holding the ball
- Fast, arbitrary person
- RFID reader + tags: WHO is holding the ball
- Slower, but user identification
Using these three sensors we can reliably check if the players follow the game rules and if a player scores or loses a point. The strong point here is that the ball can be thrown and that we can detect this using all three sensors. The accelerometer data will have a distinct footprint, the RFID-chip will register a new player upon arrival and the capacitive sensor can detect if the ball is being released and caught.
Our own programming interface for the iBall helps to interpret and use the sensor data so new activities can be recognized and new games are made possible. More advanced Bluetooth setups can be used to create networks of multiple balls or multiple smartphones. Other sensors like a GPS tracker can be added to the iBall to increase the possibilities.
What can we do with the iBall?
Because of the combination with the smartphone, there is virtually no limit to what you can do with the iBall.
The big power of the iBall is that you can be rough with it: throw it, shake it, drop it... it's all possible. We developed three demo applications that use these possibilities. The first is an adaptation of BopIt, called BallIt. The user is given auditory commands by the smartphone (shake it, throw it, stop it, jerk it) which he has to execute within a short time limit. The second game is the iBomb. Players have to throw the ball to each other until a timer expires. The last person holding the ball will explode and is removed from the game. The last application is a bit more serious: an iBall-controlled mp3 player. Using simple gestures a person can control the current song, playlist and play/pause. The extendibility of the iBall ensures that more applications and games are easily developed and made available to others.
The iBall's unique setup enables very physical multiplayer games that can be played in an outdoors setting by players of any age or gender. We hope to increase real-life interaction between players by encouraging them to go out and have a good time.
Impact on Ubiquitous Media Environments
Playing traditional computer games (at least up until the early twenty-first century) was largely a solitary affair. With the increased popularity of multiplayer games, the social aspect of gaming has received more attention, but still rather limited in comparison to real-life interactions. Through the use of ubiquitous technology, the gaming experience can be extended towards these real-life interactions, making games more fun and extending the multiplayer experience towards the physical world. Taking existing physical games and extending them into the digital world without compromising the existing physicality, makes them ambient by definition.
An important aspect of these ubiquitous games is that they provide more of a platform than a single game, which was the case with traditional (non -computer-based) games. The programmability of the digital platform(s), combined with the fact that the technology is truly embedded into everyday and well-known objects ensures that these games are easily picked up and that players will not easily tire from using them. After all, existing games are enhanced and extended while the physical interactions can be kept as before.
The proliferation of social networks has shown that there is a lot of interest in society to share information, to discuss points of view and for entertainment purposes (i.c. gaming). Unfortunately, current social networks increase the physical isolation from the rest of the world, by making the entire world available to the user from his/her home environment. Ubiquitous gaming stimulates real-life social contacts, and fosters an environment in which people can play and live together without being physically isolated. At the same time, the ubiquitous gaming experience will ensure that people are activated (in terms of physical activities), moving on from being the proverbial couch potato who is constantly checking his/her e-mail or updating their status on Facebook.
Whilst the digital divide will largely be bridged in the following years, one should ask the question whether it isn't time to close the physical and social gap left behind that clearly has come with increased digitization of society.