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Parsing Reality: Shaping Play with Connected Stuff, SXSW 2013

Mon, Aug 13, 2012

RomoDoodleDemo from Romotive on Vimeo.

We’ve submitted a panel proposal for SXSW 2013 on a super interesting topic, “Parsing Reality: Shaping Play with Connected Stuff.” The voting opened today so please do vote – go here to vote, if you would like to see us at SXSW 2013!

How clouds & atoms are coming together to make everyday things, and our actual lives, a platform for games.

The hardware startup community is on fire with kickstarter and a vibrant meetup community energizing the space. Smartphones opened the door for playful social, local experiences based on our actual lives. Now we are seeing connected stuff – hardware, cloud-connected devices, and robots bringing new forms of personal awareness into the mix. This panel will be a chance to hear from a group of people who are already deep into transforming this opportunity space into new genre of playful experiences.

The panel will be myself, Dave Bisceglia, co-founder of the mobile gaming company, The Tap Lab, and Phu Nguyen, who leads Romotive’s software team to create new experiences with robots that harness the power and extensibility of the smart phone, and Adam Wilson, co-founder and chief software architect, Orbotix – the makers of Sphero, the world’s first robotic ball gaming system.

Our panel will look at how our actual lives and everyday stuff are becoming the most interesting platform for games.  We’ll discuss, from different perspectives, the ways games are shaping our experience of a new blended digital subjective/object space. Portables, wearables, and connected stuff mean bits and networks are everywhere we go, giving us the possibility of a new deep awareness of our personal state. As Will Wright says, “we are at a turning point for mobile gaming, a shift for games from being about simulating reality to being about parsing reality.”  Sensors everywhere and advances like bluetooth smart are turning everyday objects into an opportunity for play. The future of our playful sociality is “toys” that are a customization of our interactions with the actual world and everyday life. We will explore how games, robots, and playful experiences are the key to making our new habitat of digital/physical complexity more accessible and fun.

Questions we’ll discuss will include:

What are the specific experiences of panel members in rising to this challenge?

The iphone and ipad are becoming the narrative and play control center for connected stuff. Desktop, files, folders, trashcans and lists were key metaphors that made the PC the master control center for sharing of information. What are the new metaphors for a Game OS for everyday life and connected stuff?

How is next generation connectivity like bluetooth smart going to change our attitudes to the playful potentials of toys and physical stuff? We’ll show some examples of what’s out there today and what’s coming soon.

What can simulation games teach us about the challenges of parsing reality and making it more playful and interesting? We’ll explore how this new paradigm has transformed game design while introducing new game mechanics along with interesting technical challenges.

What are the challenges for startups wanting to make apps / products for a connected playful digital/physical world? Our panelists have all experienced this first-hand and will share their stories as well as answer questions from the crowd.

categories: Ambient Devices, Ambient Displays, Ambient Findability, Augmented Data, Augmented Reality, Big Data, data science, internet of things, ipad, iphone, Linked Data, Mixed Reality, mobile augmented reality, mobile meets social, Mobile Reality, New Interfaces
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