NTT DoCoMo adds motion-sensitive gaming to cellphones

According to Infoworld, NTT DoCoMo will begin selling in May three cellphones that offer motion-sensitive gaming like that possible with Nintendo's Wii games console.

PIcture left from Joystiq via digg.

"In a boxing game users can throw punches or duck, and their movements are picked up by the phone's camera. In another game, the phone can be tilted in different directions to guide an on-screen ball through a maze.

... To be sure, the cellphones aren't nearly as reactive as the Wii console but they are likely to become more so as technology improves."

MobileDog

Tamagotchi for mobile phones, including location base and interaction between users!

MobileDog, a project by Juliana Chan, allows you to own and interact with a dog from your mobile phone. Sending sms messaging will allow you to feed, train, and play with your dog. And your dog will send messages telling you how it's feeling. A mobiledog can also interact with other mobiledogs. You send the word 'play' to play with your dog, 'feed' to select which kind of food will make the dog happy, 'train' to train your dog. etc. The system will send you reminders of the dog status and give you hints of what you should do at each stage.

Camera Phone Darts Game

GoSub, makers of various cellphone games, have announced that they're currently developing "Camera Phone Darts," a motion-sensing-enhanced game set to launch in October.

"The game will drop you into a virtual pub and let you look around and aim simply by moving your cameraphone around. You throw the dart by pushing a button". [via EngadgetMobile
and Alan Reiter's Camera Phone Report]

More on motion sensors and cell phones:

-- Waving goodbye to touch screens

-- Motion-Sensing Phone to Hit Market

-- 'Body talk' could control mobiles

-- Mobile phones to turn into golf clubs and toy guns in Japan

-- Cell phone gaming: Shake the Phone

-- Japanese Phone Responds to Shakes

-- Device Turns Ordinary Cell Phones into Vibrating Game Phones

Mobile Assassins

Mobile Assassins is an updated/mobile version of the traditional game Assassin.

Log into mobileassassins.com. After you have completed your profile by entering your name, phone number and mobile carrier, you get a confirmation SMS asking you to take a camera photo of yourself and send it to hit@mobileassassins.com.

You will receive an MMS message containing a photo of your target and you'll have to locate him/her by any means possible.

Stealthily take a photo of his/her face and send it to hit@mobileassassins.com

You will recieve an MMS with the photo of your most recent hit's target, who will be your new target
If someone tries to assassinate you, you may counter hit them first.

The game is over when only one assassin is left or if game end-time has been reached.

reBlogged from WMMNA

Updated 3G Virtual Girlfriend Game

Hong Kong based Artificial Life announced that it will release a new and strongly improved version of its famous "V-girl -- your virtual girlfriend" 3G mobile phone game.

... The game will contain over 20 new interactive mini games for the players to interact with the V-girls. The game now contains interactive real time events and 10 progressive virtual dates set at real times. Players can chose between several appealing female V-girl models. The V-girls now also send personal picture and video messages to the players.

V-girl Version 3.0 is scheduled for release globally in Q3, 2006 in English language. Other language version will follow soon. The first release is scheduled for the UK market." [3G press release]

Related:

-- Virtual Girlfriend on your Mobile Phone

-- Virtual boyfriend to follow virtual girlfriend

Vision enabled mobile gaming

Eyemobile software developped by Gesturetek's lets any cameraphone act like a joystick.

According to Popular Science Blog, "the software compares successive views from the camera lens to judge the movement of your hand. That movement can propel a ball through a maze, as in its TiltaWorld demo, and more may come soon. It's like an old-fashioned handheld game, only electronic".

Related motion-sensing technology applied to cell phones

-- Motion-Sensing Phone to Hit Market

-- 'Body talk' could control mobiles

-- Mobile phones to turn into golf clubs and toy guns in Japan

-- Cell phone gaming: Shake the Phone

-- Japanese Phone Responds to Shakes

-- Device Turns Ordinary Cell Phones into Vibrating Game Phones

Erotic Darts and Fruit Machines for the phone

For amateurs: a MTV's Logo Launches Programs for Cellphonesollection of erotic mobile games ranging from Erotic Solitaire, Erotic Fruitmachine to Erotic Sodoku.

[via Mobile Games Blog]

"Kick Real" - An augmented reality cameraphone game

Siemens is set to launch an augmented reality (AR) football game for mobile phones ahead of this year's World Cup in Germany, reports AVInfo .

"The German electronics firm has combined with Austrian petroleum company OMV and the household appliance manufacturer Miele to bring World Cup fever to our mobiles"

"Kick Real" allows players to take virtual penalty kicks by aiming a mobile camera phone at their foot while kicking an imaginary ball."

Fish in a QR Code

dwango in Japan has released a fishing game that allows players to catch fish using a camera phone and QR codes. There are over 100 kinds of fish as well as unknown creatures and driftwood, which are encoded in different QR codes. While fighting a fish, players must push phone keypads according to an on-screen instruction. Phones vibrate during fish fighting.

Reblogged from RFID in Japan.

Playing Pong on Cell-Phones

Nicolas Nova on pasta and vinegar, reports on gesture-based games using camera phones, a project carried out by the Georgia Tech Mobile Lab.

In their own words:

"We have developed a collection of mobile phone games that incorporate physical gesture interactions. Users interact with the game by physically moving the phone in free space. For example, in Pong, a user moves the phone left and right to control the paddle. The games do not rely on special motion sensors. Instead, they use the mobile phone’s camera as the motion detector.

Relalted links to to motion-sensing technology applied to cell phones.

Camera Driven Table Tennis for Mobile Phones

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developped a wireless table tennis game called "SymBall" for cameraphones, with what reads very much like motion sensor technology. eFinland reports:

"The SymBall game enables people to play virtual table tennis against each others using mobile camera phones as rackets! The game demonstrates how the integrated cameras are already usable for interaction on mobile phones, with real time performance.

Data communication between the players is handled using Bluetooth, but the implementation would in principle allow for using slower radio links too. As optional features SymBall provides ball speed, racket shape, sounds, etc.

The phone's display shows the virtual table, net, ball and the rackets. Moving or tilting the phone moves the player's virtual racket in the phone's display. The phone's movement is determined by following the location of a colored pattern in the camera image.

Related articles

-- Samsung Sells Motion-Cognitive Phones. The SCH-S310 phone features built-in sensors that enable the device to recognize and translate the movement of the handset

-- Mobile phones to turn into golf clubs and toy guns in Japan - Now subway commuters could get more energetic in Japan through a new motion-sensitive mobile telephone equipped with games that will let people on the move practise their golf swings or shoot up monsters.

-- Cell phone gaming: Shake the Phone . KTF announced January the launch of a Motion Pack service that enables users to play mobile games by shaking the phone, without manipulating a keypad.

-- Japanese Phone Responds to Shakes. Japanese handsets slated to hit stores next month are designed to respond to shakes, tilts and jiggles, without manipulating a keypad.

Action Adventure for Cell Phones

Cell phones are being invaded by a new action adventure called Jenny Jet. Featuring Alien Greys, Reptoids, the Feds, and other unsavory characters, Jenny Jet combines text messages, blogs, television, and a cutting-edge story.

Working for the C.M.I.A. (Central Mobile Intelligence Agency), Jenny Jet investigates the alien/government conspiracy that has been going on for decades in underground facilities around the country. She then sends daily text alerts to her subscribers' cell phones as she uncovers extraterrestrial installations, biogentic labs, and the coming alien conflict.

"It is an interactive, sci-fi adventure to get caught up in," says Gary Brooks, creator of Jenny Jet. Subscribers are able to interact by texting JENNY (53669) from their cell phone and by blogging at jennyjet.com. Brooks plans to extend the Jenny Jet character beyond the cell phone through strategic partnerships and licensing deals for television, books, games, etc.

The service is free to subscribers, other than the standard messaging rates that wireless carriers charge. Cell phone users can sign up to the service at http://jennyjet.com.

Guardian Unlimited makes crossword puzzles available on mobiles

Guardian Unlimited, the Web site of the daily broadsheet, will make its crossword puzzles available as interactive mobile phone downloads at the end of the month, reports New Media Age.

Those viewing Guardian Unlimited will be able to text a shortcode advertised on the site to receive a downloadable link, which will sit in a games folder on recipients' handsets. New puzzles can be downloaded daily by clicking on the link.

Players accessing the crossword puzzles via a mobile phone will be charged 50p per day or £5 per month via reverse SMS billing.

Commuters at Victoria train station will be encouraged to fill in a giant crossword and be given a free trial subscription.

YOU-WHO - a mobile phone guessing game

YOU-WHO is a social game for mobile phones that makes use of the personal area networks created by Bluetooth technology to act as a gentle introduction for strangers.

After mutual consent to play the game, one player acts as ‘mystery person', gradually feeding clues about their appearance to the other player, who builds up a picture on their screen. After a number of clues have been given, the players' phones ‘call' to each other with a distinctive sound, revealing both players' locations and identities. So follows a meeting...

YOU-WHO can also be played as a group game where friends can join in and influence gameplay.

You-WHO is offered as a free 28 day time-limited demo. The developers at AgeO+ hope to have a full commercial release soon.

Thanks Chris!

The Hitchers game

In the Hitchers game, the streets are full of people who are trying to hitchhike their way across the city or up and down the country.

Players can:

- Summon give hitchers tasks or missions. Like: find your way home or to a given place and deliver a message/take a photo. Hitchers might also be programmed with questions to ask the players who pick them up, and might even ask them to take photos or record video on their behalf so that hitchers acquire memories as they travel.

- Pick up hitchers. Players are notified about nearby hitchers and get the opportunity to pick them up as they pass by.

- Interact with hitchers. Players can carry hitchers with them for a while and interact with them as they go, answering questions, taking photos and maybe even modifying them.

- Release hitchers again. Players can release hitchers at a new location, leaving them to wait for the next player to come along. However, the hitcher leaves them with a memory – its card – when it goes.

- Follow their progress and share their memories. A central web site tracks the progress of all hitchers. All players can get some background information about hitchers who are out there. Beyond this, a player who has obtained a hitcher's card can access more information.

(Via Pasta & Vinegar)

CamBlaster!

In yesterday's mobuzzTV show, Emma Rebaldi describes a camera phone game developed by Realeyes3D, called CamBlaster!, which allows mobile users to shoot at flying targets through their cameraphone.

In their own words:

Move the phone away and discover swarms of new targets to shoot! Come back, and see the previous targets still flying in the same zone! CamBlaster! creates a new gaming experience because it uniquely integrates the reality seen through the camera into the classic fun of a great shooter game.

Digital Street Game

Digital Street Game is a mobile social gaming project conceived by two graduated of NYU's ITP program - Michele Chang and Elizabeth Goodman. Many to Many.

The research goals of this project are to gain a better understanding of how games can be integrated into everyday life, how technology can play a role in fostering engagement in urban places, and how collective views can aid in building community.

About the game

Digital Street Game is an Internet-enhanced street game in which players stage and document small interventions or "stunts" on the street corners of New York in order to claim turf on a virtual map of the city.

So once you've gone to the street corner, performed the stunt, and taken some pictures, upload them to our site to claim your turf. Once we have photos of your stunt, you are the official new owner of that corner.