next »

[Bezzy]

I cannot wait for table top interfaces / alternate interfaces to become mainstream. There's so many neat projects going on with them. It makes me want to get into one of these user iterface groups.

Here's the latest video I've seen which has made me extra excited.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4689008057039304357&hl=en
More info: http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/?media

There's lots of other ones, like the smart whiteboard (which creates physics simulations as you draw), the entertable demo, the other one with that bloke who made a stretchy/zoomy interface and made it work in google maps. Let's link them here and be excited about them until someone comes along and says something like "That's all very well, but I hope you realize that table top interfaces make your winky shrivel, and every time you link to gootube, you're putting money in the pocket of an evil global dictatorship" and we can all say "Gosh you're right".

I have tonnes of game ideas which involve these weird interfaces (For those of you who have seen my secret game, I think you can guess what I'm thinking , and unlike the Wii, the abilities of the table top interfaces aren't too misleading.

The big difference between these table top interfaces and say, the DS screen, is the fact that they're bigger, and so enable (and recognize) multiple touches at once. Most of the previous touch screen stuff has only been able to detect one point being touched at a time, so you can't, for instance, leave your arse print in a DS screen (if there was a DS screen big enough to lay your arse on).

[PoV]

Cool, but a practical composing tool?  Probably not.


Here's a cool one.  Physics based desktop.

[Johan Peitz]

Here's a game we made at work: Wizard's Apprentice
It uses traditional board game interactions like rolling dice and moving about but has a computer that controls the underlying mechanics and a custum built board that can read the die and where the figurines are.

[Xion]

That muzak thing looks groovy, B'zzay.
http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/index.html

[Zaphos]

Takeo Igarashi does a lot of interesting interfaces work, like Teddy, a sketch-based interface for 3D modelling, or As Rigid As Possible Shape Manipulation for deforming/animating 2D shapes, or Voice as Sound for non-verbal voice control ...

[Bezzy]

That voice as sound stuff is hilarious. :D

I was thinking about use something like that for our game... so you shout into a mic for more force when you attack, like those harmonic weapons in dune.

[Chris Whitman]

For some reason I really enjoy the concept of controlling a video game using your voice.

How about a game which you control by singing? I mean, not a game about singing, per se, but a game where, for example, abilities are accessed by humming short phrases?

[Alec]

rofl.

[Derek]

For some reason I really enjoy the concept of controlling a video game using your voice.

How about a game which you control by singing? I mean, not a game about singing, per se, but a game where, for example, abilities are accessed by humming short phrases?

There was a game at IGF that let you control a car via a microphone by making racing car sounds:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7458010617518035494

Definitely a fun idea, but it's hard as hell to play for more than a a minute or two.  Would work well as a WarioWare minigame, I feel.

[FARTRON]

I really want to play a game in which I can discover if my name is a Killing Word or not.

EDIT: I hate one liners, so

!

[GP Lackey]

Isn't something like Teddy used in Graffiti Kingdom/Magic Pengel?

Also, what about the Atari Mindlink.

I read about something that went even further and featured a game of pong operated by actual brainwaves.  It was absurdly hard to use but supposedly if you really concentrated you would maintain a minor level of control over the paddle.

[kronholm]

Not really an interface, but I find it very interesting:




This is also pretty cool, mixed reality interface:

[Zaphos]

Oh, there are also audience participation interfaces, where you try to give everyone in a large audience some part in a game ...

EDIT: Also You're in control ... using a urinal as a game interface.

[GP Lackey]

Some interesting ideas from the Indie Game Jam in 2003.

[Xion]

http://tmg-video.media.mit.edu/actuatedworkbench/actuatedworkbench_352x240.mpg
Not sure if this could be an interface, but...
I'm just imagining the possibilities of playing some massive tabletop real time strategy, or a game of chess with someone across the sea and having their pieces move in real space. Or just a board game where you never have to touch the board or its pieces.

[DanDanger]

How about a round windows system, preferabley displayed on a round monitor!

I created such a setup in my game, you can resize windows, read text files and change the background gfx, all within round windows!

http://www.lwjgl.org/_gfx/projects/keith_goes_painting_2.jpg

[FARTRON]

Ok, a bit of snark in posting this, but I'm a fan of minimalist interfaces, and I'm curious how far they can be taken.

[Alex May]

How about a round windows system, preferabley displayed on a round monitor!

I created such a setup in my game, you can resize windows, read text files and change the background gfx, all within round windows!

http://www.lwjgl.org/_gfx/projects/keith_goes_painting_2.jpg

Oh that's cool. Why use square boxes for text though? And squares for the swatches (I guess circles don't really tile, but still)? Yeah, we could go somewhere with this.

Myself, I want my GUI to be properly scalable. So instead of scrolling windows up and down, you zoom out and then zoom in again. Like Supreme Commander, or Google maps.

[Bezzy]

Oh, speaking of Zooming Interfaces:

Dasher

Lots of fun.

I'm modelling our menu on it, but it's been really hard to do.

[Bezzy]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/09/microsoft-pranks-with-ofone-apple-rolls-eyes/