Proximity-based augmented reality social network games and how they improve communities

It's an exciting time to be a gamer. In the next year or two there will be an explosion of new games for augmented reality and Articulated Naturality-capable devices. One of the most interesting is the potential for a hybrid between a first person shooter game and a social network game.

Imagine the Zynga game Mafia Wars. Millions of people connect every day to button click their way to the top. In areas with a high density of Mafia Wars players there is a possibility that two people will walk past each other as they go about their day. Knowledge of location and predicted location means the users' smartphones can sound a proximity warning and the users quick draw their phones in a show down to see who's the best mobster. The game is also based on having a mafia, i.e. other players who are part of the individual's network, and this could extend into the proximity game by providing a boost to attack power based on the number of local mafia members. This creates a reason for people to add local players to their account much like social network gamers often collect other gamers on their Facebook profile.

The new games aren't just for kids. The trip to the office can be an opportunity to have a little excitement. People who often walk past each other have a new way to break the ice. This new form of gaming will make for many more of those serendipitous moments that lead to strangers becoming friends. The social network game has also significantly broadened the age group and demographic of gamers such that these new games could be a way to make business contacts or even find the love of a lifetime.

The benefits for an enhanced real social network allied with an online social network is exciting. Whole new gaming communities and social groups located near each other will be created and there will be a significant increase in social cohesion through these new forms of games.

The stars

Use the phone to explore the night sky.

This is a simple application that allows people to access information using the advanced capabilities
of the Ouidoo Gaian.

The phone can recognise star patterns even in a city sky. It can brighten them and access information about the different constellations with a touch of the touchscreen or use of the
gesture interface on the Ouidoo Gaian AN. It can access astronomy images so you can explore the cosmos at home just like a NASA scientist.

The Ouidoo

The augmented reality market is predicted to explode over the next two years and this is because the modern smartphone has become a barely capable device. The user experience from the current tranche of AR-smartphones is lacklustre because of poor quality sensors and the
exciting applications can't run because of the low performance processors which are overspecified general processors. Organic progress will see a capable AR device in 2012 however the capability to design an AR-capable phone is possible today.

The Ouidoo Gaian from QderoPateo seems to be the best attempt at bringing the technology together and making it market ready ahead of its time while other manufacturers are watching to see what happens. The vision is admirable and it's clearly driven by the passion of the team
at QderoPateo. The Ouidoo range and the Divinitus platform at its heart have been custom-designed to be Articulated Naturality-capable. The platform was desperately needed
and without it the mobile processor would have evolved at a snail's pace.

The Divinitus has two general purpose processing cores for handling the standard smartphone functions and 26 signal processing cores for handling AR and Articulated Naturality Web applications. It's the Scene cores that make the Ouidoo the first AN-capable phone because
these provide the power for the overlay of 3D images and what make it the world's first 8 gigaflop mobile processor.

The Ouidoo is a Scene device which is a significant leap ahead of it's competitors. Google Goggles and Nokia's Point-and-find applications attempt to give smartphones a basic ability to sense their environment and understand what they're being pointed at. The Ouidoo takes this one
step further and uses the latest technology to really sense the environment. This is an ambitious attempt to make significant leap forward in pervasive mobile computing and create a new device. The results will be interesting and it is likely the second offering in the
Ouidoo range will see this capability better realised.