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Game Changing Android Application

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Game Changing Android Application

#1
If Android manages to clear the porting obstacles that await it as it's distributed over more than one reference device, and if it manages to deliver a high bar of quality (at least as high as the SDK has shown so far), it could really change the way we live/work. Those are some big ifs ... but some exciting ones nonetheless.

Game Changing Android Application
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Re: Game Changing Android Application

#3
Very cool. The "life mode" is the incredible part. Here's a thought about where this could go: Imagine if multiple Android users could have their locations published live to the other devices. You could look through the life view screen and track the location of your contacts through walls or other obstructions.

(Edit: I saw the end of the video and it looks like they're already one step ahead of me with the live location broadcasting).

Parents who want to keep track of their children at Disneyland could spot them through a crowd of people without calling them and getting them to describe where they are. Maybe this could be useful in search and rescue missions. The ELT (Emergency Location Transmitter) on downed aircraft could be equipped to broadcast in this way, to make it easier for teams trying to find the aircraft.

Something about this reminds me of FPS video games, where the "Objective" is marked on your screen so that you can see where you need to go even though it happens to be on the other side of the map.

Re: Game Changing Android Application

#4

Very cool. The "life mode" is the incredible part. Here's a thought about where this could go: Imagine if multiple Android users could have their locations published live to the other devices. You could look through the life view screen and track the location of your contacts through walls or other obstructions. (Edit: I saw the end of the video and it looks like they're already one step ahead of me with the live loc…

Could this make real life FPS? I haven't read the article, but I've been trying to think of a feasible way to make a real life multiplayer FPS that also virtual players could interact with. I think that'd be pretty sweet!

Re: Game Changing Android Application

#6
post #4

Very cool. The "life mode" is the incredible part. Here's a thought about where this could go: Imagine if multiple Android users could have their locations published live to the other devices. You could look through the life view screen and track the location of your contacts through walls or other obstructions. (Edit: I saw the end of the video and it looks like they're already one step ahead of me with the live loc…

Could this make real life FPS? I haven't read the article, but I've been trying to think of a feasible way to make a real life multiplayer FPS that also virtual players could interact with. I think that'd be pretty sweet!

It's really just the video from what I saw. The demonstration looked a little choppy but as it progressed and smoothed out I could definitely see a game being created out of this (at least it's feasible).

I doubt you would want to do this on your phone, but similar technology on a smaller scale used in a laser tag or paint ball game would be really interesting. You could set objectives and see where your team is at, and then mark locations for other team members (meet me at waypoint X).

I'm sure the military is already way ahead of us on this, but the live camera view is new to me.

Re: Game Changing Android Application

#7
post #4

Very cool. The "life mode" is the incredible part. Here's a thought about where this could go: Imagine if multiple Android users could have their locations published live to the other devices. You could look through the life view screen and track the location of your contacts through walls or other obstructions. (Edit: I saw the end of the video and it looks like they're already one step ahead of me with the live loc…

Could this make real life FPS? I haven't read the article, but I've been trying to think of a feasible way to make a real life multiplayer FPS that also virtual players could interact with. I think that'd be pretty sweet!

You're seeing possibilities for making a game more like reality; I also see possibilities for making reality more like a game. Think of the military implications of this. If you couple this with the other terminator-HUD-vision technology thing, you could have live team objective checkpoints and stuff... See what I mean? Also, it would be good for training because virtual enemies could be projected directly in the eyes of the soldiers. I think that kind of stuff is just around the corner (15 years?)

Re: Game Changing Android Application

#9
It's cool, but lets keep a few things in mind:

1) When navigating a 2d plane, or looking for things in a 2d plane, an overhead view is just as practical. Although you could argue this lets you see data points farther ahead of you, a good overhead view implementation could do the same thing.

2) This would be nice viewing differences in elevation. Finding your car in a parking garage for instance. However, GPS has an elevation error rate about 3 times larger than its horizontal rate. (Also most gps's don't work well in things like parking garages). This means you'll only be able to detect the elevation of something within ~30 meters on most phones.

Mostly I see this being fun, but not anymore useful than other, more traditional ways of looking at maps. It might prove helpful to people with exceptionally poor spacial thinking (if thats the term you use to describe people who can't read maps, I'm not sure).

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