The iPad As a Shape-Recognition System

An anonymous reader writes with an interesting use for the iPad: "The guys over at the Volumique blog have a different idea as to how to tackle apps for Apple's devices. They aren't just thinking about a digital activity on such devices, they are experimenting with using physical objects through Apple's multi-touch screens. Imagine being able to buy the playing pieces for a board game, but then loading up an app on your iPad for the actual board. The pieces would be recognized when placed on the iPad's screen, it would even recognize which direction they were facing. This may sound like an impossible feat unless you use a much more expensive device like Microsoft Surface, but Bertrand Duplat and Etienne Mineur at Volumique already have it working."

Comments

Possible hoax

[wvmarle]

Comments attached to TFA indicate it may be a hoax, after watching the videos carefully.

Without more details or having this app actually for download it's hard to say whether real or fake. Indeed it sounds too good to be true, so it probably is.

Re:Possible hoax

[shadowrat]

there is a feasible way to create such a system though. there are materials that exhibit the same electrical properties as skin, and these can be used as a stylus on the idevices' screens.

If you could arange little dot patterns of these on the underside of these objects, you would create a recognizable pattern of touches that would indicate orientation as well as position. You'd use up a number of touches though you'd need at least 3 dots and the ipad can only detect 11 touches. the ipod less. you couldn't really place a lot of objects on the screen. I guess the phone doesn't have much real estate for object placing anyway.

Re:Possible hoax

[PopeRatzo]

The videos do not play for me (probably a Flash issue...

Because maybe you're trying to watch a Flash video of this iPad on an iPad?

Re:Possible hoax

[CODiNE]

I've previously seen a demo done with conductive dots on the bottom of game pieces, though it was limited to only a few pieces since the iPad only detects 10 or 11 touches at a time.

It then occurred to me that there may be a hack someone figured out to detect a much higher number of touches by iterating over sets of 10. When you assume all touches are static you may be able to define a specific area of the screen to test for touches. It wouldn't work for dragging multiple objects but with it's slower refresh rate it could in theory track the positions of all objects and then compare for changes.

Further you could divide the game space up into different areas of touch sensitivity. You could have a few areas dedicated to controls which are checked more frequently and a main game area that's checked less often. There may be a slight lag but if you're checking more than 4 times a second it should feel pretty instantaneous.

It also depends on how the iOS reports touches. If there's a "new touch" event you could avoid constantly looping to check different areas of the screen.

But it doesn't seem to be too good to be true, especially with known proofs of concept already out for months.

Re:Won't be long now

[NEDHead]

This will only be done in a most secure manner to verify the authenticity of the application and to certify the ownership of the download. All in the cause of guaranteeing the quality of the user experience, and with no ulterior motives. Inputting your mother's maiden name and the last 4 digits of your SS # is entirely optional, but will make available additional game features. Again, this is for your protection and is entirely secure. Play on, and don't give it another thought.

Polyhedral dice? Roleplaying applications?

[Dr. Spork]

I thought about this quite a bit: I don't think it will be long before a major RPG system like D&D publishes an entirely paper-free edition, where the players and the DM all have touchpads. Instead of miniatures, you have avatars of your character on the game board, and certain combat actions (like determining whether a hit landed) can be automated. Basically, the "I attack this guy with my +3 sword" command would be selected on your digital character sheet, and then you just get a prompt to roll a d20 on your touchpad. All the stuff about armor adjustments, size compensation, and whatever other rules, would be calculated automatically.

I can't wait for this obvious streamlining step. I think it will most benefit rule-heavy games like Hackmaster, which are a lot more fun than D&D but rather tedious when combat situations get big. Once we get used to this, we can actually make the hit and damage modifier system even more complicated and realistic, because using weapon speed factors, armor type modifiers, armor damage, hit location determination, etc. will actually not slow down the game at all. This stuff can return the focus of the personal interaction to where it should be, which is fantasy and role-playing. As a bonus, combat rounds can be rendered and animated once this gets good enough to help with immersion.

It won't be long before the purchase of a nice touchpad will cost you less than the purchase of a set of D&D rulebooks. Then, instead of reading about character creation, it will make much more sense to just load up the character creation wizard on the touchpad and start rolling. In more advanced versions, the software will show you the first-person view of "what you see" when you kick down a door. This really is the first step.

Re:Won't be long now

[blai]

"You're holding it wrong. Try again with thumb on screen."

Re:Weight or shape-based?

[anethema]

Certainly not weight based. The touchpads are capacitive sensing touchpads. You generally need conductive materials, and it usually calibrated for the range of human fingers. Some accessories have been made that transmit the capacitance of your finger through a spot in a glove etc so you can use it with gloves on.

As for the chess pieces etc I imagine they could organize the conductive material in the chess piece to indicate direction, but for stuff like the coloured paper, no f'n way. Paper will certainly not trigger any sort of touch response, and there is absolutely no way to sense color.

I personally have a feeling the whole source material is a hoax.

Re:Fake.

[clone53421]

Fake indeed! They took down the incriminating video, but forgot to delete it. Get it before it’s gone.

Re:Fake.

[clone53421]

And just in case they do delete it:

http://omploader.org/vNWRveg/ipawn.gif