Urban Defender: location aware game

posted Nov 7th 2009 1:00pm by Jakob Griffith
filed under: arduino hacks

What do gangs, territories, cities, and glowing blue balls have in common? No, not that one drunken night you can’t seem to remember, rather a new location aware game called Urban Defender.

The concept behind the game is simple. A player hold a ball that knows its current location and can notify you if needed via LEDs and a speaker of changes in its environment. He or she then runs around the city until the ball tells them of an unclaimed or enemy territory. Bounce the ball against a building and that territory is now claimed.

The ball itself is a prototype combination of an Arduino, Accelerometer, vibration motor, LEDs, XBee, batteries, and wire all packed inside of an industrial rubber gym ball. Unfortunately after testing the Urban Defender team found the GPS and a few other components would need to be kept outside of the ball and on the player.

Finally, a project that warrants the use of an Arduino. Anyone up for a game?

Comments [30]

tagged: accelerometer, arduino, ball, game, gps, location aware, urban defender, vibrator, xbee

Reader Comments

“…the game has no start, no end …” and I would like to add ” no point too.

Posted at 1:13 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by ino

Amen!

Posted at 1:17 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by zetsway

Actually, I love Augmentedl-Reality stuff, and at least as a proof of concept and ideas test – I love this. Actual playability..? I’d have to try it and see. I’d probably prefer a waypoint based system rather than waiting till the ball goes nuts.

Posted at 1:24 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by Graham Simpson from GeekChique.org

Interesting use of technology, but seems to me like it would be quite boring.

Perhaps if it was a multiplayer game, with teams and updating via mobile networks with real time feedback when a previous “zone” you owned has been lost to another team, it might be more fun then as turf wars could break out and the social aspect makes it more than just “throw a ball against a wall in various locations”.

Posted at 1:25 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by bencoder

I think “a few other components” might be a bit of an understatement. From the images on the site, it looks like the majority of the hardware is in the backpack, the ball itself just blinks and detects impact.

Posted at 1:27 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by MS3FGX

Instead of using a ball, I’d use those lights on my shoes. Anyways its a boring game.

Posted at 1:49 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by Sijesh

I agree that this is one of very few hacks that show up on HAD that need an arduino or similar chip.

Posted at 1:50 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by James

@James-Sorry, but the Arduino is not a chip.

Posted at 2:28 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by nemo

@James: There are over 9000 hacks that show up on HAD that NEED an arduino (you can find out about it here: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction) or similar platforms.

I like the augmented reality stuff. This would work nice on a location aware phone (less the smashing my phone against the side of a house part).

Think http://www.monopolycitystreets.com/ with some hardware…

Posted at 2:53 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by tehgringe

The idea of a locational aware game is cool. I would rather see a laser tag, capture the flag, multi-player game.

Maybe GPS to track the location of opponents or flags, and then laser tag to defend your flag. If you are tagged with a laser you have to return to your home base for a certain time, or find a predetermined healing station some where. It would be fun if it was played city wide against a bunch of strangers.

Posted at 2:54 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by Jon

I love this idea !

Posted at 2:57 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by Ludo6431

Posted at 3:16 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by more

I think you could make this work by interfacing it with a real-time updated handheld (iPhone app?) displaying your current territory and that of an opposing “Team”. Then you could make a race to capture a given area of say a 4×4 block area on foot. Basically its a goofy Capture-The-Flag game.

Posted at 3:30 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by bigalexe

“What do gangs, territories, cities, and glowing blue balls have in common?” I was actually hoping for a real life version of Crackdown there… But this isn’t so bad. I’d like some way to track an opponents’ ball if it nears my territory though, so that my team could somehow stop the other team from conquering it. Did I say team?

Posted at 3:38 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by highjumpman

what about “the great land grab” for android platforms. it’s the same thing. been playing it for weeks

Posted at 4:07 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by anon

I like the team thing and live updates. I think if you see another team bouncing their balls against your building you could nail them in the head with your ball to deactivate them for an hour, a day, whatever. Modern Dodgeball..

Posted at 4:17 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by Face

More information on the project:

http://hacknmod.com/hack/hyper-local-geo-location-game-urban-defender-arduino/

Posted at 4:46 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by Mark

should have red leds for other player’s zones perhaps

Posted at 7:09 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by gus

I would need a segway or
even better
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/09/meet-the-one-wheel-balancing-scooter-suck-it-segway/

Posted at 7:51 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by kuhl

Awesome idea. I picture an urban version of the game Company of Heroes. Real bridges, highways, etc, would provide interesting strategic points and barriers. Hmm, now how would combat between players, or “units”, be conducted?

Posted at 11:17 pm on Nov 7th, 2009 by amk

I think it will be to easy to cheat…

Posted at 3:57 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by Iv

I think this is a really cool idea. You would essentially be playing a multiplayer game with invisible players, trying to capture as much of the city as you can. It’s also interesting because you could set up games, or just play on your own (similar to lan vs. online play in games).

Posted at 10:49 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by Karl

lol this will solve gang wars or at least make them less deadly lol gangbangers will now use glowing blue balls instead of guns.

Posted at 11:01 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by anon

There’s already an Phone app that does this – Turf Wars. It includes the territorial concepts and lets you team up with other players too.

Posted at 1:38 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Nick

Does anyone else think guy in the first vid looks like harry potter?

Posted at 8:46 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by jb

I thought the guy in the “concept” video looked like Moss from the IT Crowd.

This could make a neat IRL CTF game.

Posted at 1:26 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by pixel

I would play at least once. Maybe twice! I think it’s a great concept and would just need to be perfected as other have said.

Posted at 7:10 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by Squintz

I can’t understand the narrator. She sounds like she has downs.

Posted at 9:39 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by Kevin

this reminds me of a different game that i think i saw originally on the makezine blog. a group of people (say, at a party) were handed the game bricks (electronics in an enclosure) whose little 7-segment LED display on the front would increment as people came in proximity to it. the more people in proximity, the faster it would increment… it became a “popularity” game of sorts — showing how often you were among groups of people.

I CANT FIND THIS PROJECT to save my life. someone please tell me they remember it…

Posted at 10:02 pm on Nov 9th, 2009 by samurai1200

I love it, but you need a critical mass of people to play/use it before it becomes useful – kinda like britekite…

Posted at 9:10 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Technology Nerd

Urban Defender: location aware game

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