iPhone app Gunman lets you have a shootout w/ friends via augmented reality | Hacker News Reader

iPhone app Gunman lets you have a shootout w/ friends via augmented reality

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61 pointsadamhowell31 comments

This idea could go so many places: extra points for headshots, fleshwounds not counting, additional modes like a Counter-Strike-like Terrorists vs. Counter-Terrorists team battle of capture the flag.

Also, imagine a massively multiplayer version of this at a web conference.

I'd thought of doing something like this a while back but there have been other priorities. I was thinking of naming it along the lines of "Phasers to Stun". Features would have included the ability to create a force field around yourself so that phasors/lasers could be deflected or you could launch a logic bomb at you're opponent who would need to solve a puzzle etc before they could continue (although this would breakup the game play). I also liked the idea of having a tracker that would ping, somewhat like the tracker in Aliens (trying to create tension as opponents got closer). You'd also be able play team games (e.g. capture the flag) where you could pickup virtual items but if you got shot, you'd drop your item which other people could then pick up. There were also different roles within a team, someone could be a medic, or a countermeasures specialist who could jam opponent systems etc.

The opportunities are endless, where you combine the real with the virtual geo-located world. Anyone for virtual hide and seek ...

There was a similar program for the old Palm Pilots, where you used the IR capabilities to 'shoot' other devices. Unfortunately the other devices had to be pointed at you for it to work. I'm glad to see how far virtual gun battles have come in the 21st century.

My friends probably aren't very good shots and easy to hit.

Can they augment Godzilla in there with some kind of killbot AI?

http://affiliatemarketingebook.info/images/pink_goggles.jpg

It seems to use shirt color to identify a kill. That seems trivial to hack (both ways).

sure, but supposedly if you were playing with your friends, then everyone would want to play fair, or else it's no fun :)

I suspect that this is going to be the Pong of the augmented reality game: the simplest thing that'll be fun forever in endless variations, and something upon which amazing things can be built.

Isn't this pretty much laser tag, except using different technology (camera)?

So it's innovative, but only in the aspect of being able to do this on the iphone with the hardware it has.

Well all of the laser tag systems I've seen you have to where a vest with sensors on it that detect the enemy lasers. Which really sucks when you shoot someone but miss the sensor or say you go for a head shot and nothing happens.

Hasbro's modern guns integrate the receiver with the gun itself: http://www.ggaub.com/ltag/equipment.html

I have a pair, as do 3 of my friends. We play games on a weekly basis. It's a hell of a lot of fun, surprisingly intense exercise, and the hardware works really well (I can shoot upwards of 150 feet away).

It also doesn't require special guns, no one has to wear bulky sensors which can be covered up, and it can be done on a device that many people carry with them wherever they go.

So it's innovative, but only in the aspect of being easier and having a low barrier of entry.

That's essentially what I said.

You missed my point - those are significant innovations.

I think the innovation lies solely in being able to implement this on iPhone's limited hardware. I didn't mean to de-emphasize that achievement. I just wanted to point out that being able to shoot your friends without them actually dying is something already achieved.

I also think that with customized equipment using GPS and image recognition instead of sensors could improve current laser-tagging offerings. Digital zoom for scoped snipers, gps for king of the hill/domination type games, etc.

Portable music was achieved with the Sony Walkman. The iPod is still innovative.

Right, and if you read my previous posts I never said it was not innovative.

I've actually never played laser tag. I just imagined that it might be easy for someone, like me, who has never played laser tag, to attribute the perceptions of innovation of laser tag all to this application, when really the innovation is in reimplementing laser tag using modern mobile technology.

But then you downplayed that innovation because it is only iterative. My point is that most innovation - even meaningful innovations that change the technology landscape - are iterative.

I don't really think this is the next iteration of laser tag. It's a different take on laser tag, and I didn't mean to downplay the innovation at all. I simply wanted to point out that this ain't laser tag 2.0, but rather a new way to play the game. I want to emphasize their achievement in porting laser tag to the iphone platform, and not on their achievements of making shooting your friends possible.

Plus, all progress is either random, or iterative, so I'm not sure I understand your point.

I've been waiting for someone to implement the game from the movie Gotcha!. Looks like it's been done. Like sabat said, why didn't I have the guts to pursue it.

Face detection algorithms are no longer just for digital cameras. Bones points for shooting someone in the face?

i'd be afraid of dropping my phone while playing this game ... seems easy to slip out of your hand while you're running around/ducking/tapping furiously on your screen. some sort of wrist strap (like those that come on digital cameras) would help, though

Maybe some of those cheap attachments like they have for the wii remotes, but instead turns your iPhone into a gun.

In the video it says that when you hit an enemy, his phones vibrates. How do they do that?

    iPhone of person whose color was just tagged?

    AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(kSystemSoundID_Vibrate);

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1856538/iphone-sdk-shake-...

I should've been more specific: How do your iPhone, on which you shot your enemy, send a message to the target's iPhone so that it can vibrate?

the most likely answer would be to use GameKit, which communicates via bluetooth and can be used to discover other phones that are nearby. no wifi connection needed.

Or perhaps their server keeps track of GPS coordinates to know when two online players are in target range of each other?

having just now read the article, it appears they are using wifi to connect players. bluetooth isn't usable by third-party programs if you've got an original 2g iphone, so they've widened their target market a bit that way.

therefore, there's no need for gps. i suspect it wouldn't be accurate enough to do any good, even if you wanted to use it. there's no reason to determine whether a player is in range or not; the program knows which players are in the game from the very beginning.

also, i'm guessing that they don't use an internet server to mediate games. there's no real need for one, and eliminating that need means the game is less expensive to maintain.

This is getting uncomfortably close to the project I'm working on. I'd better hurry.

The only problem I have with this idea: why didn't I think of it?

Now there is a game which is very close to one I was thinking of myself. There is going to be a lot of this stuff coming, people running around on the streets in their augmented reality world shooting dragons...

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