Paul Coulton's Forum Nokia Blog

My principal interest in mobile applications is to push the boundaries of innovation to create uniquely mobile experiences. I hope my blogs excite and challenge developers to think 'outside the box'.

In my last post I highlighted the FREE workshop I am running at Futuresonic 2008 in Manchester UK on the 30^th of April which has been kindly supported by Forum Nokia. As part of the event we are running a live visual demonstration of an mobile interactive project called Mash Reality on the big screens at the headlining music event of the festival:

The RZA as Bobby Digital (Wu-Tang Clan) + Flying Lotus - Live (Warp), Rustie

On Thurs 1 May Manchester Academy 1 Oxford Rd. 8pm – MidnightI am going to be giving away tickets at the workshop so that people can experience the possibilities of mobile development offers first hand.Who says mobile development isn’t much fun  

This blog is to let the community know about the free (but no lunch)  Mobile Experiences workshop I am running from 12pm on the 30^th of April in Contact Theatre Space 3 in Manchester as part of kick off events for Futuresonic 2008 which is a Urban Festival of Art, Music & Ideas running between the 1-5 May in Manchester in the UK . The workshop is being supported by Forum Nokia (thanks again) and its aim is to facilitate cooperation between artists, designers, and developers in the mobile space

This year we intend to focus on the three technology areas currently growing in significance in the mobile phone space that of Location Based Services, RFID and Near Field Communications, and Mobile Widgets (WRT and WidSets) and each will be presented by a Forum Nokia Champion. The workshop is intended to be accessible and open to a variety of interest and in particular we want to provide an opportunity for designers to find out what these technologies have to offer and what the limitations, what support are and development environments exist, where they can get access to examples. We will also provide an opportunity to mix and discuss design ideas with developers and experts experienced in these areas together with providing some hands on practical experience of the technology.

To finish the event we are planning a group participation of a mobile experience but i will post more information as soon as the details are finalised but it should be very cool.

Manchester is a great city with a unique atmosphere and culture and this Festival is a great experience so if you have never visited the city this may be all the excuse you need.

I recently encouraged a couple of our MSc students (Klen Copic Pucihar and Leon Laxman) to enter the Forum Nokia sponsored WidSets competition on Betavine . I suggested it would be interesting to have a go with the new 'channels' functionality (this is a very early release) which allows you to allow users to communicate with each other in real-time i.e. you can create multiplayer gaming, chat rooms, instant messaging etc.

The result is this very interesting version of the classic 4 in a row game mechanic. As the following video shows you can check who’s on line and who wants to play and then make a challenge. BTW this is in real-time across the mobile network and without a 3G connection!

Although the game is quite straight forward, and it might be nice to add an in game  chat or taunt facility , it does illustrate the interesting possibilities for WidSets Widgets as a great casual games platform which would seem complimentary to the new n-gage platform.

Here is a very simple game concept my new PhD student Avi Nandwani has been playing with. The game is simple enough and based on the old parlour game pass the parcel. In this case we have replaced the parcel by a bomb which you have to defuse on your turn. You defuse the bomb by cutting one of three wires each of which has a different effect: either increasing the speed of the countdown timer, taking 10 seconds off the countdown time; or resetting the countdown timer speed to normal. 

The countdown is a random time and it’s the person holding the bomb when it reaches zero who gets blown up. To add some tension there is the ticking of the bomb on your phone during your turn. The game is very simple but surprisingly fun and serves to emphasise the beauty of the NFC interface. We are planning a few more party games to test so I will post those as they happen.

recently...

• As seen on TV and stress relief
• Widget Maps
• Motion Controlled 3D Multi-player Space Game
• Mobile Control of Your Inner Rabbit
• 3D Game Widget!
• Heart Controlled Mobile Interaction
• Workshop with added Concert!
• Futuresonic Mobile Experiences Workshop
• WidSets the new multiplayer casual games platform
• NFC Group Game: Tick! Tick! Boom!

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