John Kuiphoff and I worked together this week to create a media enhancement for the “Decide” board game that we played in our Art/Science Data Collisions class a few weeks ago. Our redesign focused on two specific aspects of the experience:
- Expanding the amount of technical information that is available to players during the game
- Creating a way to keep track of discussion points associated with a specific card or issue
To address these issues we created a web-based application that does the following:
- Players can print out “augmented” versions of the standard Decide playing cards. Our version of the cards contain a special symbol which can be used to interface with the application.
- Next, a player can open up their browser and visit the application homepage. After loading the player can hold up a card to their webcam – the site will recognize the augmented symbol and will display card-specific information, including relevant audio and video clips.
- The system is also set up with a commenting field – this field can be used to record important notes that come up during the discussion portion of the game. The system is set up to remember these comments on a card-by-card basis, so visitors can switch back and forth between cards without losing any information.
Screenshot of the Decide web interface
We have a live demo version available – here’s how you can try it:
- Print out the playing cards below
:
- Click here to access the application.
- You may need to grant the application access to your webcam. Note that if you’re on a Mac you may also need to right-click on the movie and select “Settings -> Webcam -> USB Class Video”.
- Hold up a card to the screen – information about the card should appear along with a video and a comment box.
- Comments are “sticky” and will persist even if you hold up another card to your webcam.
