Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The Sphero robotic ball. A control interface is seen behind. Image by Obotix
First of all, Sphero has several internal sensors, so it can detect various real-time
events and register various types of data. The device has a magnetometer, a three
axis gyroscope, and an accelerometer, which can report on collisions with other ob-
jects, current position, distance traveled, velocity achieved, and so on. Thereby, the
ball can be easily turned into an input device. By holding it in their hand, a person
mayrotateit,tilt, moveinspace,andalltheseactionswillberegisteredandsuccess-
fully transferred to an iOS device where they will be interpreted and used. Moreover,
the ball has multicolor LEDs since a visual feedback is possible that increases the
efficiency of the input procedure. Such a functionality may be utilized both in games
and other types of applications; developers only have to think of how to use such an
opportunity.
It seems that by playing the role of a controller, Sphero brings in some sort of aug-
mented virtuality to the mobile game market (a physical object is used to control
computer-generated reality), but that is not all. While it rolls around using its engine,
itmaybeturnedintoanobject-basedmarkerusedinARapplications.Allthesensors
provide pretty accurate positioning information, so the simulation looks smooth
enough. In contrary to traditional planar markers, the robotic ball may freely rotate
around a vertical axis, changing the angle of the main character (or another type of
3D object attached to the fiducial) rather than whole game scene. This is a much
more flexible system, exposing new gameplay opportunities. Another advantage is
the universal geometric shape of the marker; a sphere is very handy for putting AR
3D puppets on it or adding digital special effects.
Sphero is widely popularized as a unique gaming system with various functionalities
and a lot of interesting features. The technology is very young, but there are a bunch
of different games for it, including the ones from third-party developers. Most of the
products are for the AV functionality and use Sphero as a handy controller; neverthe-
less, there are others that experiment with the AR environment. Orbotix did a good
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