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AR

Just Announced: TaleBlazer - Breaking New Ground in Location-Based Augmented Reality Gaming

Submitted by jsheldon on July 05, 2011

TaleBlazer, the next step in location-based AR gaming software from MIT's STEP lab will be officially demo'ed for the first time tomorrow, at CSCL 2011 in Hong Kong.

Click through to learn a little bit more about the features of TaleBlazer, or enter an email below to receive announcements about the software as it develops and is released.

TaleBlazer

TaleBlazer is a new rich Internet application from MIT's STEP lab to author smartphone location-based augmented reality (AR) games. Announced during summer '11 and demo'ed for the first time at CSCL in Hong Kong, it will break new ground in location-based AR game building. Features will include:

Visual blocks-based scripting - prevents syntax errors, while enabling programming of rich interactivity.
Interactive data layers and sampling - create models for player exploration and discovery of thought provoking scientific topics.
Conditional dialog creator - interact with characters in new ways; no more single-track conversations
No local installation - the TaleBlazer Game Maker will be entirely web-based for easier implementation in schools and elsewhere
Save to cloud, download to smartphone - logon with your account, and have instant access to games from any computer attached to the Internet, then play from any iOS or Android smartphone with GPS.

CSI: Community Science Investigators

CSI is a technology-based and community-focused after-school program. To explore issues in their community, students design and play augmented reality games, and use geospatial technologies. They then use that knowledge along with data they've collected to choose and implement a service learning project that impacts their community. Teachers act as facilitators in this inquiry-based learning environment.

MITAR Games

The MIT Teacher Education Program, in conjunction with The Education Arcade, has been working on creating "Augmented Reality" simulations to engage people in simulation games that combine real world experiences with additional information supplied to them by handheld computers. The first of these games, Environmental Detectives (ED), is an outdoor game in which players using GPS guided handheld computers try to uncover the source of a toxic spill by interviewing virtual characters and conducting large scale simulated environmental measurements and analyzing data. This game has been run at three sites, including MIT, a nearby nature center, and a local high school. Early research has shown that this mode of learning is successful in engaging university and secondary school students in large scale environmental engineering studies, and providing an authentic mode of scientific investigation.