Project Incandescence: Design and development of a geolocated experience

Abstract

As years go by, more and more everyday objects are getting interconnected and aware of their environment. This technological fabric being woven across our lives opens up opportunities never seen before. The communication and personal nature of smartphones makes them the ideal flagship in charge of clearing the path and heading towards the Internet of Things era. Their embedded sensors together with their broad adoption makes them the perfect devices for experimenting on novel ways of creating fresh interactive experiences. In this paper, Project Incandescence is proposed; an application which aims to experiment with storytelling by the exploitation of up-to-date technologies present in smartphones. The intended target audience are students of the last years of high school or college students. In other words, people from 16 to 24 years old which are willing to try new things. Project Incandescence is a global video game project but efforts will be mainly focused on programming an app which integrates and makes use of the information provided by recent technologies. Specifically, geolocation, augmented reality and haptic feedback will capture our attention. Another key part of the project is game design. However, it will be tackled with lesser dedication. The artistic aspect of the experience will not be neglected either, but it will be the least important aspect of the three main ones. The development will target the Android platform which is the most extended one among smartphones. This software stack has also postulated as key one in the future since it does not target a specific device, and currently supports from watches to cars.