MS Surface Killer App?

[Lazybones]

I was going to put this in the D&D section but since it is really just a concept I thought it would be better here

http://vimeo.com/7132858

A walk-through of the current build of our proof of concept for a Dungeons & Dragons experience on the Microsoft Surface. Created by the Surfacescapes team at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University.

[Thorin]

Like many of the posters, I don't like the virtual dice.  Real dice are such a staple of table-top RPGs that I can't imagine rolling a virtual die.  If they're gonna go virtual, don't bother rolling but just show the result.

I noticed line-of-sight was marked, that's really cool.  Of course, the DM has to manually specify the line of sight on a separate screen, and that's not very cool (why not let the DM specify 3d objects and have the app figure out the line of sight?).

The monsters need to move faster, it would get annoying seeing them slide that slowly.

In 3rd edition, it's Attack of Opportunity.  In 4th edition, it's Opportunity Attack.

Using a control object that gets placed on the surface and pops up a radial menu is a great idea.  What happens when you have some new supplement that isn't loaded into the software yet so you can't pick your new ability?  They'll need some kind of manual override that lets you use a generic power.

Instead of real minis, the players might as well get virtual minis, just like the monsters are virtual minis.

The Surface is only 30 inches big - the map sheet that my current group uses is probably four feet long by two feet wide.  The Surface can make up for this by zooming out, panning, and zooming in on a different area.  Lets hope they remember to add zoom and pan to the command list.

Last but not least...  Thanks for sharing!  That is a cool concept they're playing with.

[Darren Dirt]

MS Surface = Sun Starfire?

http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/hci/2007/06/16/back-to-the-future-computer-user-interfaces-the-sun-starfire-and-microsoft-surface/

compare:

http://asktog.com/starfire/ , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJNxgZyVo0

vs.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html




PS: hard to believe it was 3 years ago we first heard of MSS: http://forums.righteouswrath.com/index.php/topic,5213.0.html

[Mr. Analog]

That's a pretty cool proof of concept there

[Tom]

I just had a thought, if you're going with a D&D with something like a Surface, make it support reading dice. The Surface can read rfid tags, it might be possible to rig some dice to somehow be read by the table automatically. THAT would be down right cool.

[Lazybones]

I just had a thought, if you're going with a D&D with something like a Surface, make it support reading dice. The Surface can read rfid tags, it might be possible to rig some dice to somehow be read by the table automatically. THAT would be down right cool.

RFIDs transmit a single serial number over a short distance, that means you could have it detect that there where two die, but putting more chips in would make it detect all of the faces at once...

[Tom]

I just had a thought, if you're going with a D&D with something like a Surface, make it support reading dice. The Surface can read rfid tags, it might be possible to rig some dice to somehow be read by the table automatically. THAT would be down right cool.

RFIDs transmit a single serial number over a short distance, that means you could have it detect that there where two die, but putting more chips in would make it detect all of the faces at once...

There are other ways of detecting objects on the table, by shape and size... it'd have to be a weird setup to do it without an overhead camera. The hard part is figuring out what number is facing up.

[Mr. Analog]

If there were two RFIDs inside the die and you knew precisely how big the die was you could determine the orientation of the polygon through triangulation.

[Lazybones]

RFID sensors are not that accurate.

however i remembered that Surface uses a bw camera for object detection.. http://www.surfacehq.com/content/object-recognition so it could detect the face up value by the face down value in theory.

[Darren Dirt]

RFID sensors are not that accurate.

however i remembered that Surface uses a bw camera for object detection.. http://www.surfacehq.com/content/object-recognition so it could detect the face up value by the face down value in theory.

nice site you found there. http://www.surfacehq.com/content/new-and-old-microsoft-surface <-- as of December 2009, I guess there's lotsa new stuff vs. the 2008 and before rumours etc.
http://www.surfacehq.com/content/top-8-reasons-why-microsoft-surface-future-computing <-- bold claim!

[Mr. Analog]

RFID sensors are not that accurate.

That's a shame :-/

[Lazybones]

RFID sensors are not that accurate.

That's a shame :-/

RFID is nothing more than a short distance barcode / magnetic strip replacement.. It can store a little bit more information and that is about it.. There would be little reason to build a reader that did more than grab that number and information..

As stated the image recognition system in surface is a better way the dice could be detected.

[Thorin]

The in-laws bought a new computer that's kind of half-a-Surface; the computer's built into the monitor, and the monitor is multi-touch sensitive: http://www.hp.com/canada/products/landing/touchsmart/alt/touchsmart-600.html

Kinda funny, I was more impressed with the ultra-thin wireless keyboard and nicely-fitted wireless mouse than the touch screen.  Perhaps because the screen was standing upright; if it had been laying flat, I wouldn't be as worried about getting a tired, sore arm after four hours of computing.

[Mr. Analog]

RFID sensors are not that accurate.

That's a shame :-/

RFID is nothing more than a short distance barcode / magnetic strip replacement.. It can store a little bit more information and that is about it.. There would be little reason to build a reader that did more than grab that number and information..

As stated the image recognition system in surface is a better way the dice could be detected.

I know what RFID is, what I lament is what you say about the resolution of the scan. All you'd need would be a few points of reference in most polygons to determine orientation.

Image recognition might struggle with some polygons like pyramids (d4s), if only there was some other way...

[Lazybones]

RFID sensors are not that accurate.

That's a shame :-/

RFID is nothing more than a short distance barcode / magnetic strip replacement.. It can store a little bit more information and that is about it.. There would be little reason to build a reader that did more than grab that number and information..

As stated the image recognition system in surface is a better way the dice could be detected.

I know what RFID is, what I lament is what you say about the resolution of the scan. All you'd need would be a few points of reference in most polygons to determine orientation.

Image recognition might struggle with some polygons like pyramids (d4s), if only there was some other way...

Trying to track the faces of a d20 with triangulation of RF distances of only milimeters would be the most difficult way. Actually image recognition should be able to EASILY pickout the flat face of even the D20 as it will be the only proper, non skewed face. You may however need to use a bigger die for the d20 since the faces are small.

To improve image recognition you could also cheat and paint each face with a unique background pattern, since surface already has an API for that...