Tue, 03/23/2010 - 21:28
I have vision of making a multi-touch super-duper gaming table. So I spend some time hunting the net for solutions to the problem. I think I'll post some of my finds here for discussion and design development.
First, open source software from MIT that lets machine vision recognize items, position and rotation via a rotary barcode: trackmate.media.mit.edu/
In other words, you could use this for miniatures on a virtual tabletop or as markers for virtual boardgames.
You could also add keyboards and monitors at every station. If someone wants to send secret notes to the DM or other players they could, with a chance of everyone else overhearing maybe.
While than would be neat, and plenty of other geeks dream of such things...I probably wouldn't do that for D&D gaming. However, the dream table will have a virtual keyboards, I hope. since I'm planning on making it multi-touch as well. I'm also thinking about setting up other games on it like Brick Out
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Jayne: "Do you know what the chain of command is here? It's the chain I go get and beat you with to show you who's in command."
I tried it a few times using a chat room and instant messenger, it worked fairly well but then I think we just kept tryign to dick eachother over, so maybe not such a good idea. Besides, 4.0 seems to want you to cooperate instead of being a dick. Multitouch would be awesome, you could use it to plan out moves and attacks, or make them draw symbols for rituals and the like, like lying down a chalk line.
I have found the perfect surface material for my ultimate gaming table. It's a special acrylic designed for edge lighting. This is good because I want to use the FTIR Method for my table
(Here's a concept sketch for how FTIR Works)
http://peauproductions.com/docs/endL_1.pdf
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Jayne: "Do you know what the chain of command is here? It's the chain I go get and beat you with to show you who's in command."
So you're not gonna spend 15 grand on a Microsoft Touch table?
:D
Maybe someday...but not this day.
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Jayne: "Do you know what the chain of command is here? It's the chain I go get and beat you with to show you who's in command."