Worlds Without End Blog

In so many ways, classic science fiction authors predicted technologies that are in everyday use now. Think Star Trek communicators and everyday cellular flip phones.

The most recent example of sci-fi becoming sci-fa(ct) is already out. In Vernor Vinge’s latest, Rainbows End, children are depicted playing their videogames not in their living rooms in front of the television, but outside.  I work for a co-op dedicated to getting people (especially children) outside, so you can imagine how delighted I was at the prospect of technology that actually takes you outdoors.  The technology in this book, however, might leave a parent wistful for the antiquated yet charming x-box days.

The tech works like this: Everyone (well, not everyone, but everyone who is anyone) in Vinge’s world views their surroundings with enhanced vision.  A virtual layer is superimposed on the world with a contact lens display screen.  Forget CRTs being replaced by LCD.  There is no need for a computer screen because displays now live under your eyelid.  Sound far fetched?  It’s being done.

The contact lens, however, is just another interface.  As amazing as this technology seems to us, it will be taken for granted in short order.  The real technology power will be in the hands of programmers.  Vinge predicts whole virtual worlds that will be experienced not in dimly lit apartments (a la Nueromancer), but in the light of day.  The students of fictional Fairmont High (at least the ones who actually show up to class rather than attend virtually, which they can do) run outside to recess and play games outside and layer virtual worlds over real objects to create adventure.  Would you like to do that now?

You can.  The guys at Groundspeak have been developing an interactive gaming system called WhereIGo with a functionality that harkens back to Zork.  Garmin’s latest handheld GPS, the Colorado, is the first GPS device capable of running this program, although can also use a GPS enabled palm unit.  So, think back to when you played Zork in 1980.  For those of you who weren’t around (or perhaps were around but weren’t quite the geek I was) in 1980, Zork was text based game.  You start out in a room with several doors.  You navigate the game by inputting simple commands like “exit left doorway” or “open treasure chest”.  Even later games like Doom or Quake were merely graphically enhanced versions of Zork.  WhereIGo makes the great outdoors your virtual world by using a GPS interface like the Colorado.  Instead of inputting those kludgy sentences (like Zork) or using a joystick (like today’s games), you input your virtual actions by actually moving around in the world.  I am currently working on adapting these games for REI.  Soon, you will be able to play these games at local stores (you already can at the Seattle and Portland locations).  Here’s what a WhereIGo enable Colorado looks like:

So, here’s an example.  A programmer goes to a local park and starts to input data.  The big oak tree in the middle of the park can be anything in the game.  When you go to that tree, something will happen in the game.  Perhaps there is a street sign that can provide a clue that you might need in the game.  The only way to continue playing would be to go get that clue.  Since the Colorado is a GPS, the game knows where in the game you are.

Games like WhereIGo are in their primitive stage, at the moment, but give the programmers some time, and they will create a rich world that can easily be ported through something like those contact lens displays.

That virtual world is coming fast.

Posted in Technology | Tags: Science Fiction