RPTools.net

I just found that in a roleplay magazine :http://www.epawn.fr/
I thought it would have been discussed already in the forum, but it seems not...
Next step : convince my wife that it would be a great gift for christmas 2012


Taspoff

Very cool!

They claim that the tech is not RFID nor IR. That leaves video, capacitance/inductance, laser scanning, or weight-sensitive. Since they claim the 26" display is a normal monitor, it can't be capacitance/inductance or weight-sensitive (unless there's an overlay on top of the screen that isn't visible).

The little bumps in the corner could be camera lenses, but I would be skeptical that they could achieve mm precision -- and rotation to the degree -- with cameras. So it's laser scanning...?

But how to detect rotation? They say that it's a merger of virtual tech with real world objects, but they never claim they are "regular" real world object -- they could be custom pieces. This is reinforced by the "About" page that says the development kit includes 4 "pieces". In which case the pieces could react to the laser light in a manner that allows rotation to be detected.

In any case, it sounds really cool! We'll see if they meet their price point of "a game console". If they do then this would be a cool tool for a gaming convention!

I lurked on their site and on youtube, where they present it to different showroom:

• There is 2 device : the tracking device with a LCD screen, and the tracking device only (to use behind a classical paper monopoly...or behind a white board and video-projector, for exemple)
• The LCD device should be sold around 300 or 400$, the tracking only should be sold around 100$. They plan to sell it in France/Europ at the end of this year. (I guess there will be some EBay possibilities...)
• They use Electro-magnetic technology ( there is a grid under the LCD), so there is no "touch" effect. The tracking device could manage a square meter of surface.
• they can detect the height of a token : a token put on a "hill" for Warhammer battle is detected higher.
• They use asics chip to be fast enough in tracking.
• They use a little "box" under the plastic/lead token, wich use a battery Cell. The precision is around 1mm, and 1 degree for rotation. The box is identified (serial number?) by the device.
• There is no real computer behind to keep the device "cheap" : so actually it's connected to an IPhone, but they plan to launch a Android and a PC SDK. On the Demo, all graphics are generated by the iphone : the device is just working as a LCD Screen...
• there is some wifi communicationat this point, but I don't really know where.... they wanted to use bluetooth, but it was too much costly with some apple licence restriction at this moment for their startup...
• The CTO and CEO worked in simulation and augmented reality (where i was involved too some years ago) for a big company, before creating the startup company. I saw there was some (distant) link with old relation i had at this time

They even show it could be possible to move and track robots on the epawn : real Token moving themselves would be amazing...(ok, on a roleplay side, An elf who's making an electric motor noise while "moving silently in the forest" isn't really perfect, but it will be good enough for them, as I don't like Elves...)

Taspoff

Ah, magnetic! Interesting idea. Thanks for the details.

Wow, magnetic ... meaning it will have a lot in common with MRI technology, which is what I'm starting research on next month. Finally my "responsible" and "gamer" interests may have found some overlap ...