Filed under: Gadgets, Etc., Tech, Toys
Carcade concept turns passenger's view into video game
Click above to view video after the jump
Imagine riding along in your family's car as a kid. Your hand is out the window and slicing through the air as you explore the concepts of drag and lift. As a child you might work that hand to rise and fall around the objects on the horizon, dodging treetops and ducking below bridges in the distance. Some German students apparently had this experience, and now they've taken that basic premise and added more cowbell. The result is Carcade, a scrolling video game concept that uses a webcam and laptop to scan the view out your car window and use it as the interactive background for a spaceship adventure. It recognizes and uses the objects in the view out your window as obstacles, instantly incorporating them into the action. It even adjusts game play speed according to vehicle speed. It's all pretty amazing work by the crew of Andreas Nicolas Fischer, Martin Kim Luge and Korbinian Polk. Watch the Carcade demo after the jump and let us know if you wouldn't have liked to waste away your family's road trip playing this game.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
parkergc8 7:37PM (10/08/2008)
thats fiving cool right there
Reply
Randy 1:52PM (10/09/2008)
I agree man! That's awesome!
My only gripe is that windows seats on busses and planes will be overbooked now!
Imagine playing that on the subway or a train? Bad F'n Azz :)
MATT 7:44PM (10/08/2008)
wow that is a very novel idea! Way to go.
Reply
geo.stewart 7:58PM (10/08/2008)
I do believe my wife will be driving on the next trip 8^>
Reply
tyson 8:00PM (10/08/2008)
pew pew pew
Reply
Shado 8:14PM (10/08/2008)
Starfox 64 anyone?
Reply
The Luigiian 10:12PM (10/08/2008)
Not if I can't pilot a Wolfen.
tankd0g 10:14PM (10/08/2008)
Beat me to it. Actually I was thinking the original, I once had to play that thing 8 hours straight for 2 days working a contest for Nintendo. It is forever burned into my mind.
Zanardi1782 9:17AM (10/09/2008)
It's actually the original StarFox. In SF64, the characters actually talked. In SF, they had the cheezy "blah-blah" sounds to make it sound like the characters were talking, and you can hear them in the video
Duders 12:07PM (10/09/2008)
Digging the starfox sound effects for sure.
kevin 8:22PM (10/08/2008)
GTA4 cab rides anyone?
Reply
taipeileviathan 9:17PM (10/08/2008)
i got a fever... and the only cure... is augmented reality.
Reply
tankd0g 10:14PM (10/08/2008)
It gets easier driving through Nevada.
Reply
fixitfixitstop 10:49PM (10/08/2008)
That would be great....if you could see the screen.
Hope you don't have motion sickness, by the way.
Reply
flychinook 11:20PM (10/08/2008)
It seems like there would be a LOT of states where the game would be pretty boring. It can't be too much fun shooting at utility poles at a regular interval for 3 hours.
Reply
Khanh 12:22AM (10/09/2008)
Son: "Dad, drive faster! I want to fly faster (implying his aircraft thing in the game)."
Dad: "There's a speed limit."
anyway... this is pretty cool. but what if a car drives past the window with the camera? it's gonna be like, "Oh no, I'm flying into the mountain side and I can't do anything about it!" lol..
Reply
Wombert 8:26AM (10/09/2008)
Well, in Germany, where it was designed, you must not overtake on the right outside town, so the right window always "overtakes" cars, so to say, which that software can handle (note the "window" it opened at the side of one building where the jet could fly through)... but yeah, it wouldn't work in all situations. Still lots of fun. I imagine it would be great with VR glasses :)