Like most children, my friends and I used to wander outdoors all day exploring the environment and the nature around us. As a child, all of your surroundings are your playground: the sticks, rocks, and trees were our instruments for playing with as much as we pleased. The child’s imagination has no limits.
Today, children go outdoors less and less. Instead they play games in their technology boxes that they walk around with. It is true that technology has given us endless possibilities, but on the other hand, it also causes us to stay in our comfortable homes and miss all the senses experienced when playing outdoors.
In this project, I wanted to combine the power and benefit of technology with the simple objects of play found outdoors. In this case, a wooden stick. A game I loved as a child, “Stick Wars,” could be brought up to date with the aid of technology.
By attaching a smartphone with a specially designed device onto a randomly found stick. The stick is transformed into an advanced video gaming part. The sensors and software built into the phone allows the player to engage in a multi-player digital laser-tag style “Stick Wars” game.
The screen is the interface; by pressing the special remote you use the camera as the trigger. The gyro of the phone is used for reload, and the GPS is for the interface map. If a player is caught when pictured inside the red target circle, he is hit.
By using the smartphone on the stick of choice you get a combination of old and new, of nature and technology. If children of today are by the fault of technology removed from nature, this game allows both to coexist.
