The Gong Show

I attended the ITP Spring Show yesterday. ITP stands for Interactive Telecommunications Program, and I previously wrote about it when a friend of mine gave me a tour of their workspace (a loft in Tisch).

Here’s a few pictures from some of the more photogenic exhibits.

A number of the projects featured cellphones as remote controls, which I thought was very inventive. The idea behind all of them was that there is a game in front of you, and to participate in the game you have to call in to a number displayed on the game. Then, once you are connected, you speak into your phone in order to control the game and achieve your goal.

I thought this interface was creative and good sense because public controls in arcades often get damaged. So leveraging the controls that almost everyone carries makes sense. Plus, a voice interface is more immersive than buttons and dials, which is good for a gaming atmosphere.

Lots of forward thinking going on here. It’s no surprise that a service as innovative as Dodgeball came out of here.