Fun stuff

PERVASIVE GAMES AND INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS

Fun in Numbers (FinN) was a platform for implementing pervasive games and installations, originally conceived somewhere around 2008. The idea was to implement games in physical space utilizing inputs from the real world, mixed reality interactions between players and digital arbitration of some simple (but fun!) rules. You should have in mind that this was after Nintendo Wii but also before the vast majority of smartphones available even started to have integrated sensors as standard.

As our hardware platform of choice, we used SUN's SPOTs, essentially a micro-controller sensor network node with integrated wireless communication and a couple of simple input (buttons) and output (programmable LEDs) options. The result was an implementation over the SPOT platform that allowed 10s of players in the same physical space to interact with each other with imperceptible delay.

This activity led to a number of awards in conferences and workshops. We also got a mention at MIT's Technology Review.

Our team was featured in the "Academic & Scientific Excellence" initiative of the Greek Ministry of Education in 2012. As part of that activity, a short video was produced to showcase the platform, along with some interviews of the team members (including me :).

The original article (in Greek) can be found here.

OVERVIEW

A short video explaining the basics of the platform.

TUG OF WAR

A showcase of the Tug of War "game" played on the surface of a building.

SHOWCASE

A selection of different games implemented over FinN.

GAIA interactive installation

An interactive installation to visualize sensor readings produced inside school buildings, in order to allow students to compare the power efficiency and comfort levels between different schools.

Painting

I like to work outdoors, mostly in urban settings and specifically in Patras, Greece. I also like to mix techniques, some times working only digital, then in a more traditional manner, etc.

You can check out more examples of my work in Behance.