Posts Tagged ‘Games’

« Older Entries

Zoom Creates Cache

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Our geocache is now live. On the first day, six people found it and logged their find on geocaching.com. The first-to-find gift, a prize for the first person who finds the cache, was a TorkScrew, compliments of BellaSvago.com. Also included in the cache at the time of launch was one of our trackable Zoom Creates Coin geocoins, Pink Noise stickers, Google laptop sticker, pink dice, Zoom coasters, a TorkScrew coaster, and a C3P0 Pez dispenser.

Before you are given the cache coordinates, you first must solve a slide puzzle featuring Hoss and Pepper – the same image of the dogs as on our geocoins. The next challenge is to find the camouflaged cache.

The puzzle and cache has been very well received. So get out your GPS receiver and come find it! To get started, go here: Zoom Creates Cache.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Etc. | No Comments »

Zoom Creates Geocoins

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

If you haven’t heard of geocaching yet, you must be living under a rock. So crawl out of there, then look behind it because there might be a geocache hidden there. Then go to http://geocaching.com to find out what it is.

In our attempt to take over the world, we’ve decided it would be fun to hide a geocache. But to make it extra special, we designed up and had 100 geocoins cast. We just got them back from the coin makers.
(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Etc. | 1 Comment »

Database access with a Chumby

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Chumby, Database AccessIn my earlier posts, I’ve writen about writing a Chumby widget, writing a configuration widget, and accessing the accelerometer. Now we’ll look at accessing a database from a Chumby widget.

First, you’ll need to set up a database. I’ll assume you have access to a web server and know how to create a database, tables, and code to access it. I use MySQL and PHP.

You’ll also need a Chumby widget.

And to connect the two, you’ll need a crossdomain.xml file.
(more…)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Code Logic | No Comments »

Accessing the Chumby Accelerometer

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Chumby Accelerometer
Let’s take a look at the Chumby accelerometer. It’s the thing inside Chumby that tells it if it’s looking up or down, sideways, or up-side-down. It also detects sudden changes in acceleration. It’s basically an electronic inner ear. So if you shake Chumby, knock him on the side of the head, or drop him on the floor, the accelerometer will detect this and report how hard and in what direction the jolt happened. Disclaimer: I do not recommend or endorse violent behavior to Chumby, including hitting, shaking, throwing, or dropping.

If you’re familiar with Actionscript, you know that it’s pretty easy to find the position of the mouse cursor on the stage. Well, it’s also easy to get data from the accelerometer. The trick, however, is making use of it. Let’s take a look.
(more…)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Code Logic | No Comments »

The Problem with Probability

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

If you were to flip a coin 10 times, and it comes up heads each time, you might think, “On the next flip, it’s SURE to come up tails – it’s due.” If you flip the coin 10 more times and again it comes up heads each time, you might think, “The next flip will surely be HEADS. Just look at the statistics.” Of course, we know that any flip has just as much chance as being heads as it does tails (assuming the coin is evenly weighted and symmetrical). So how many flips does it take to change our feeling about the next flip? Somewhere between 10 and 20 flips? (more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Code Logic, ZoomCreates.com | No Comments »

Mobile Mobile

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

It seems everyone here insists on torturing me with holiday music. I don’t hate it, I just don’t really like it and I definitely do not need to listen to it every day for three weeks. I can block it out with my big headphones and my own heavy metal holiday meltdown mix including Black Sabbath’s Snow Blind and Judas Priest’s Evening Star and Slayer’s Jesus Saves. Festive, eh?

Anyway, I ran across this video of Mobile Mobile an interactive installation by James Theophane and it caused me take a break from my usual metal massacre, get inspired and actually enjoy a traditional holiday song.

Experience Mobile Mobile from James Théophane Jnr on Vimeo.

Mobile Mobile is a large sculpture  made of recycled mobile phones that hangs in the lobby of LBi, a marketing and technology agency in the UK. The sculpture plays Choir of the Bells when you tweet it. You can also play it live like a great big circular piano thing with your keyboard. Check it out!

mobile tree

Happy Holidays.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Lab Report | No Comments »

Get Jollified!

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

‘Twas the weeks before Christmas and all through The Zoom,
Zoomers were fighting off holiday gloom.
The projects were done, to the clients with care,
In hopes that AR would soon be there.

When out on the Internet arose such a clatter,
When asked, Zoomers said, “Why nothing’s the matter!”
Away to the laptops they flew in a flash,
Started the webcam and cleared all the cache.

Zoomers engaged in the holiday fun,
Added hats, beards and noses, each and everyone.
Twas a Jollified Christmas, brought straight from Zoom,
From there on out, no more holiday gloom.

From our stockings to yours, we are pleased to bring you Jollified, a festive holiday Augmented Reality flash application. Not unlike elves, we have been tinkering and fussing over Jollified for weeks, in the hopes of bringing you tidings of cheer and well wishes.

To get Jollified, please watch the video below and then visit the official Jollified website. Play around, snap a photo of your Jollified creations and share the merry with family and friends.

‘Tis the season to get Jollified!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Zoom Creates News, ZoomCreates.com | No Comments »

Stopwatch for Cubers ver 2.0

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

What do you know? I did get around to updating my timer. Introducing Cube Clock 2.0 for Rubik’s Cubers (and other cubes) with fancy new graphics, sounds, and a settings screen. See Stopwatch for Cubers for the original version.

The Flash plugin is required to view this object.

If you want to study your cube before the time starts, click the SETUP button to specify how many seconds you would like to study. The default is 0 which means the time starts as soon as you release the space bar (or click the START button). You can also toggle sounds on or off.

Let me know if you would like to see any features in the next version. And, of course, post your times in the comments.

Cube Timer v2.0 Source (FLA)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Code Logic, ZoomCreates.com | 3 Comments »

What a tasty flash game…

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Here’s a game for all ya’ll just in time for the big turkey day. Feel free to download the .fla file and see how this game is built. Don’t forget to post your scores in the comments!

The Flash plugin is required to view this object.

Here is the FLA file.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Code Logic, ZoomCreates.com | 4 Comments »

Fun with Flash: Gravity

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

A while ago, I built a Flash animation for one of our clients that showed particles floating around while an attractor sucked them up. It was so much fun building and testing it that I started building a game out of it. I took the magnetic algorithm I was using in the animation and put it in the game, but I replaced the particles with a single missile and used multiple attractors. I turned it into planets in space with an orbiting rocket. It’s entertaining to see how long your rocket will orbit the planets before crashing into one.

Go ahead and try it out. (more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Code Logic, ZoomCreates.com | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries