PlayTogether is a further development of Andy
Wilson's PlayAnywhere system.
Playing games together can be
surprisingly difficult – people have limited free time
and are tending to live live farther away from friends
and family. We introduce PlayTogether, a system that
lets people play typical (and as-yet-unimagined) board
games together even when they are far away from each
other. We have adapted the PlayAnywhere tabletop system
so that multiple remotely located people can engage in
game-play. PlayTogether enhances the play experience by
exchanging carefully composited video of remote players’
hands and real game pieces. The video that is
transmitted mimics a player’s viewpoint via careful
camera location. Because PlayTogether’s camera senses in
the infrared, it is easy to distinguish between objects
in the camera’s view and projected imagery. These
capabilities create an interesting and engaging way to
blend the virtual and real in multi-player gaming.
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