Be AR-fraid, very afraid! Augmented reality game turns your home into horror story where zombies and demons stalk you


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If you scare easily, then this game is probably going to give you nightmares.

A group of computer game developers are creating a new augmented reality mobile phone game that turns your home into a fight for survival against demons and zombies.

The game, called Night Terrors, uses your smartphone's camera, GPS and accelerometer to build up a map of your home.

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Night Terrors uses the motion sensors, GPS and cameras on smart phones to create an augmented reality where demons, ghosts and zombies appear in your own home as you walk around, as can be seen above

Night Terrors uses the motion sensors, GPS and cameras on smart phones to create an augmented reality where demons, ghosts and zombies appear in your own home as you walk around, as can be seen above

As the player walks around their home at night, with only the LED on their camera to light their way, ghouls and monsters appear overlaid onto their surroundings on the camera's display.

The team behind the game, Novum Analytics, said it wants to create the world's most realistic augmented reality computer game.

WHAT IS AUGMENTED REALITY 

Augmented reality (AR) aims to use devices like smartphones and tablets to overlay additional information, video footage and text onto a location.

It first began to find use as a way of helping provide extra features to books.

When looking at the book through the camera of a mobile phone or tablet, an augmented reality app could provide images that appeared to pop out of the pages.

Tourist locations have also adopted the technology to provide visitors with a virtual tour as they walk around a site.

The technology tends to use a device's GPS to pinpoint its location and the camera.

Additional visual layers are then placed over the image from the camera in an app, so the user sees them together on the screen. 

Byran Mitchell, the game's developer, said: 'Right now augmented reality is just a gimmick, but it has the potential to be so much more.

'A great augmented reality game should escape from its world and enter yours.

'During the research state of this game I read paper after paper that basically said what we wanted to do was impossible.

'The game takes advantage of every component in the device: the camera, the LED the microphone, the accelertomer, the gyroscope, the gps.

'The quality of the data is good enough that the game actually builds a map of your home as you are playing it and allows monsters to move around as if they were in the actual environment.'

Mr Mitchell, from Kansas City, Missouri, has spent around 1,000 hours developing the technology and algorithms needed for Night Terrors to work.

He and his team are now seeking support on Indiegogo. The game is expected to cost around $5 (£3.20) to purchase once complete and the team has already raised $11,431 (£7,480) of its $70,000 (£45,794) target. 

The campaign runs until the middle of June and games are expected to begin rolling out in September 2015.

They claim it uses four algorithms to build up a map of your home - working out where walls, ceilings and doors are.

Players have to fight for survival against zombies (above), ghosts and demons, which are played by actors. The team behind the game, Novum Analytics, said it wants to create the world's most realistic augmented reality computer game

Players have to fight for survival against zombies (above), ghosts and demons, which are played by actors. The team behind the game, Novum Analytics, said it wants to create the world's most realistic augmented reality computer game

The plot of the game centres around saving a young girl (above) who has become trapped in another world. Surround sound headphones help to produce terrifyingly realistic sensations of breathing behind the player, or footsteps in another room

The plot of the game centres around saving a young girl (above) who has become trapped in another world. Surround sound headphones help to produce terrifyingly realistic sensations of breathing behind the player, or footsteps in another room

The game itself is played at night with all the lights off. The player holds their smartphone in front of them and uses that to explore their home as they walk around.

Surround sound headphones help to produce terrifyingly realistic sensations of breathing behind the player, or footsteps in another room.

The plot centres around the player trying to save a young girl who is being tortured in another world.

The monsters and ghosts, which are created from filmed clips of puppets and actors, appear on the smartphone screen as if they are standing in front of the player.

The player explores their home using the screen of their smartphone and the augmented reality helps to blur the lines between what is real and what is not. The image above shows red eyes glowing behind the player

The player explores their home using the screen of their smartphone and the augmented reality helps to blur the lines between what is real and what is not. The image above shows red eyes glowing behind the player

Monsters like the one above appear on the screen of your smartphone as if they are really in your house

Monsters like the one above appear on the screen of your smartphone as if they are really in your house

The idea is that they will appear from another room, or burst out on players from around a corner.

It takes what should feel like a familiar and safe place - your home - and turns it into your worst nightmare.

Novum Analytics said: 'We can create a breathtakingly scary experience for players - one that will make you forget and question what it is you're playing, and how the system knows what it does.'

ULTRASOUND WILL ALLOW GAMERS TO FEEL HOLOGRAMS 

A Star Trek-style holodeck could be closer to reality following the creation of a system that lets people feel holograms with their bare hands.

Using ultrasound to precisely project sensations through the air, users can 'feel' and interact with virtual objects. 

The firm behind the system says it could even allow surgeons to reach 'inside' a hologram of a scan and feel tumours. 

British firm Ultrahaptics has developed a unique technology that enables users to receive tactile sensations from invisible three dimension objects floating in mid-air. 

By focusing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. 

These can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt.

This means the virtual object projects a direct ultrasound at the correct time so the user feels they are touching an object.  



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