Even when it’s just team deathmatch in a dark, smelly room inside the local roller rink, laser tag is awesome. So imagine how cool it would be if you could liberate it, and play an open-source version wherever you want with game-types you made up. It’d be like a video game in real life! Or paintball without the pain!
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The original Laser Tag game was a huge hit back in the 1980s, though the campy ray guns, clunky helmet, and embarrassing sensor vest just aren’t fashion forward these days. But it’s still fun—which is why ThinkGeek has resurrected the old game, giving it an updated look that includes a stylish windbreaker jacket, smaller sensors, and an arm-mounted laser blaster.
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I was fortunate enough to spend a solid chunk of my adolescence strapped into an ill-fitting vest and shooting lasers at friends of mine, but a group of technically minded youngsters and their mentors in southern California didn’t just want to play laser tag.
No, the crew at San Diego-based ThoughtSTEM wanted to whip up a (slightly) more subtle laser tag system of their own, and they’re just about there — now they’ve kicked off a Kickstarter campaign to help bring it to market.
The wearable sensor the team has cobbled together is rather neat if only because of how unobtrusive it’s meant to be. Rather than go with a traditional (and bulky) vest, ThoughtSTEM has instead put together a small PCB that’s meant to be worn under a layer of clothing so all that’s visible are the six LEDs that change colors to display your remaining hit points.
For better or worse, you won’t have to lug around any plastic guns either. The sensors on the wearable unit can be triggered by any gadget that can emit infrared pulses at 38kHz, which means most of the remote controls currently cluttering up your living room will probably do the trick. That also means that with a little hackery, you could probably rig up a more traditional IR gun without too much trouble (there seems to be more than a few people who’ve already tried doing just that).
Alright fine, it may lack the panache that come with some more expensive, elaborate setups, but it’s a very neat first project for a crew of savvy young students and their college-age mentors. All told, the ThoughtSTEM team is looking for $10,000 in funding to improve the design of the wearable PCBs and produce them on a larger scale, as well as put together an online storefront to sell them from. $75 will net you a fully assembled target unit, but if you’re willing to apply some of your own elbow grease you can pick up the schematics and a pre-programmed processor for $25, or a bag full of parts for $49. While the proceeds of the Kickstarter campaign will help lock down the particulars of production, ThoughtSTEM aims to funnel whatever future money they make into the program’s coffers so those SoCal mentors continue to run workshops and summer camp programs for tech-savvy middle school and high school kids.
Do you want to play laser tag all the time? Please. Does a bear poop in the woods while dreaming of playing laser tag? Well now you can. A group of kids from the Young Tech Entrepreneur program of ThoughtSTEM have invented a small laser tag target. No need to wear the bulky body armor that doesn’t actually protect you from laser gunfire that isn’t really a laser but infrared!
The yet unnamed gadget is controlled by an ATmega328 chip and has six LEDs that serve as the wearer’s hit points. Each LED goes from green to red each time the gadget is hit and is bright enough to shine through clothing. The current prototypes look rough, but with your help ThoughtSTEM can make the targets look more stylish. But what about the blasters? Well, you may already own a bunch of them. According to ThoughtSTEM anything that emits infrared light at 38 kHz can be used as a laser tag “gun”. That includes many TV remote controls. As you’ll see in the video below, cunning tinkerers can even make hidden infrared weapons or traps.
Pledge at least $75 (USD) on Kickstarter to reserve a fully assembled laser tag target. But if you’re good with electronics, pledging just $25 gets you the schematics and instructions to build the device. They really should come up with a name for it.
Nerf’s doing it, and so is Hasbro, but there’s plenty of room for other folks in the laser tag market, and Hex3 is a startup looking to get in on the action. Called the AppTag Laser Blaster, it combines old school IR-based laser tag with new school augmented reality. Like its aforementioned competition, the gun uses your Android or iPhone (yes, that includes the 5) and a companion app. The app turns your phone into a HUD when playing with friends or an AR window when you’re shooting solo.
Gallery: Hex3 AppTag Laser Blaster hands-on
Where AppTag differs is in how the pistol communicates with your phone. It uses a proprietary high frequency audio signal that requires no pairing or other similar procedures — you simply load up the app, clamp it to the gun and you’re good to go. Additionally, AppTag’s removable pistol grip is attached to the gun via a rail mount. That means the system can be attached to existing Nerf weapons and even real firearms should you be so inclined, plus there’s a corded pressure switch that you can affix to the trigger of any gun. For now, there are a handful of games included in the app, but Hex3 is releasing an SDK so that developers can get creative building their own using the blaster’s four buttons, trigger and reload switch. Interested? AppTag’s currently up for pre-order at $59 bucks a pop, with shipping slated to start in 4-6 weeks. Before you part with any hard earned cash, however, check out our video after the break to see in action.
Filed under: Misc
Hex3 AppTag Laser Blaster turns iPhones and Androids into augmented reality laser tag gun sights (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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With a transportation themed episode, it only seemed natural to take the Engadget Show out of our traditional digs — it was also a great excuse to visit one of our favorite cities in the world: Portland, Oregon. We drove Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV EV around the Northwestern green mecca, stopping at some great PDX spots along the way, including the amazing Ground Kontrol arcade, Hand-Eye Supply and the hackerspace, Brain Silo. We also took the time to speak to some PDX residents, including Core77 co-founder Eric Ludlum and some local modders showing off their homebrew projects.
Also, Brian travels out to Boston to ride along with a gang of bike hackers, Myriam takes the Tesla Model S for a spin around the streets of San Francisco and Michael does his best not to fall off the DTV Shredder in the California desert. And, as always, we got a pile of the month’s latest and greatest gadgets, including the Google Nexus 7, Hasbro’s new Lazer Tag guns and a quick trip around OS X Mountain Lion. Also: comic books, donuts and plenty of EV road trip shenanigans. Click through the break to tune in!
Filed under: Transportation
The Engadget Show 35: EVs in Portland, hacked bicycles and a Tesla Model S test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The NERF has been dropped, but Hasbro’s Lazer Tag system is still the same awesome toy we got a taste of in February. The difference is, now they’re retail ready. Individual blasters, complete with iDevice dock, will hit shelves in just over a week, while packages of two are scheduled for October 1st. The companion iOS app is already available through iTunes, but a rep from Hasbro still describes it as being in beta form (an update is on its way that will remove that tag and simplify the initial set-up). The same rep was also nice enough to swing by the Engadget compound and deliver us a pile of blasters to test ourselves, which we immediately took out for a test run in Washington Square Park. Head on past the break for some impressions and a taste of our “Lazer” battle royale.
Gallery: Hasbro Lazer Tag Hands-On
Continue reading Hasbro Lazer Tag hands-on (video)
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Software
Hasbro Lazer Tag hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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