Badge Games and Ninja Hackers

DefCon is the world’s largest hacker convention.

For this year’s convention, elite hacker gang, the Ninjas, have created an interactive role-playing game that is played through specially designed badges, distributed only to those invited to their private party.

One of the most exclusive venues for fraternizing at DefCon is the Ninja party. To attend the party attendees have to know one of the Ninjas and they have to give them a badge.
In years past, a Ninja would give a party attendee a sticker or a paper invite that would get them in to the party. Last year the Ninjas took the party invite to the next level when they created their own custom badge for their party attendees. This year, badge designers Amanda Wozniak and Brandon Creighton decided to take the badge to the next level, and then some. What started as a sketch on a napkin ended up as an amazing hacker gaming and development platform.
(Via Wired)

The badge combines an old school look and feel with cutting edge features, such as the ability to wirelessly communicate with other badges.

In order to fund these extravagant badges, Ninja got funding from Facebook and Lookout:

In order to test the game while the badges were being developed, the Ninjas used the iPhone app SDK:

And to top it all off, the badge comes with an instruction manual that almost exactly mirrors the original NES manual:

All of this makes my “Adventurer” badge on Foursquare seem pretty.. dated.

The Like button in real life

Tag physical objects with ‘Like’ stickers (buy) here and see what other people have ‘liked’ in real life here.

Momobot: Navigation by Feel

For those who want navigational assistance without the stress of map reading, a couple graduate students at NYU, Che-Wei Wang and Kristin O’Friel, have come up with a fuzzy new tool for you, named Momobot.

Momo is a haptic navigational device that requires only the sense of touch to guide a user. No maps, no text, no arrows, no lights. It sits on the palm of one’s hand and leans, vibrates and gravitates towards a preset location. Akin to someone pointing you in the right direction, there is no need to find your map, you simply follow as the device leans toward your destination.
(via momobots.com)

The concept is nicely explained in this video:

Two points of interest:

1 – Adding a human touch: The vibrations and movements of the robot make navigation feel more human.

When is a human touch desirable for advertising?

What surprising haptic experiences could we bring to outdoor or installation settings?

2 - Sensory deprivation: How can the denial of certain senses (in this case the vision of a map) enable users to experience their surroundings in new ways?

Pillow Talk brings long-distance lovers closer

Joanna Montgomery recently debuted a romantic interaction design project called “Pillow Talk“:

Pillow Talk is a project aiming to connect long distance lovers. Each person has a pillow for their bed and a chest sensor which they wear to sleep at night. The chest sensor wirelessly communicates with the other person’s pillow; when one person goes to bed, their lover’s pillow begins to glow softly to indicate their presence. Placing your head on the pillow allows you to hear the real-time heartbeat of your loved one.
(via Jawbone)

Thoughtful evolution of the “Boyfriend Pillow.”