FluxBits: Wearable game interfaces

In the traditional type of gaming experience a designer designs the type of experience that player will have. FluxBits are wearable game interfaces that transform objects around into controls for the game you are playing. Meta controllers such as FluxBits allow for an Open Design approach to gaming, where traditional gaming doesn't.

For instance, you could use a clip board as a steering wheel for a driving game or an umbrella as a joy stick. It's completely up to the user. FluxBits are worn on the person and accompany the individual through out the day, enabling game play to take place where ever the user wants. The individual FluxBit pieces form an ad-hoc network, communicating with a central mobile device, which would be used as the display during game play.

FluxBits translates the movement of the object into directions for the video game and sends this to the display device. Here the player is using a bus strap to play Pac-Man with her Nintendo DS.

Once someone has used an object, they can mark the object with a sticker to indicate to other players how it might be turned into a game interface. Example: A player puts a FluxBit sticker on a bus strap, indicating where a FluxBit can be attached for playing. Also, each sticker that is attached to an object has associated with it a scorecard, listing who has played here and their hi-score. This scorecard is accessed with a mobile phone, using a tracking ID or RFID tag on the sticker itself. When players find a sticker, they can see who has played there and what are the hi-scores to beat. By playing a game at this location, the player’s own records are updated on the scorecard. Dedicated players can request a map of the city with tagged gaming locations and spend a day seeking out these locations to play.

There are more possibilities here in terms of the form of these FluxBits. But the developer is satisfied right now with rather abstract images of the fashion accessory handcuff.

Right now prototypes exist as hardware clamps:

Here is a video of the FluxBits being used in it's prototype phase:

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