“A framework for distributed audio smartphone games” by Collins, Taillon, Kapralos and Trivi

The explosive growth of smartphone sales in recent years has almost no comparison in the sector of consumer electronics. Sales in 2010 almost doubled those of 2009 year, with Android-based units showing a startling 1,580% growth in the last quarter of 2010, as compared to the same period the previous year [3]. Given such a proliferation of mobile computing power, there is much need for further exploration in the areas of distributed gaming, multimedia, networking, and audio for mobile devices. This project explores the use of smartphone technology as computing units for ad hoc gaming support. The underlying environment assumes a close-proximity setting, such as a classroom, conference room, or social setting (e.g. an activity area on the order of 15m). The work presented here is the first of four phases encompassing an over-arching research programme that explores the potential for networking smartphones in distributed audio-based applications: 1. audio playback using smartphones of synchronized tracks for social gaming applications, providing opportunity for interactivity between participants; 2. exploration of the role smartphones can play interacting with a smart-table in gaming; 3. using smartphones to explore educational games relating to acoustics, using sound field effects created by physically moving the phones in a monitored environment.

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