okansas.blogspot.com

okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering

Friday, July 03, 2009

Oreinteering-like game for the Iphone

Wouldn't it be cool if you could have some way to automatically generate an orienteering training course and then create a map for you?

Seeknspell is an Iphone game that is a bit like that. The game generates a set of control locations on an aerial photo. Each control has a letter code and the idea is to run around and collect letters that you can then use to spell words. The GPS in the phone tracks your location and notes when you collect a control.

I spent the $0.99 and bought the app. I just tested it around my apartment. One problem is that the apartment I live in is so new that the aerial photo just shows a bit empty lot. No trouble, I just oriented the photo and headed off in the right direction. When I came to the control location, the phone vibrated to let me know I'd found the control. I picked up 4 letters and then spelled a word ("not") and earned a few points.

I need to test the game in an area where the photo will be up to date and have some features to read. A city park on a university campus would be good options.

You can see a short video that'll give you an idea of how the game works.

Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

posted by Michael | 7:43 PM

3 comments

Comments:

Great concept - awful name for it!

# posted by

Ollie : 7:33 AM

Wow, thats pretty cool. It might show the way orienteering is heading. Maybe we will end up not having controls, but will automatically "clip" the control when we pass through the location.

Would be great if people running roughly together can't hear or detect if the others "clip" the control.

# posted by

Unknown : 7:21 PM

We have used Whereigo (http://www.wherigo.com/) on Garmin Oregon GPS'es for some of our o-trainings to do similar stuff where you don't have to put out controls - but the GPS instead controls that you are within the correct area. You can do a lot with Whereigo - even set it up so that you only get a new control spot when you have reached the current spot.

# posted by

Jan Kocbach : 1:11 AM

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