High Tech Kids Game

Now that I have my GPS issues all wrapped up I thought I’d share the project the whole family is working on.

It’s hide and seek. We’re combining GPS with XBee mesh networking to create an insane 4mile radius game of hide and seek.

It starts off like a bit of reverse geocaching, letting you know how far away from other players you are without giving you and exact location or even direction. And then we add to it.

XBee will update everyones GPS data as well as allow for messages between players. Love to taunt the seeker. We’re also adding radio tuners. As you gain points by playing you unlock abilities or one time use items.

For example you could unlock an item that let’s you activate nearby player radios so you can search for them by sound. Or an “EMP” which overrides the GPS data for a couple of minutes blinding the seeker.

We even thought of having a single player mode where the system will pick a random location within a given distance for you to find.

I’m going to need to order up some more gear to make 4 of these, but I’m hoping to have 2 functional by the end of the year or early 2014.

I’ll keep this thread updated with pictures and video as I go along. :slight_smile:

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@ Skewworks - That sounds like an awesome project. Your imagination never ceases to amaze me!

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Very cool! How do you get XBee coverage over a 4 mile radius?

Actually, my oldest son deserves credit for the initial concept. The 4 of us built on it from “GPS hide & seek”

Pro version has a max range of ~2miles. Radius from seeker then equals 4miles. We’re also going to use the mesh networking which means the that maximum game area is actually a 6 mile radius or 12 total miles (if each person was spaced just under the maximum range from the next).

Snipe hunting will never be the same… :wink:

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This is way cool!

I saw a similar consent a few days ago when reading up on some gadgets

Yup, the original Reverse GeoCache project is what inspired my son to adapt it into a game of hide & seek. :slight_smile:

BTW, I’ve got the screen, LiPo and GPS all up and running with a nice steady lock…on a Hydra :wink:

Good progress is being made today.

Today’s work:
Basic interface is up and running. Logo, LiPo & monitor, SD, GPS, basic navigation.

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Looking good. So, this is a continuation of the PiPBoy project?

Yup, that’s what started everything started. I didn’t want to have a simple replica, so I talked to the family about all the hardware we had available and what could we so with it. Seth came up w the hide and seek idea, which I almost rejected until I thought about the xbee. And it grew from there.

Cool idea. Great way to get the kids involved too. Working on a similar idea but using Android phones and not Gadgeteeer…

Nice location by the way. (Assuming the GPS coordinates are correct)

Don’t you just love Google Street View

:slight_smile:

Thanks. It’s a nice neighborhood, though the coords listed are slightly off, I’m on the South side of that fence.

When I originally did the first part of this w/ Cerb40 & OLED I had captured & modified Google Maps images that I plotted my location on.

I’ve done that again on the 4.5" screen, but added Zoom. :slight_smile:

@ Skewworks - I remember that greenish map view image - was very cool.

@ Dave McLaughlin - Phone version would be really great and would get some good following pretty easy, but wouldn’t be as cool as Tom’s :wink:

Like these?

The new version too forever, but it’s well worth it. It supports 3 zoom levels and has some fun features.

Each zoom level can have n images arranged in c columns and r rows. Images can be whatever size and you can have as many columns and rows as you like.

For example ZM3 has 3 rows of 3 columns of 480x272 images. The PIP-Gear than calculates what portion of which image(s) to show for your current position. It will center it whenever it can, if you’re on the edge it renders to the edge and places the marker where it belongs.

You can also have x number of grids for a map. Here’s a look at the XML file for Grid0-0:

<Grid>
 <Zoom2>
  <Images YPP="3.9839" XPP="5.3638" Cols="3" Rows="3" TL="41.728777,-88.268516" BR="41.725542,-88.260636">
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-00.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-01.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-02.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-10.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-11.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-12.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-20.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-21.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z2\g00-22.gif" />
  </Images>
 </Zoom2>
 <Zoom1>
  <Images YPP="5.9467" XPP="8.2083" Cols="2" Rows="2" TL="41.728777,-88.268516" BR="41.725542,-88.260636">
   <Image Filename="z1\g00-00.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z1\g00-01.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z1\g00-10.gif" />
   <Image Filename="z1\g00-11.gif" />
  </Images>
 </Zoom1>
 <Zoom0>
  <Images YPP="11.8933" XPP="16.0916" Cols="1" Rows="1" TL="41.728777,-88.268516" BR="41.725542,-88.260636">
   <Image Filename="z0\g00.gif" />
  </Images>
 </Zoom0>
</Grid>
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May I come and play too? ;D

Product offshoot idea: a “headless” (non-UI) transponder to clip to a dog’s collar to help keep track of where your dog(s) are when hiking/hunting in remote terrain. Key fob size.

Garmin has something like this, but it’s bulky and costs a small fortune.

It doesn’t need pinpoint accuracy, it just needs to get you within shouting distance so the dog can figure out where you are and catch up to you.

Of course this could also be clipped to small children in the same circumstances. :>

-Danny

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Body heat can be harvested to power the device:

Cerb40 + Adafruit GPS + XBee + battery, you’re done. Rough guess that’s around 200 full price for everything

@ Skewworks - And as an added bonus, your dog will look like it has been assimilated into the Borg. ;>

@ Skewworks - this is such a great idea and a great looking UI too. One question, do you pre-load the map data or can you have a node on the mesh that pulls the map data and sends it out to each individual? Or is there just not enough bandwidth for that?