Cam'Fun Play with your e-motions Link-U has been researching a way to take the best possible advantage of the camera that is nowadays more and more included with modern devices such as: Nokia 3650, 6600, Siemens SX-1, ... and has done all that in Java to ensure current and future portability. Download the PDF documentation here.

This is how the « Cam'Fun » technology was born. The technology is based on a simple idea. During the game the camera's image is captured, filtered and processed in order to detect the exact movement of the device in the real world. The player only has to move his hand in order to control the hero inside the game.

Just move your hand and the hero will follow your moves.

In this first cam'fun based game, « Antar », the game can be played by just holding any key. Release the key and the hero will fall naturally. Just press again to get control back. In the same way people lift up a mouse, the player can release the button to reposition himself and avoid having to move continuously on too big distances.

To keep a button pressed continuously is only required on the Nokia 3650 since otherwise it would disable the backlight. It is however possible on other devices (with functional backlight control calls) to imagine a game where the player simply would not have to press any key at all during the game.

This technology is very open an can easily be adapted to several game concepts. The only limitation being that movement is determined by the detail level inside the image captured by the camera. It is therefore not possible to play in front of a plain white wall without any objects around, however any other environnement with at least some detail will allow good gameplay.

In the game « Antar » a notion of « signal » is introduced to inform the player of the amount of details in the environment in which he is currently playing. It the detail is too low at some point a message will show up on the screen saying « low signal, move your phone ». In such a situation the game is simply paused in order not to ruin the game (see interface picture).