Context Nuggets : A Smart-Its Game

Small, embedded, sensing and communicating computer systems continue to show their applicability in various settings. The Smart-Its platform, which we present, testifies to this. We have developed a game called "ContextNuggets", in order to test and demonstrate the extremities of this platform when subjected to a setting with multiple, ad-hoc users, discovering each other and exchanging context data. Attendees simply attach a Smart-It to their body and they can join in. The gaming strategy entails collecting as much "context" as possible, through altering interactive behavior with other players. Context sources include light, audio and movement sensors. Context is traded via short-range wireless communications. A tool that manages the on-site gaming statistics is also used for analyzing run-time behavior and system status of the Smart-Its.