Monthly Archives: January 2014

Ingress Regional Score Widget

Ingress Regional Score Widget

Following the recent news about Ingress Regional Score, Niantic issued an app update with the first ever widget. Awesome!

Currently it is quite limited and not very appealing from the design point of view, but it does its work ok — shows current MU score for your region, plus time till next update.

It is 2×4 blocks large and space is used ineffectively. I would use 1×4 block or even 1×2 to save screen space, but there are no other sizes available. Simply resizing it eliminates stats from the view. Also, it will be good to see % for each faction as it better shows dominance. Even in-app Intel tab lacks % ratio now.

Clicking on it opens Ingress (though not Intel tab). Hopefully, it does not eat too much battery 🙂

Emotiv – Mind Power Controls Reality

A bit a while ago I told you about controlling objects with gestures (Nymi and Myo). This time I have something even more amazing. How about changing reality by the force of… mind!

This sounds like a science fiction, but you can already pre-order a stylish “iPhone-like” helmet, which allows you to play video-games, control toys (like helicopters or racing cars) and even drive a wheelchair!

Let’s take a closer look. Device is named Emotiv Insight and connects to computer (or smartphone, wheelchair etc) wirelessly via Bluetooth. Yes, no annoying wires, nothing like that. Helmet uses five sensors (dry ones, no gel), which measure electrical activity of certain brain zones and guesses what you meant right now.

Every brain is a bit different, so first you need to calibrate Emotiv by letting it know, how your brain behaves when you think about “up”, “down”, even “disappear”. After it learns, your thoughts will trigger this or that action. Simple and brilliant!

Team behind Emotiv is led by ambitious Tan Le, I found an video from 2010 (imagine, how it improved since then!!), where she demonstrates early prototype. This blows my mind!

Currently there are four main usage scenarios:

  • Computer games. Control objects without using keyboard or joystick. Of course, it applies more to non-action scenarios with slower gameplays at the moment. I think, it is a bit early to shoot enemies in Counter Strike or Call of Duty.
  • Real world toys. This is much more interesting — helicopters, cars, boats etc. Some additional programming might be needed.
  • Freedom for disabled. It is already possible to control wheelchairs and simply computers by disabled people. This makes their lives much easier and bright.
  • Analyse own brain. Emotiv provides an app, which checks your brain activity on different occasions and provides intelligent advice. Maybe you can learn more, while listening to Mozart? Or Justin Bieber? 🙂

Emotiv Insight Control

In addition, Emotiv has 6-axis inertial sensor (roll, pitch, yaw, vertical, lateral, longitudinal acceleration), which gives you even more flexibility and control. Basically, it tracks head movements, nods, etc.

How much does this candy cost? There is no official price at the moment as you can only register for a queue, but you can have a fairly good approximation by looking at Kickstarter prices.

$229 for consumer edition, $329 for Developer edition (access to SDK to create your own apps), $429 for Research edition (all above + access to raw brainwave data for extensive analysis). Delivery was promised around March/April 2014.

I am a bit surprised that SDK kit costs something because it should be Emotiv team’s own intention to build the interest to this innovative yet quite unknown device. But anyway this promises to be an amazing experience, will be watching for a mass production.

Ingress Regional MU Scores

Ingress Regional ScoresIngress players already know that recent update brought long-awaited Regional MU scores to the mobile app!

Basically, this adds a bit of a challenge, which this game lacked. Who has ever paid attention to Global MU scores? I believe, no one seriously as it is hard to believe that every single player’s contribution is decent enough to change the numbers.

Now, things went much more appealing. Planet is divided into regions and you can view MU stats for your region and neighbourhood. Timeframe, called Cycle, is 175 hours (according to Shapers calendar) and it is slightly more than a week. These extra 7 hours bring shift to the Cycle when using normal “Earth calendar”, so it starts/ends on a different time. Ingress Cycles are synchronized globally.

There are 5 hours Periods in each Cycle, ending with a Checkpoint. This is what you need to keep in mind — MU count is frozen at the Checkpoint, regardless of what was going on during these 5 hours: furious battle or everyone was sleeping :). Timer shows exact time, when current Period ends and it makes game more intense! You need to be sure that when timer counts to 0, your faction owns more MU in your region, than your rivals.

Graph shows these Periods and a running average, which is based on previous MU stats at the Checkpoints, so make an effort towards the end of the Ingress Cycle!

You are able to see history of previous cycles, though currently history shows 0 as Regional Scores have just been introduced. There are also Top 3 and Top 50 lists for those who like bragging 🙂 Only those created final link for MU are counted in the scoreboard and it is updated every 175 hour Cycle.

It also seems a bit slow, when navigating between regions and tabs in the app, but most likely will be fixed later. Good job, Niantic!

P.S. Update. Small note: if your field spreads over multiple cells (regions), then MU is spread among them. Also, you can check a handy web tool — Ingress Cell Map, where cell borders are clearly visible. Unfortunately, it does not show actual stats.

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