Revolutionary technology to be presented at MIT conference next week

KINGSTON, ON, January 21, 2010 – A groundbreaking technology developed at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada may make traditional board games a thing of the past.

The technology allows groups of friends or family members to play electronic games like they used to do board games: in a sociable and physical setting, placed together around a table. It also eases game controls by using affordances of regular cardboard pieces.

At first glance, the technology, by School of Computing graduate Mike Rooke and Professor Vertegaal, looks like a set of white, cardboard hexagons taken straight from the game board of Settlers of Catan. However, with the help of an overhead camera and a projector, each piece of cardboard becomes a mini-computer capable of displaying video images.