ROAM is the exploration of ideas which emerged from the Design Research that was cinducted last term.
We designed a system that works equally in natural and urban spaces, and allows you to collect your experiences in nature as animal avatars. You then take these avatars back into the city, where they manifest themselves sonically through your cellphone speaker with animal sounds, and visually on the large interactive wall. The sound alerts you when other players are in the area, which is unpredictable since players are moving. The interactive wall allows you to showcase your animals, and even perform for friends. This urban experience is complemented with each visit to a natural area, so the system becomes cyclical: participation in one space leads to rewards and participation in the other.
At this point in our design research, there are several options for the activities in each space, as you've seen in our exhibit behind you. What we wish to emphasize is how participation in one space leads to participation in the other, and thinking of them both as public space.
By using a game to interface with nature, it gets them into this space with a very different mindset. We feel this introduces a whole new field of opportunities. The realms of mobile gaming, personal identity, social behavior, and environmental awareness all become relevant.