Saturday, October 21, 2006

Virtual Plants on Mobile Phones

Hello. Back to reality after some months of hard works on a book that will be published during next spring. More information later. In this post, I will rather focus on a new project we have begun with my friend Claude Lattaud of Paris V university. This project is called the "green tamagotchi project" after the great commercial success of Bandai's game. The idea is to take care of a plant on your mobile phone. You will be able to change light, put water, some fertilizer, and see the growth of a virtual plant. After some days you'll get a beautiful plant with green leaves and flowers. You could then send it to your wife for her birthday or add it to your virtual garden on your PC... There will be a large variety of seeds and you will be also able to create new species. We used an advanced 3D L-System engine for the artificial life part of the project. The image shows a view of the work in progress prototype on a mobile phone simulator. We also work on the user interface that must be usable by any mobile phone owner. Any company interested in this project can contact me...