PICNIC07: New interaction partners, Nicolas Nova

The problem with ubicomp: the model translated into gaming is messy, it's not clean.

Examples: augmenting animals. Shows a cockroach controlling a robot; a rat with survival goggles; special collar to track floating dogs; wiring poultry up to the internet.

How about playing against animals, or using animals as partners in gaming? Pac-man against animals instead of against an AI; or another one where a rodent is pursuing you through a virtual environment.

MMORPGs for pets: a dog running around a physical environment, transmitting its movements to a dwarf inside Wow. Twitter communication with a cat: when the cat scratches the device, the device reports onto Twitter - or when a message is twittered by the owner, it's reflected on the device.

Nicolas is not interested in trivialising animals, bee-dogs, or just controlling them. It's about animals, plants or weather as new interaction partners.