Spin the Spinner and Call the Shots

Berkeley's tele-presence project has a new experiment: Tele-Twister, with games being played every Friday at noon PST:

This version, "Tele-Twister" is a game designed for the Internet. As in the original, the game is played with human bodies(the twisters), but in this version you get to play along and direct their moves from the comfort of your computer. As a player, you log in and are automatically assigned to either the Red or Blue team. You view and play from your computer screen. You see two twisters (real humans), one dressed in red, the other in blue. They respond to moves chosen by the Red and Blue online teams. Your team chooses moves for the twisters (eg, "right hand YELLOW") using a Java-based online interface.

I'm not sure how it advances the body of scientific knowledge, but if you're interested, the game starts in about five minutes. Instructions here, login here.

Comments

[Jason Ligon]

Why is science always so far behind porn? Sigh.

[Steve in CO]

I know Jason. Ever since I watched the last movie that Natalie Wood made, I can't recall the name right now, in which a guy straps on this reality immersion device (that records the experiences of others) and created an endless loop of an orgasm with an attractive woman, I have been waiting for it to arrive on store shelves.

🙂

[Joe Majsterski]

D'oh! I was over there playing as Torchie, and it because people didn't follow my brilliant leadership that the blue team started losing!

[Anonymous]

Is this Twister without the benefit of rubbing against people? That's wierd.

[R. C. Dean]

Steve - I think that was Lawnmower Man.

[Joe M]

No, it was Brainstorm he was thinking of.

[Anonymous]

Actually, the Natalie Wood movie was "Brainstorm." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/

[Lonewacko: I Blogged Across Am]

A few years ago, I obtained a geocities website with the idea of making an online science experiment. A young schoolgirl named "Becky" had a hamster in a cage; viewers of the website could give the hamster a slight electric shock in order to give it feedback on whether to eat or not. I.e., if it was time for the hamster to eat, users shouldn't shock it. If it wasn't time to eat, and the hamster tried to eat, the users should give it one shock in order to direct it not to eat.

Of course, what was going to happen was that people would just fry the thing. Using cookies, I was going to present pictures tailored to each user. If they had fried it, they would see something like "This website is no longer available because some monster fried my hamster." After having fried it, they would see pictures of Becky walking into the frame and screaming into the webcam "You monster, you fried my hamster."

I gave up on it because I didn't want to spend the time and money, but the grant-assisted folks at Berkeley Farms are welcome to take my idea and run with it all the way to a possible IPO.