www.3ders.org

Jul 4, 2017 | By Benedict

Singapore-based startup Tag Team Inc. is using using AI, 3D printing, and drones to create what could be the most futuristic version of laser tag ever made. The company’s unique laser tag experience includes a drone shooting challenge and an interactive Mixed Reality (MR) game.

If you haven’t been to any children’s birthday parties lately, it might have been a while since you last played laser tag. But when you hear what Singapore-based Tag Team Inc. is doing with the concept, you’ll want to get back in the arena as soon as you possibly can. (If you’re based in Singapore, that is.)

Laser tag, as cool and futuristic as it still seems, has been more or less the same for a few decades now: you run around a dark network of rooms wearing an infrared-sensitive jacket, firing infrared-shooting guns at your enemies. Get hit and you’re temporarily disabled; hit your enemy and you rack up points.

That is (and will always be) fun, of course, but with all the exciting modern technologies that have appeared since laser tag was first introduced, Tag Team Inc. decided that the game was due an upgrade—and a significant one, too.

Over the last six years, the startup has been developing a host of technologies made specifically to augment and improve the laser tag experience.

And perhaps the most exciting addition to the game is drones. Yes, according to the startup, infrared-sensitive drones have been introduced that fly above the battlefield and attempt to shoot the players below. It sounds terrifying, but the drones aren’t invulnerable: if your team shoots the drone 20 times, you win.

Another addition to the laser tag experience is an interactive Mixed Reality video game in which players use physical swords and bows to fight enemies onscreen (or each other). Sensors embedded in the weapons capture movement, and this information is transferred to the game to visually represent the movements onscreen.

According to the International Business Times, 3D printing has played a big part in Tag Team’s development of these new technologies. The newspaper reports that the swords and bows used in the Mixed Reality game were both 3D printed, though details are scarce on how these items were developed.

But it’s all a bit more complex than just chucking a drone and some new weapons into the laser tag brew.

A big part of the new laser tag experience is the startup’s development of neural networks and machine learning technology. By putting these complex systems on sensor-equipped printed circuit boards, Tag Team Inc. has been able to develop drones that know exactly when and where to attack, while the technology has also been incorporated into other aspects of the system.

At present, Tag Team Inc. has two laser tag facilities in Singapore, but hopes to sell its system to other companies around the world. The company was chosen as “best innovative startup” by the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) in 2016, and has even been asked to develop a customized simulation and training game for a law enforcement agency.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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