Calling all OSG users (and other brave souls). TechnoSphere is Beta testing.

We are looking for Beta Testers and as much feedback as possible.  So here is the blurb.

Some of you may remember a UK web-based and then 3D Artificial Life project from the 90’s called TechnoSphere.  Since then – for fun – we have been maintaining a 3D PC version.

Recently we have been working on TechnoSphere Creature Create Android app.  It’s the first in a suite of apps – an app eco system – designed to take full advantage of 3D, Artificial-Life, Augmented Reality, GPS and Simulation Gaming technologies.

This first app allows the user to construct a TechnoSphere creature from a series of predefined models and textures. The selection of specific components affects the Digital DNA of the creature and influences how the creature reacts to both its virtual and real environments.  The Digital DNA output of this app is made available to subsequent TechnoSphere apps.

TechnoSphere Play: users will create a playful environment for a TechnoSphere creature by placing fiducial markers on any flat surface; user-produced sliceform objects (either paper printed or 3D printed using a home printer) will add to the hands-on experience and allow for a mix of the real and the virtual.

TechnoSphere ALife: will allow creatures to interact and respond to the AR virtual objects by, for example, getting stronger, getting more mobile.

TechnoSphere Learn: by employing GPS, creatures will be able to ‘know’ where its user is located, what he/she is doing, and participate in the daily life of the user; for example, if the creature’s owner is drinking coffee at a cafe and studying an online course… the creature will get smarter and more active that day.

TechnoSphere 3D Print: will allow the user to download 3D and sliceform print-ready creature files to use on their home 3D printer.

We’d love you to help us Beta Test theTechnoSphere Creature Create Android app (Android Ice Cream Sandwich and above). Please register as a Beta Tester on this website.  The website also has general information if you want more of the background story.  With regard to the Beta Tester Questionnaire, if you fill it in – and I am hoping that you will, obviously! – we are reserving the right to quote anonymously anything cool and enlightening you might say.

With a bit of luck, we will be launching on Kickstarter very soon, to generate the cash needed to take TechnoSphere in new directions.  The TechnoSphere Creature Create app that I am asking you to test is just the first step.

We are happy to take feedback directly at beta@technosphe.re 
Thanks, Mark and The TechnoSphere Team