Your Phone is Your Controller: Collaborative Gaming in Public Spaces

MegaPhone makes digital signage interactive using a regular phone call.

MegaPhone is a real-time collaborative gaming platform where anyone can use any phone to interact with a public display, using their phone as a controller.

It’s NOT a downloadable application that runs on your phone, and it’s NOT a wireless network, like Wifi or Bluetooth. It’s just a regular phone call. Anyone can participate by just calling a regular phone number, using any phone, on any service provider, in any country. Their input changes what happens on the display.

There are two ways to send input to the display: keypad and voice. The keypad can be used much like a video game controller, and the volume of the phone’s microphone can also become input in the game. MegaPhone updates the game state on a big screen, or on multiple screens.

MegaPhone also closes the loop between a viewer and the screen by allowing two way communication. As part of a MegaPhone experience a caller can also contribute text, image, video, and audio content to the screen, and can receive the same. A caller can also receive mobile digital content, such as ringtones, wallpapers, and games. This allows for the development of fully interactive outdoor collaborative experiences of all types, including games, information systems, and realtime voting and polling.