30th April 2011

Tiga Talk Wants To Give You A 4G iPod Touch

tactica interactiveTactica Interactive, creators of the Tiga Talk Speech Therapy game have launched a contest with a 4G iPod Touch as the top prize.  The contest is open to anyone aged 15 and up (void in Quebec), and will feature 9 bi-weekly Tiga Talk prize packs on top of the Grand Prize: tiga talk

Grand Prize Draw: One (1) Grand Prize draw will be made at 1 pm on Friday September 2, 2011. The Grand Prize winner will be randomly selected among the entries and the name of each winning entry will be declared the potential winner.

Bi-Weekly Prize Draws: Nine (9) Weekly Prize draws will be made every second Friday starting May 6th, 2011. Each of the Weekly Prize winners will be randomly selected among the entries and the name of each winning entry will be declared the potential winner.

All you have to do to win is talk about Tiga Talk by using the form or links on the Contest Info Page to share Tiga Talk with your friends on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr, or show them your  own Tiga Talk blog, YouTube video or other way you are spreading the good word about Tiga Talk. Please refer to the Contest Rules for full entry and prize details.

aptnTiga Talk, the companion game to APTN’s television show by the same name, is currently on sale for $1.99 USD in the iTunes App Store, and was developed with licensed speech and language pathologists. Tiga Talk is a fun way for children to develop speech sounds through playful voice-controlled games that can improve speech clarity, articulation, and instill confidence. The app is for parents and speech Tiga Talk Submarinetherapists working with toddlers and children with language delays, as well as any parent looking to give their child a head start in early language development.

Children learn fundamental phonetic sounds, that are the building blocks of language, as they play 23 fun voice controlled games on an imaginative adventure with Tiga and friends. Game play rewards are based entirely on participation, not accuracy, so the child is constantly getting positive feedback as long as they are trying to make sounds.

Game activities include piloting a boat, helicopter, hot air balloon, race car, train, submarine, and even flying a rocket ship to visit the moon. Players can pop balloons to reveal clues to guide them on their adventure as well as knock over obstacles that lay in their path, including towers of tires, ice blocks, hay bales, crates, logs or even moon rocks.

Before each game children are introduced to a new phonetic sound by game characters. They are shown a cartoon image representing the sound and are encouraged to try saying the sound aloud. The app listens to make sure they’re verbally participating and congratulates them if they are and showers them with friendly encouragement if they aren’t.

Tiga Talk’s other features include:Tiga Talk Rocket

  • Voice controlled games encourage kids to speak clearly
  • Game play based on actual speech therapy sessions
  • Beautifully vibrant graphics and a variety fun learning games designed to engage young children
  • Entertaining cartoon characters deliver lots of positive feedback
  • An exciting interactive story adventure
  • Licensed speech therapists selected the apps 23 core phonetic sounds
  • Audio and video hints help demonstrate the correct way to make language sounds
  • A sound meter to measure voice volume levelsTiga Talk - Ball
  • Track progress and earn gold stars the more you play
  • Children are able to practice specific sounds and games
  • So easy to play young children can even use it by themselves

Here are just some of the benefits to be gained with Tiga Talk:

  • A great way for all kids to get a head start on language development
  • Kids learn to pronounce sounds more accurately including syllables, letters, and letter combinations
  • Help your child improve coordination and strength of speech muscles
  • Children learn through sound repetition and imitation
  • Children differentiate between sounds they hear and create a broader base vocabulary
  • Improve communication between the child’s brain and the body through visual and auditory aidsBell Fund
  • Improve childhood communication with peers and adults
  • Instill a sense of pride and confidence in your child

Tiga Talk is rated 4+ and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch (2nd, 3rd and 4th gen) and iPad. It requires iOS 4.1 or later. Tiga Talk is developed with the financial support of the Bell Fund.

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30th April 2011

The Office Jerk Awaits Your Barrage In The iTunes App Store

fluik entertainmentEdmonton dev studio Fluik Entertainment and Big Fat Simulations, a BC studio located not far from the Village Office JerkGamer cave in the Fraser Valley, have released a new free to play title in the iTunes App Store.  The ad-supported Office Jerk is available now for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, and if you prefer to torment co-workers ad-free, you can purchase the Remove Ads Pack for $0.99 USD.

For anyone fed up with people at their work place – and we’ve all been there – The Office Jerk is the harmless, feel-good game of the year for anyone tired of dealing with brown-nosing, know-it-all coworkers. From the comfort of your cubicle, unleash a barrage of comical destruction upon your unsuspecting victim – from office supplies like paper and pencils to hilariously dangerous staplers and dynamite. You can also purchase the ACME Pack ($1.99), which will add to your arsenal and up the damage you can inflict on your annoying office mate. The ACME pack includes pies, eggs and incendiary devices, while the $0.99 Ad Unlock will provide you with the stapler and coffee mug. The free version includes a wad of paper, a pencil and an eraser.

Of course, just tossing stuff at The Office Jerk isn’t always as easy as flinging the nearest stapler. The office fan adds to the challenge of nailing your target by intermittently causing a draft that can influence the flight path of your weaponry.

The Office Jerk is rated 9+ for Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, requires iOS 3.1 or later.

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30th April 2011

Murphid Coming to Windows Phone 7

Decapod StudiosDecapod Studios has announced that its incredibly addictive puzzle game Murphid will be launching on Windows Phone 7 early next week for $0.99. I can vouch for the addictive quotient, as I have played…and played…and played Murphid on the Xbox 360 – you can read my review of the game here.Murphid for WP7

Just as in the Xbox 360 version of Murphid, players must use their puzzle solving skills and fast reaction to withstand attack waves of gorgeous marble hordes and bring those beasts under control in this Collapse-Match 3 styled game. Deep, yet simple core game mechanics coupled with astonishing graphics, immersive sound effects and adaptive gameplay result in intense climatic moments that modern gamers are craving. Murphid’s underlying FunQuantization™ technology has been optimized to run flawlessly on Windows Phone 7.

Time-tested, solid fun features include:

* Engaging Campaign spawning more that 70 levels of marble blasting madness.
* Three game modes for players to choose from to suit their playing style.
* More than 10 powerups to help players redefine the game field and wreak havoc in a blink of an eye.
* 8 exclusive Awards to boost the replay value further by throwing extra challenges at the player.
* Pre-filled Leaderboard to give the game nostalgic, old-school touch.
* Awe-inspiring HD visuals with full widescreen support.
* Charming sound effects to create the ambience.
*Adaptive gameplay technology for challenging and fun gaming experience for players of all ages.

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30th April 2011

SIGGRAPH 2011 Technical Papers Advance Preview

siggraph 2011The SIGGRAPH Technical Papers program is the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2011 takes place this August 7th through 11th at the Vancouver Convention Centre, and 82 Technical Papers will be presented. They were selected from among 432 submissions.

The papers to be presented were chosen by a distinguished committee of 52 experts from academia and industry. This year’s Technical Papers program also includes conference presentations for 33 papers published this year in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG). A complete listing of all the papers presented in this year’s program will be available on the SIGGRAPH 2011 web site in late May.

“Each year, the SIGGRAPH Technical Papers program evolves to feature the most cutting-edge advances in technology,” says Hugues Hoppe, SIGGRAPH 2011 Technical Papers Chair from Microsoft Research. “This year is no different as SIGGRAPH 2011 Technical Papers will provide a look into some of the latest achievements in facial animation, stereo and multi-layered displays, procedural modeling, and rendering.”

In addition to core topics of modeling, animation, rendering, imaging, and human-computer interaction, the Technical Papers program encouraged submissions from areas related to computer graphics, including: computer games, design, vision, scientific and information visualization, audio, and robotics.

Featured highlights from the SIGGRAPH 2011 Technical Papers program:

High-Quality Passive Facial Performance Capture Using Anchor Frames

A new technique for high-quality facial performance capture that leverages the repetitive structure of face motions to automatically locate frames with similar expressions, called anchor frames. High-resolution geometry is reconstructed and temporal motion is propagated in parallel using robust image-space matching between the anchor frames.

Authors: Thabo Beeler, ETH Zürich and Disney Research Zürich; Fabian Hahn, Disney Research Zürich; Derek Bradley, Disney Research Zürich; Bernd Bickel, Disney Research Zürich; Paul Beardsley, Disney Research Zürich; Craig Gotsman, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; Bob Sumner, Disney Research Zürich; Markus Gross, Disney Research Zürich

Practical application as suggested by the Technical Papers Chair: Highly detailed facial capture using multiple cameras without markers.

Bounded Biharmonic Weights for Real-Time Deformation

Deformation by linear blending dominates practical use as the fastest approach for transforming 2D and 3D shapes. This paper develops “bounded biharmonic weights” that produce smooth and intuitive deformations for any combination of points, bones, and cages of arbitrary topology, making control of deformations simple and flexible. Read the rest of this entry »

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