The world has flattened and is gripped in 2-D tyranny. Certainly there have been adaptations, and the smart is in the network, or at least the smart is what the network providers leave over to us after they have strip mined our preferences and behaviors. The network component of the whole product the Polyopticon represents is certainly capable of supporting this device ecosystem, and it is important that the device be able to represent a rich totality of inter-relations, not simply what is sorted and shaped for acceptable consumption.
The built in rendering capacity of systems has expanded to a point where the graphics requirements of the Polyopticon, while still steep, can be fulfilled within the hardware footprint of a portable device. Batteries remain a technical challenge that still requires advancement.
In terms of control systems for physical objects, one of the Polyopticon’s design points, there have been advances in flying and movement through space that calls out for a new controller paradigm. There are many spin-off relationships to model and manipulate complex system parameters in a shared environment driven by polyopticon use.
As foreseen over 10 years ago, FPGAs have leapt to the fore, driven by the technology’s applicability in the cryptocurrency mining space. If the advancement in FPGAs driven by Bitcoin is the only benefit that came from it, that would be enough. Knitting together complex graphics and motion data implies this kind of complex state machinery to provide apparent motion and to maintain whole-system coherence.
Flexible OLEDs are at the precipice of commodification. I pinned the device’s implementation on flexible screen material and the means to physically coat a spherical object with screen material is at hand. Likewise, the haptic input methods to enable the virtual Poly space for input and navigation are technology elements that can be deployed.
As a game, Polyopticon still has the potential to be something paradigmatic. It represents the ability to define the medium in which the game play is transacted. It’s potentially as impactful as the invention of text. Imagine creating a game using the infinitude of reference and physical gameplay elements, and the ability to scale it massively – to have millions simultaneously engaged and using the device to expand it’s impact on fundamental capacities.
2020 finds us in a new world-one which we’re struggling to envision adequately. The Polyopticon represents an attempt to bring assonance to dissonance, to enable generation of unique and important signals, and the ability to apprehend the world’s resources in a way that leaves people ever-more connected, empowered, and enlivened. Empowerment and clarity are the device’s raison d’être. A new space of capability is the outcome.
