technology behind Chima app and "hold up to screen"

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kirkjerk
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technology behind Chima app and "hold up to screen"

Post by kirkjerk » Fri Aug 10, 2018 1:03 pm

Hiya!

The other day I opened Lion Legend Beast 70123 - LEGO Chima
It's from 2014 I think.
It came with a cardboard card that says "Place card on screen to unlock the Lion Legend Beast"

The app (and website) is no longer available but... how did that work?
I mean, screens can't READ cards, right? I guess it could be NFC like Amiibos etc, but that seems... not too likely?

I'm reasonably tech saavy, and figuring this is either weirdly high tech, or else something really clever or something really lame... anyone remember?

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Brickbuilder0937
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Re: technology behind Chima app and "hold up to screen"

Post by Brickbuilder0937 » Sat Aug 11, 2018 8:27 pm

Most tablets use capacitive touch screens that can detect anything that conducts electricity. So each of the cards have a different pattern of conductivity to tell the app which one to unlock. The Ultra agents sets used the same technology by placing special conductive bricks on a model to unlock vehicles in the app.

kirkjerk
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Re: technology behind Chima app and "hold up to screen"

Post by kirkjerk » Sat Aug 11, 2018 8:42 pm

Oh wow. I wonder if it's dependent on multitouch or on the the touchscreen being able to return blob data - probably multitouch , most APIs I've seen just do one x y per touch

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