A game design company in the US, founded by an IIT-educated entrepreneur, has showcased a first of its kind wearable gaming platform meant to reduce screen time for children and increase their social interaction and physical activities. MadRat Games, founded by IIT Mumbai and Carnegie Mellon alumnus Rajat Dhariwal, launched the prototype of “SuperSuit” at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show CES 2016 in Las Vegas.
SuperSuit is designed as a wearable gaming platform aimed to reduce screen time for kids and increase their social interaction and physical activities. Dhariwal said SuperSuit is the world’s first wearable gaming platform and has been designed to enable children shift from screen dominated games and termed it as the “future of gaming”.
“For children, outdoor play is already the favourite mode – they are unable to do that due to shrinking outdoors in cities & urban spaces and restrictions on them due to safety concerns in suburbs. There is a growing feeling of restraint & lack of freedom, and kids can claim that freedom back with SuperSuit,” he said in a statement.
SuperSuit comprises two units – a vest and glove. While the vest records hits and displays scores in form of lights, audio and haptic feedback, the glove enables the interactivity between players with triggers to send beams. The suit’s accompanying smartphone app also allows parents to monitor their children’s fitness data and track their location.
Dhariwal and his wife Madhumita Halder founded Wyoming-based MadRat Games that focusses on building unique puzzles and board games. Their puzzle three-games-in-one Madzzle also recently won the Parents’ Choice Award in the US. Dhaliwal had said that Madzzle serves as an educational tool for children and is the world’s first jigsaw puzzle that rolls up.
PTI
