NFC City Game – Capture the Tagpowered by Touchatag

Michael Elias

September 2009

2 | Touchatag |August 2009 All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009

Capture the Tagan NFC-based City Game, powered by touchatag

Flag node Neutral node

Adapted from classic game

“Capture the Flag”

Each of two teams, red & blue, is

assigned a “flag”—a set location

marked by an NFC tag

Several additional ‘neutral node’

tags are located around designated

play space

Goal: Locate and capture the other

team’s tag before your own team’s

tag is captured

=> But that is possible only after your

team has captured enough neutral tags

3 | Touchatag |August 2009 All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009

Capture the TagRules

2 teams play against each other and attempt to capture the opposing team’s flag node

Nodes can be captured by reading them and answering a question

Correct answer captures node and possibly reveals clue hint to other hidden nodes

Incorrect answer reveals location of the node to opposing team (by text message), and forbids team from attempting to capture this node again for a set time period

Once enough neutral nodes have been captured (4), the opposing team’s flag node can be captured

Neutral nodes can be recaptured

The team that captures the other team’s flag node first, wins the game

4 | Touchatag |August 2009 All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009

Google App EngineGoogle App Engine

Touchatag ACSTouchatag ACS

Capture the Tag

Architecture - Setup

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1. Admin sets up the game; defines answers, nodes and players

2. The city game application returns a list of nodes each with an URL

3. Each node’s URL must be mapped in Touchatag ACS to an RFID tag

Admin Web page

Admin Web page

5 | Touchatag |August 2009 All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009

Capture the Tag

Architecture – Registration

Google App EngineGoogle App Engine

Touchatag ACSTouchatag ACS

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1. Player’s NFC phone reads a tag associated with the game

2. The app associated with the tag is looked up in the Touchatag ACS

3. Phone’s browser is routed to the weblink associated with the tag

4. Player enters his username and password on the webpage and registers, a cookie with the player’s info is stored in the phone’s browser

5. Once all players have registered, the admin starts the game

Registration web page

Registration web page

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Admin web page

Admin web page

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6 | Touchatag |August 2009 All Rights Reserved © Alcatel-Lucent 2009

Capture the Tag

Architecture – Node capture

Touchatag ACSTouchatag ACS

Google App EngineGoogle App Engine

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1. Player reads a node tag

2. The app associated with the tag is looked up in the Touchatag ACS

3. Phone’s browser is routed to the weblink associated with the tag.

4. The city game application recognizes the cookie stored on the phone and identifies the phone as a player. A question webpage is

shown for the node.

5. The player enters his answer and if the correct, claims the tag (node)

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Question web pageQuestion web page44

55 Submit web pageSubmit

web page