Video Game Identifies Plastic Pollution
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology
Mexican college students have developed a river and canal cleaning project that couples video game play with a remote-control boat.
The physics and engineering students, who are studying in The Netherlands, created a reality-based video game called Doom Prepper Sailors for the Plastic Free Rivers contest, which is intended to find innovative solutions to the plastic pollution problem in the country’s canals.
Team leader Aura Higuera explained that the team designed a 50-centimeter-long, 3D-printed boat equipped with sensors that allow it to traverse a body of water while its remote operator identifies and tags locations with heavy concentrations of plastic.
“The video game is about an apocalypse caused by water pollution. Each player is able to control a real boat and, with its optical and chemical sensors, along with a camera and GPS, find polluted areas and earn points,” explained Higuera.
The players are supporting environmental efforts by creating a census of plastic and other types of pollutants, data that will be sold to companies tasked with doing the actual clean-up.
The Doom Prepper Sailors project was one of the contest finalists and earned its creators a 5,000-euro prize.
The team’s next step is to put the game to test in real-world conditions through a series of “open days,” where families will be invited to a riverside picnic and participate in several games and races. At the end of the day they will also be invited to clean up the plastic found while playing the video game.
In addition to the environmental benefits of removing plastic from canals, the project is designed to build long-term awareness of pollution issues among young people by incorporating the video game.
Higuera saw the contest as “an opportunity to take concrete actions in favor of humanity... the world needs to reclaim and recover its green areas, Mexico included, and I think this game could become very useful for water treatment projects in our country.”
Source: Mexico News Daily
Media
Taxonomy
- Technology
- Sensor Systems
- Environment
- Plastics
- Pollution
- 3D Modelling
- Video Game Graphics
- Simulation