Father.IO: World’s First AR Smartphone Laser Tag

Forget dusty arcades, housing dank, musty arenas lit by ultra-violet lights and pumped full of dry ice: the future of laser tag is on the street, and it will be played through your smartphone. Proxy42 has launched Father.IO, a massive-multiplayer augmented reality laser tag game supported by the Interceptor, which is an infra-red receiver/transmitter accessory that bolts on to your smartphone.

“Father.IO is the world’s first real-life, massive multiplayer, first person shooter,” Proxy42 writes on the product’s Indiegogo page, which was successfully funded last April. “Experience the adrenaline, tactics and strategies of gaming in your everyday life. Combining real time geo-localized strategy & first person shooter battles, Father.IO brings a virtual world into your backyard.”

“We’ve reduced professional outdoor laser tag equipment to the size of a keychain,” says Proxy42. “Attach the Inceptor to your phone and start shooting – up to 50 meters away – with a precise and well-collimated hitbox. Our hardware has been tested with hundreds of gamers and pro-gamers.”

“We’ve implemented 6 highly sensitive, infrared receiving sensors, allowing Father.IO to offer unmatched, full gaming immersion,” the makers explain. “The inceptor sensors offer wide angles of reception (almost 90º), both horizontally and vertically, so a shot can be detected from any direction or angle around your Inceptor.”

“With local broadcasting, lag times and bandwidth usage are reduced to a minimum,” the company adds. “With an RTT of only 100ms, it feels like you are playing against an online server having just 30 to 50 ms of latency.”

The Father.IO Interceptor supports iOS and Android devices and can be pre-ordered as a pair from Indiegogo for $50, or $30 each from Brookstone at a later date.