The software and video game distribution company Techland has unveiled a type of car not powered by the usual energy sources of gasoline or electricty, but by a surreal Internet of Things-related wellspring: tweets.
Well ... sort of. The vehicle in question is a Scalextric slot-racing car — i.e., a toy car that runs on a track by way of a battery generator and metal strip conduits in the raceway — and the purpose behind its creation (and subsequent livestreaming marathon currently being aired online) is to promote Techland's latest adventure-horror Steam video game, Dying Light: The Following.
So how does the car harness its Twitter power? The car operates via Wi-Fi with a Belkin WeMo connected plug to link it all together. Using a specific script that the designers put together, the apparatus parses the social site for relative terms and phrases relating to the car or the game. When something is found — say, the hashtag "#TweetforSpeed," for example — the WeMo is then alerted to switch the Scalextric track on, prompting the car to rev up its engine.
There's also an extra incentive for tweeting at the car besides watching a toy speed in circles: the more tweets the distributor gets, the closer it will come to revealing game features, like the Dying Light online map.
Dying Light is set to be released on Feb. 9.
Check out the Twitter-powered Scalextric car in the video clip below.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Techland
