A Web-based platform for scavenger hunt games using the Internet of Things

The concept of an “Internet of Things” (IoT) initially referred to a network where objects would be individually and instantly identified with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID). Such concept was later evolved to a wider notion of heterogeneous objects using ubiquitous technologies to interact among them and with the physical environment. Among these technologies, Bluetooth, ZigBee, GPRS, NFC, QR code, can be cited some of those that were labeled as IoT technologies. Based on the possibility of linking ordinary objects from the physical world to the Internet, this paper proposes and details a platform called TagHunt, for creating and playing scavenger hunt games. It allows smartphones to interact with ordinary objects using IoT-based technologies such as NFC and QR Code, stimulating the user/player to interact with the surrounding environment looking for “clues” in the game. We performed an experiment involving four different scavenger hunt game scenarios created with the platform were we could evaluate user/player engagement when playing such games.