10 of the most exciting technology projects in Vodafone - Day 4

In our review of some of the most exciting technology projects taking place in Vodafone, today we’ll be looking at two very different projects that will enable people to play online games.

7) Zero latency gaming – Santiago Tenorio, Vodafone Group Head of Network Strategy & Architecture

Massively multiplayer online games are a rapidly growing industry increasingly involving both professional players and serious amateurs wanting premium performance from their gaming rigs.

The amount of latency experienced by gamers is a major source of irritation as they spend more time playing, and often also needing to communicate in real time with other players, over the internet.

Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay between my home and the server and has a direct impact on the time it takes from other players taking an action and that action appearing on my screen.

The main contributor of latency is the distance that the command needs to travel from the home network to the gaming company’s servers, which can be in another country.

To evolve our networks to enable gamers to get lower levels of latency, we are planning to use Multi-access Edge Computing to host applications virtually and therefore closer to customers.

We are currently exploring pilots to host servers for gaming companies on our networks. This could provide a premium gaming experience for Vodafone customers.

These planned trials will help Vodafone be ready for a future where customers are expected to play far more virtual reality and augmented reality games over fixed and mobile networks.

8) Eva Facial Mouse – Santiago Moreno, Head of Vodafone Spain Foundation

Marcos Muñiz García is 46 years old and lives in a small village called Mieres in the heart of Spain’s coal mining country. He suffers from Cerebral Palsy and in the past struggled to use any mobile devices. Now he is able to do so thanks to the EVA Facial Mouse created by the Vodafone Spain Foundation and CREA Software System.

EVA Facial Mouse is a free app which allows the user to control an Android device by tracking the movements of their head (you can download it here).

It provides an alternative method for accessing a mobile device for those, like Marcos, who cannot use a touchscreen. Marcos has severe speech impairments, so he mainly uses EVA to communicate. He is not alone though in finding the app useful. It has already had over 1.7 million downloads and rated 4.4 out of 5 on the Google Play store with more than 11,000 evaluations.

EVA Facial Mouse has also found a surprise secondary audience in India where many people used it to control their smartphones while applying henna tattoos to their hands!

Back in Spain, Marcos is looking forward to further development of the app which will enable him to play some games in the Google Play store for the first time.