Christian Floerkemeier, Friedemann Mattern: Smart Playing Cards - Enhancing 
the Gaming Experience with RFID 

The idea of pervasive gaming, where traditional tabletop games are enhanced 
with wireless computing devices, has recently received increased attention. We 
present a card game that is augmented with information technology to advise 
novice players and to relieve the players of mundane tasks, such as score 
keeping. The paper outlines in particular our efforts to build a system that 
preserves the assets of conventional card games. We furthermore discuss how 
appropriate RFID system design results in a portable solution which requires 
minimal changes and disruptions to the conventional game flow and which works 
reliably. We also illustrate how the players' mobile phones can be used as 
user interfaces, thus reducing the overall system costs.