Brass Monkey & Infrared5: Startups make play for interactive games
Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal
W. Marc Bernsau
These days, people don’t just want more interactive experiences from their devices and technology. They expect them.
With that in mind, the goal of Jamaica Plain-based Infrared5 and its spinout Brass Monkey is to bring digital interaction to a whole new level. The separate companies have been co-founded and run by husband-and-wife team Chris Allen and Rebecca Smith Allen and their business partner Dominick Accattato.
Infrared5, a digital consulting firm founded in 2007, has worked with the likes of Lucasfilm, Hasbro and Match.com to create more-immersive digital experiences. Meanwhile, Brass Monkey, founded in 2010, offers technology that transforms a smartphone into a video game controller while turning a computer screen into a video game console.
“The goal is to continually innovate,” said Chris Allen, who serves as CEO of Brass Monkey and president of Infrared5. “We’re not the Navy, but the Navy Seals. They’re specialized and the best at what they do.”
Although the two companies share an office and management, they are operated separately, according to Rebecca Smith Allen, who is CEO of Infrared5 and a board member of Brass Monkey.
Infrared5, for instance, which has 15 employees, was funded by its founders, while Brass Monkey, with five employees, is backed by $750,000 in seed funding from more than a dozen prominent angel investors.
Of course, there is some overlap and cross-pollination, Rebecca Smith Allen said, particularly when it comes to technology and manpower resources.
In addition, members from both companies took part in Intel’s recent seven-week Ultimate Coder Challenge. The teams together created a game called “Kiwi Catapult Revenge” making use of perceptual-computing cameras, which can recognize images, gestures and voices. Ultimately, they lost out to Los Gatos, Calif.-based Sixense, but plan to release a playable version of their game.
Still, overlap seems only natural, as one company morphed from the other. Brass Monkey was born while Infrared5 was working with Lucasfilm and THQ Wireless for the browser-based and iOS game “Star Wars: Trench Run.” An employee was working on a side project using an iPhone to remotely-control helicopters; the company decided to take that a step further and create an emulator, which was later applied to the game.
Today, Brass Monkey users can browse games on its website; the company also provides a free software kit that allows developers to create games with similar features to consoles such as the Xbox and Wii. Brass Monkey earns revenue by charging for some of the games on its system and plans to soon launch a subscription service that will give players access to certain games for a monthly fee, Chris Allen said.
“The vision is certainly to become a world-class entertainment system,” Chris Allen said.
Infrared5, meanwhile, specializes in designing and developing games, interactive applications, 3-D experiences, media streaming, and collaboration tools for web and mobile platforms. Recent projects include a system allowing Match.com members to determine their chemistry by playing real-time games and a sensor-equipped batting cage for Tyngsborough-based SmartSports.
Original story link.
With that in mind, the goal of Jamaica Plain-based Infrared5 and its spinout Brass Monkey is to bring digital interaction to a whole new level. The separate companies have been co-founded and run by husband-and-wife team Chris Allen and Rebecca Smith Allen and their business partner Dominick Accattato.
Infrared5, a digital consulting firm founded in 2007, has worked with the likes of Lucasfilm, Hasbro and Match.com to create more-immersive digital experiences. Meanwhile, Brass Monkey, founded in 2010, offers technology that transforms a smartphone into a video game controller while turning a computer screen into a video game console.
“The goal is to continually innovate,” said Chris Allen, who serves as CEO of Brass Monkey and president of Infrared5. “We’re not the Navy, but the Navy Seals. They’re specialized and the best at what they do.”
Although the two companies share an office and management, they are operated separately, according to Rebecca Smith Allen, who is CEO of Infrared5 and a board member of Brass Monkey.
Infrared5, for instance, which has 15 employees, was funded by its founders, while Brass Monkey, with five employees, is backed by $750,000 in seed funding from more than a dozen prominent angel investors.
Of course, there is some overlap and cross-pollination, Rebecca Smith Allen said, particularly when it comes to technology and manpower resources.
In addition, members from both companies took part in Intel’s recent seven-week Ultimate Coder Challenge. The teams together created a game called “Kiwi Catapult Revenge” making use of perceptual-computing cameras, which can recognize images, gestures and voices. Ultimately, they lost out to Los Gatos, Calif.-based Sixense, but plan to release a playable version of their game.
Still, overlap seems only natural, as one company morphed from the other. Brass Monkey was born while Infrared5 was working with Lucasfilm and THQ Wireless for the browser-based and iOS game “Star Wars: Trench Run.” An employee was working on a side project using an iPhone to remotely-control helicopters; the company decided to take that a step further and create an emulator, which was later applied to the game.
Today, Brass Monkey users can browse games on its website; the company also provides a free software kit that allows developers to create games with similar features to consoles such as the Xbox and Wii. Brass Monkey earns revenue by charging for some of the games on its system and plans to soon launch a subscription service that will give players access to certain games for a monthly fee, Chris Allen said.
“The vision is certainly to become a world-class entertainment system,” Chris Allen said.
Infrared5, meanwhile, specializes in designing and developing games, interactive applications, 3-D experiences, media streaming, and collaboration tools for web and mobile platforms. Recent projects include a system allowing Match.com members to determine their chemistry by playing real-time games and a sensor-equipped batting cage for Tyngsborough-based SmartSports.
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