Explore Technologies

Explore Technologies, Inc. was founded in Sunnyvale, California in 1995. Its offices were located at 2880 Lakeside Drive, Suite 130.

Products

Odyssey Atlasphere

The first product released was Odyssey, The World's First Altasphere, an interactive, talking globe. . It was released in early 1997, as a late release for the 1996 Christmas season. Its retail price was $299 and it was sold through specialty retailers such as Sharper Image and Hammacher Schlemmer. In 1997 the price was increased to $399. The product received wide positive praise and several educational awards, but was not a retail success due to its limited distribution and relatively high retail price.

The user interacted with the globe by touching the surface of the globe with an attached pen. The globe then calculated a latitude/longitude position which was used to determine the location touched. This position sensing was implemented using a patented technology called NearTouch developed by Explore Technologies.

Included Facts

Odyssey contained over 50 facts about most of the world's countries. These facts were accessed by touching a location on the globe and the appropriate fact button on the control panel.

• Country
  • Name
  • Capital
  • Government
  • Status
  • Political subdivisions
  • Date Established
  • Admitted to the Union
• People
  • Population
  • Density
  • Urban Population
  • Growth Rate
  • Population Doubling Time
  • Life Expectancy
  • Birth Rate
  • Death Rate
  • People per Telephone
  • Literacy Rate
  • Religions
  • Official Languages
  • Commonly Spoken Languages
• Land
  • Total Area
  • Highest Point
  • Lowest Point
  • Deepest Point
  • Average Depth
• Money
  • Currency
  • Gross Domestic Product
  • Purchasing Power
  • Income distribution
  • Energy Consumption
  • Energy Production
  • Government Budget
  • Imports
  • Exports
  • Import Trading Partners
  • Export Trading Partners
  • Average Income
• Climate
  • Precipitation
• Music
  • Traditional & National Athems
• Time
  • Local Time
• Distance
  • Distance between two touched points
  • Travel time between two touched points
• Compare
  • Compare facts between two touched locations

Updates

The product was designed with a removable globe sphere and connector to accept an updated fact database. No updates were ever released for the product.

GeoZone Cartridge

The Geozone cartridge was included with each Odyssey globe. It was actually a dummy cartridge. Inserted, the cartridge activated code contained in the base unit.

Eureka

In a series of 45 second rounds, you are asked to touch the announced countries as quickly as you can. An incorrect touch will produce hints guiding you towards the target country.

Globesurfer

Players are asked to touch three countries that are announced. Next players are asked a series of questions whose answer is one of the three countries. Questions such as, "which country has the largest population?", "which country has the largest area?"

Solo Trek

A version of the Eureka game where the object is to locate all of the world's countries in as few 45 second rounds as possible.

Metropolis Cartridge

Metropolis was a retail cartridge that allowed the user to touch and receive information about 500 cities from around the world.

GeoMania Cartridge

GeoMania was a retail cartridge.

Acquisition by LeapFrog

Explore Technologies, Inc. was acquired by Leapfrog Enterprises on July 22, 1998.^[1] The explore team produced $99 and $129 versions of the Odyssey globe released under the LeapFrog label in 1999. The NearTouch technology was then applied to the LeapPad learning platform also released in 1999.

References