Final Project: Planning

Alright, so Jackie and I are teaming up on this one.

Idea 1: The Wiimote
So the initial idea was to take apart a Wiimote and put the components on a glove to enhance the gesture control nature of the Nintendo Wii. However, this is merely a technical exercise, and as Dana articulated where I couldn’t, we would basically be changing the casing of the Wiimote. It isn’t enough.

Dana informed me that you can indeed use a Wiimote with the computer, and there are many instances of people interacting with Processing using a Wiimote. I don’t know why I thought this, but I didn’t think you could actually do that. From some cursory research, this may involve making a DIY infrared sensor bar, which may be problematic in that we don’t have a lot of time to ship parts. I am going to try very hard to find a way to use a Wii sensor bar or find a relatively inexpensive one that connects to a USB port. I’m still not entirely sure how to get them to talk, and there are a few Processing libraries that seem to work, but the posts I’ve been finding are for Processing 2 and earlier. I am concerned that there may be no contemporary libraries that are functional. Truth be told, I am skeptical that this idea will work (and remain at a reasonable price).

Idea 2: Anti-Anxiety Plush (+ other things)
My other idea is to make an anti-anxiety or anxiety helper plush. To do this I would use a pulse sensor, a speaker and possibly an LED. My idea is to track when the pulse sensor sends a signal, and use that to create a steady pulse rhythm that is slower than the user’s own heartbeat. The key here is that I want to have that steady rate rather than merely delaying the signal from the pulse sensor, as we saw they can be rather finicky, and having just a steady beat would be more soothing. As a side note, I mentioned this idea to my sister and she has a plush that plays a slow, steady heartbeat sound already! She said it really helps her, so I guess I have my case study! But I want my heartbeat sound to be responsive to the user’s own heart rate so it could help slowly bring down their heart rate.

Dana also suggested to me that I look into other delivery methods for this – like having a plush to cuddle isn’t necessarily the best idea for say, a working professional. So I can think about other forms of delivery for the sound and light, as well as ways to apply the pulse sensor (my mind immediately jumps to just like.. a cute block of wood for the sound. This may be because of my love of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium being a movie that never fails to calm me down and cheer me up). Eventually, having like a fashionable bracelet or something wireless would be nice, and for the delivery for something discreet, maybe a necklace that just vibrates gently with the pulse beat? But that would definitely be an “eventually” sort of thing. At least I have somewhere to go with this one!

Assignment 3: Ideas

Alright so the theme for this one is proximity and distance. I want to try to make a little mechanised thing that will run away from you if you get too close. I have 2 ideas for this one. The first being basically a hamster ball type thing covered in felt or foam or something with embedded conductive material, and where there is something inside that will cause the little guy to propel forwards if you get too close to it. I couldn’t figure out how this would work specifically with a hamster ball, so I figured I could make a ball out of wire mesh and coat that. I also had no idea how I could pull this off with basically making it wireless, but then I thought of bumper cars and how they get their power with the long antenna in the back of the vehicle. Something like that would theoretically work. The issue with this idea is that we only have a week and a half to complete these, and I won’t even have a chance to go look for materials until Friday. I would have to find wire mesh that is strong enough to hold its shape, and a cheap RC vehicle I could take apart and modify, which due to my frankly limited knowledge of electronics would be a stretch in this limited amount of time.

The second idea uses the same theme as above, but is theoretically more achievable. Jackie is the one who suggested it based off of my original hamster ball idea. If I make like a tiny ship and use my hobby motor as a fan, I could blow the sail of the ship in response to something getting close to the ship. I will just need felt, conductive thread, possibly steel wool, and something with fairly easily movable wheels, and something I can use as a template for the ship shape. I did have a suggestion (from Jackie) to just make an actual boat that is water-tight, but due to the fact that I will be putting my Arduino and the hobby motor in the boat, I am somewhat unwilling to risk the safety of my Arduino and other things for this project.

My sketches for the ideas for this project.

In the case that this boat doesn’t work out (I have the weirdest feeling that I may have an issue with mounting the fan on the back of the boat – the physics of thrust may not work as I’m expecting them to, I vaguely remember something from high school physics that may prove my feeling correct – but that is a bridge I will have to cross when I come to it). Worst comes to worst, I can turn the sailboat into a motorboat.

I do have a backup idea that will be very simple to complete, and that is just to make a buzz wire game. It matches with the theme of proximity because it is a game where you have to get a wire loop around another wire without touching it. You lose if you complete the circuit (touching the wire loop to the wire will complete the circuit). It wouldn’t be terribly difficult to complete, as I would just need some exposed wire, tape, some wood blocks, a few screws, a pencil or a stick, and some LEDs and the speaker from the kit.

I feel a bit better having a backup plan now. I just wish we would’ve gotten the assignment (or at least were given a heads up) over the break, as I could have picked stuff up while I was back home. I even have a few things up there that I could’ve brought back with me to use had I realised I needed them. Failing that, I would’ve had more time to go out and get materials for this project(if my initial plan fails, I may not have time to do my backup or collect materials for it…). But we shall see what happens over the next week. At least on Monday we are supposed to get some class time for this.

Assignment 2: Update

Whoops, been so busy lately I forgot to post an update! I have my pseudo-code figured out for my project, and I know exactly how I am going to do everything, it’s just a matter of actually getting it done. I also figured out the logic for the ingredient selection part of the game, which was (as far as I’ve figured so far) the most complicated part to program.

Here’s the link to my pseudocode:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CZ8vyxTEHdxYjhZDftr1VppFFKwzKbdtuZ2bbU1cvhQ/edit?usp=sharing

Assignment 2: Planning

Well, I have a plan and even started my pseudo code. This is going to be a hell of a lot of work but it will be so worth it if I can pull it off. Even completed an animated background graphic tonight, but I’m going to hold off on making more graphics until I have my code together and functional. No sense in wasting time on polishing it off if I don’t have it working, right?

Assignment 2: Idea

Ok, the theme we have to work with this time is “transmutation”. I immediately thought of baking, it seems to fit. Take something and turn it into something else. I am also a sucker for cooking games. I think I may try to make a cooking game with multiple inputs through the arduino for different sections.

As a bonus, my all time favorite cooking segment of a game is here. Starts at 0:50 and runs until about 3:47. In case anyone wants to watch an old game that is giving me a major case of the nostalgias, haha. The linked video is courtesy of shadowkirby2007 on YouTube, Paper Mario belongs to Nintendo.

Assignment #1: Planning

My plan for this assignment is to make a light-up angler fish! The theme we have to work with is “illumination” and I find the use of bioluminescence by predatory species intriguing. I have found some origami patterns, now I need to see if I can make a paper angler fish.

I found patterns for the angler fish and blackdevil angler in the book “Origami Sea Life” by John Montroll and Robert J. Lang.