Bit Bit Dance is a dance battle game that is controlled by shoe sole sensors. We made each shoe sole sensor using foam, velostat, and conductive thread, following the same method as making a DIY flex sensor, which I had learned in the Costume as Game Controller class. Each sole contains two sensor areas, the front and the heel. They are separated so that we can read two independent values for the front and the heel.
Making the shoe sole sensor.
Reading two values from the sole sensor.
Work in progress. We also tried to use the Flora, which didn’t work out so well. Pressing on one of the sensor would also change the value of the other one.
Testing the shoe sole sensor with another Processing sketch. Toes up to jump and toes pressed to run.
To easily connect and disconnect the wires to the shoe sole sensors, we soldered female pins to the conductive thread. When exposed, the Arduino and circuit would frequently get disconnected, especially when we move and the wires would tug and pull. So I made the circuitry more compact and secure by soldering everything onto an Arduino proto shield.
We soldered female pins to the sensors.
Soldered Arduino Proto Shield.
For the casing, I designed some angles to create a simple low poly look. We lasercut a piece of mat board and folded it origami-style into a box. Holes were cut out from the mat board to fit through the LEDs, on/off switch, USB connection, and wire connections.
An earlier version of the casing was made of acrylic.
User testing the controller and casing, which we lovingly dubbed “the fanny pack”.