by fromjia

Project Fanny Pack: Making the Bit Bit Dance Controller

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.

Making the shoe sole sensor.

Reading two values from the 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.

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.

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.

We soldered female pins to the sensors.

Soldered Arduino Proto Shield.

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.

case

An earlier version of the casing was made of acrylic.

An earlier version of the casing was made of acrylic.

User testing the controller and casing, which we loving dubbed "the fanny pack".

User testing the controller and casing, which we lovingly dubbed “the fanny pack”.

by fromjia

Bit Bit Dance

For Physical Computing’s midterm project, I created Bit Bit Dance with my teammate Paul Hiem. Bit Bit Dance is a dance battle game controlled by custom made shoe sole sensors. Taking 8 bit music and graphics, we created a dancing character for each of the two players. When the player dances, the character also dances and 8 bit bitcoins falls into the character’s hat. When the time is up, the amount of bitcoins collected by each player is counted and displayed. 

Check out Project Fanny Pack: Making the Bit Bit Dance Controller here.

dance_s

controller_2

A player’s feet controls six different interactions:

  • Left heel up, left heel down, right heel up, right heel down each controls one of the character’s movement and each creates a different sound effect
  • Right heel pressed for a sustained period of time starts the background music and starts the timer
  • Left heel pressed for a sustained periord of time pauses the background music

Two LEDs attached the controller signals which foot is down or pressed, providing direct feedback to the player or observer.

set

Controller includes: enclosed microcontroller (Arduino) and circuitry, shoe sole sensors, and wires.

The casing for the microcrontroller is designed with an adjustable strap that can loop around a belt.

The casing is designed with an adjustable strap that can loop around a belt.

software

Bit Bit Dance software.

Bit Bit Dance software.


by fromjia

From Augmenting Human Intellect

My comment for From Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework by Douglas Engelbart (published 1962) from the New Media Reader.

In Augmenting Human Intellect, Douglas Engelbart defines the topic as “increasing the capability of man to approach complex problems”. At first I didn’t know what to make of this definition. As I read on to the details of his process building out this system, I started to understand “augmenting human intellect” as building tools that would aid human’s intuitive thought process. I’m not sure about actually increasing or enhancing our capabilities, however. Engelbart provided an interesting example by experimenting with three ways of putting a sentence (thought/idea) down on paper/screen. In his words, one is augmented by a typewriter (it took 7 secs), one is done in cursive script (it took 20 secs), and one “de-augmented” by attaching a piece of brick to a pen (it took 65 secs). I thought the “pen attached to brick” was a very illustrative analogy to the available tools that people had before the personal computer. And perhaps even today, we are still using a version – albeit a more advanced version – of the “pen attached to brick” tool to collect our thoughts and collaborate with others.

The most amazing part about reading this report was that I was able to dive into the mind of one of the greatest inventors of the 20th Century. Here I should note that Engelbart was the inventor of the word processor, the mouse, the window, and had helped to establish the Internet. Following through his detailed discoveries and thought process behind inventing tools that we take for granted was both insightful and inspiring. I had recently went to a prototyping workshop, where the speaker talked about using the least amount of time and resources to make “works-like” prototypes to test out ideas. Engelbart’s card indexing system, which was inspired by Bush’s Memex device, was essentially a “works-like” prototype of a very early word processor and part of the Internet mixed into one. But he was filing and marking his cards physically! He would group cards into separate decks based on category and subcategory. Each deck would have a master card with holes that link to individual cards in the deck. Reference would be marked by serial numbers on each card. And he would needle sort individual cards into linked cards based on his thought process. While doing this experiment, he made multiple discoveries with his team relating to how the human mind process information. Then he was able to make a leap from the cards, and imagine a powerful memory to store these information and connections virtually.

There are a lot from the report that we can learn from. First and foremost is the importance of prototyping, which can lead to discoveries previously unimaginable. Another is Engelbart’s way of choosing research projects. He chose projects that not only would have long term impact but also more immediate practical applications. And he remained introspective in deciding what he want to work on. Lastly, he understood the importance of keeping up with technological trends. At one point he mentioned that it would have been possible to build an electromechanical card filing system, but that he knew it would be obsolete very soon and that electronic computers would dominate in operating this type of system.

Someday, hopefully soon, I would love to read Engelbart’s entire report. I think it would be an excellent read for anyone interested in building tools and platforms for new media.