The User Interface

A game should not have only a great idea, but also nice graphical interface. For this, we created an immersive forest environment where the user to be able to 'hunt' some animals.

Underneath is the background of the application:

Week3

Build the artificial wall

During the last week , we started building the wall that contains Piezo sensors ,theses sensors are subjected to sense shake or knock actions by generating voltage.


we tried to use simple kind of walls like the white board on the lecture hall , the wooden wall of the lecture hall, during the first experiments , we tried to identify the sensors values that means for example :
Sensor 1 was clicked
or an object hit some place around sensor 1
or sensor 1 was not hit .

unfortunately , experiments showed that almost 70 % of the readings that we got from the sensors through the arduino device was right, so we considered using another alternative,where we put an isloator between this piezo sensor and the wall ,just to eliminate the propogation of shake effect , thus getting a better readings , using this technique enhance the decision correctness,but still not more that 80-85 %.

this image shows the sensors set on the wall of the lecture hall,we tried here to analyize and study what should be the size of the object depending on how much the shake will propagate throw the wall.and still during our analysis , we were having unconvienience values that varies between 5 - 15 % of the overall test that we made.

Now, we are trying to find a new technique that provide us with reliable results ,these technique may include another sensors , or create simple one for this specific application.

We're going on Arduino

From the last lab we had a week of accomplishments:

• we set our hardware to Arduino platform
• completed on Monday a little programming and testing of the hardware platform
• decided the final idea of the game
• and also set Adobe Flash as our interface and display application

The idea of the game remains as presented a week ago. We will have a screen acting as a pressure sensor (composed from at least 9 sensors to be more precise about the user's hit point).
The Arduino board will be linked with the sensors and will provide via USB the signals to the serial port. Flash will be on top, acting as a mix of a Controller of the user's input gathered by the interface and providing the data for the View, thus creating a fully ModelViewController implementation.
The advantages of the MVC will enable us to quickly create an application, easy bug removal and improved User Experience by easy customization of the View.

Brainstorming 2

In a previous post I explained the facts that forced us to re-think our project idea. Basically, our cool idea of an iPhone tied to a skateboard to create a exertion game require too much programming time. So we searched another idea who is required to be simpler and easy to be implemented in the remaining time.

So we got us a round table (the ones in BIT cafeteria are the best!) and put our minds to work.

First step : Use the Initial Design Techniques - Brainstorming (as learned in DIS I)

Our goal: collect as many ideas of exertion game as we can
Defer judgment, no criticism, no rejection of ideas
Include all ideas, allow also the leapfrog ideas

Result:
1. Virtual basket
2. Ping-pong game to the wall
3. Squash
4. Throw a ball to a target
5. Boxing
6. Throwing paper balls to garbage - fun in offices

After some debate we agreed to pursue in implementing the 4th idea. We will try to create an exertion game which will be composed from:

• a board which will act like a hit sensitive projection screen,
• a projector to display the target on the screen
• the software behind to calculate:
  
  • hit points,
  • decide if user hit the target
  • scoring and level finishing

To have a clear idea of our game we created also a small storyboard:

Changing the idea of the project

In the last meeting, our tutors, Mr. Heller and Mr. Karrer, shared with us some of their experience using the sensors which made us reconsider the project idea.

The idea
Because of the new introduction in iPhone programming and the rich set of sensors of this device, our project envisioned an iPhone attached to the board in order to track the skateboard movements. The data pulled out by the iPhone is the initial acceleration (the one when the user starts riding with the board), and lateral or up-down acceleration when he does turns or jumps with the board.

First, the iPhone accelerometer won't do the trick of getting all the information needed from the board. As it outputs acceleration, we would have to integrate once to get the velocity and twice to get the position. This gets us into a lot of approximations which aren't suited for movements in a few meters range.

Secondly, the iPhone sensor is not design to get an industrial-scale precision and accuracy in an outdoor activity, but more for fun activities like sensing shakes or directional changes.
Thus, combined with the above observation implies the fact that our data readed from an iPhone attached to a board would not be as accurate we need (also the integration introduces approximations first to the velocity vector and again when computing position). It also it contains a lot of noise because of the environment (the skateboard goes on the rough and bumpy surfaces).

The solution
Given the facts, our team agrees with the tutors that this project would have needed too much time in order to develop some sophisticated algorithms, compensating the noise and the two integrations approximations, hardly near impossible to be done in the time span allocated for this project.

The upper side of this discussion is that our knowledge about sensors and in particular iPhone sensors has improved thanks to our tutors. Our suggestion is that for the next lab a similar discussion and sensor presentation should be held in the first laboratory meeting, in order to guide the students even faster to concrete results.

Idea background and game description .

Each day. as we leave the Bonn Institute of Technology, we see a lot of young people gathering inside the U-Bahn entrance meeting to practice their sport hobby – skateboarding. This was our inspiration.

For the DIS2 project we want to create a piece of software that can record, recognize and play the moves of a skateboarder. This way the teenagers can save the moments when they are proving their skills and physical condition among their friends but not only there. Also, in the context of the game, they will have different level and challenges they will have to complete.

In order to accomplish the recording part, we will need sensors – but what a better device than iPhone could-we use? It has accelerometer, immense programming capabilities and can be connected to Internet in order to send the gathered data.

In order to have the entire picture, not only the person should be recorded, but also the board. And since it has the most simple recordable move (because it is actually a plane in space) our initial idea was to place the iPhone on or in it – either create a custom board with protective shell for iPhone or encase the device into a protective hard shell and attach it to the board.

One other point of our game is that we want to follow the idea of “bringing the technology to the sports”, and not “bringing the sport to technology” which is followed now the famous Wii. Using a Wii, you can practice a sport but not in the real environment. The technology is present and the virtual reality created is very “un-real”. However, our game completes the real sport. You can practice in a real environment without sensing the technology present there just to register your performance. In every sport there are challenges you have to face but, moreover, you want to record your performance and possibly share it with others or compete with others.

We hope you will enjoy it!

Game Selection

The above diagram shows the mindmap that we came up with during our brainstorming session. Several games were brought under consideration. Finally we selected the skateboarding game for our project. Following are some of the reasons behind this decision:

• Stakeboarding is the most popular pastime among teenagers in Germany. So we can easily find the target group and test our application with.
• This game can be accomplished within the given time-frame and the available resources.
• No exertion game exists already for skateboarding.