Who you are today can be traced to how you played as a kid.
Toys are not just to keep children occupied, they teach them discoveries of themselves. Or in some instances, how to mimic adults. Not just toys, the games you played as a child taught you about the world. Being a very curious and enthusiastic kid,
I spent the first 5 years of my childhood playing games I had either created to cure my boredom or to involve others into creating something together. When I meet my cousins today, we discuss those games and realise how innovative they were.
In the first 5 years of my life , I remember so many occasions where I played with my parents. It also has to do with the fact that I’m the first born. They had a lot of energy to play with me and those years (from pictures and memories) were interesting because I remember being kicked about how much I was allowed to play as a child.
And things didn’t change much when I grew up. ;)
So when we had to get working on Designing Tangible Interfaces, our physical computing class taught by Ubi de Feo, for the love of games we worked on reversing game dynamics for today’s experiences.
L-R : Mattia Becatti, Asanka Withanaarachchi and Snigdha Nanduri
Team:
Mattia (my first friend in the program, Rhino-Whino, etc) is a Swiss industrial designer. He loves automobiles and if you ask nicely, he can design one for you in a jiffy.
Asanka (my Indian cooking’s first Srilankan fan) is the owner of a 3d printing company called 3dp Como and a programmer. He has the coolest 3d printer in the house, has the patience to listen to my ideas and indulges in creating prototypes unto perfection.
On Day 1 we learnt how to light an LED with a battery and resistor, in a few days we learnt how to do that and more with a micro-controller (Genuine/Arduino). I also learnt that Ubi had trouble remembering my name and he tattooed it on his wrist so he would avoid the embarrassment (with a pen, of course). I really looked forward to his classes and conversations and during our introduction when I mentioned that I decided to pursue this master because I wanted to know how everything in the world worked, I wasn’t joking.
Ubi’s classes could start with licking the battery to know what it feels like [yes, it was shocking] to sun-basking brainstorming sessions, to coding for the first time!
After the initial tinkering, we sat down to get some serious design decisions. The discussions initially were on designing games. But which kind of games? The one game we connected on together was Hide and Seek. After a brief discussion with Ubi, he helped us put together a concept for a game, like Hide and Seek, but would require the user to be Blind.
And that’s how Blind&Seek was born.
Blindfold games aren’t new. But how would we make this experience different? We started sketching our ideas for this device. This was a physical computing class so we were required to also pay attention to the technical aspects of the device.
Soon, we began designing the game experience. Blind&Seek was the perfect mix of Hide and Seek and Blindfold (Remember that picture of me trying to catch people above?). There would be a seeker who has to identify the players. Except….with some help from technology. Some of the sensors we explored were Pressure Sensors, Piezo buzzers, Gas Sensor, Proximity Sensors and Sound Sensors.
During blind fold games, we identify the players with the help of sound or touch. Most of the players run around, making a sound as they move or even laugh or giggle. This helps us identify which direction to pursue. But how do we know if we are going towards the right direction? You use hands to go close to something and feel it. But how can we do that quicker?
This led us to bring two important aspects to the game: Distance and object Detection. Hence, we used the Proximity Sensor and the Pieso Buzzer. We used a Proximity sensor to identify the distance, a piezzo buzzer to provide audio output of the distance conveying to the Seeker, LEDs that show the proximity and eventually added a potentiometer to identify short distances(1–40centimetres) and long(40centimetres-3metres).
We began to look for inspiration of our game device.
We wanted something sleek, stable on the head, flexible and compact. Most VR headsets had these qualities already. But we wanted our device to be something that people could carry without any hassles, with all the parts inside it, tightly packed!ead, flexible and compact. Most VR headsets had these qualities already. But we wanted our device to be something that people could carry without any hassles, with all the parts inside it, tightly packed!
We needed to include a potentiometer and space for the piezzo buzzer as well. And we made a brand new case for the proximity sensor to fit right in. Our prototype was ready.
It's play time!
Ouch! Hahahaha!
Blind&Seek was selected by ProHelvetia for Grafik16 at Zurich, Switzerland in March 2016.
How it works:
The LEDs are the indicators of distance, if they all light up, you’re really close to an object. These LEDs work with Audio in sync, the audio is the feedback for the Seeker to know if he is getting close to catching other players or close to an object.
The Potentiometer increases or decreases the distance range. Each Seeker gets 2 minutes to catch the rest of the players who decide a spot and stay put until the seeker figures out where they could be with the help of this device. After two minutes, you hear a “Game Over” audio that indicates the end of the game and you have to restart with the small button, like clicking the camera, to start a new game.
1 Seeker, Multiple Players and lots of laughter.
A project by Mattia Becatti, Asanka Withanaarachchi and Snigdha Nanduri.
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
CC By Snigdha Nanduri, Mattia Becatti, Asanka Sanjeewa Withanaarachchi
This Licence does not cover any third party software & Hardware such as the Arduino.
