Critical Analysis
How does it connect to ideas you have learned（Cite topics and readings from class）?
Medium
According to Janet Murray, the toy can be analysed as a medium as it satisfies the requirement of:
- Inscription:
The toy was intentionally built with physical materials that are able to produce perceptible results. For instances, the toy was made of card board material and it consisted of visual elements such as 7-segment, steering and LED strip, as well as auditory output such as buzzer. Therefore, the players can connect with the toy with visual, auditory and tactile senses.
- Transmission
The only information that needs to be transmitted to the players in the gaming process is the difficulty level. To visually and auditorily transmit this piece of information, we made use of a 7-segment, LED strip and a buzzer. The 7-segment were programmed to display the digit from 1 to 5 to distinguish different difficulty level, whereas the LED strip was designed to blink in different patterns when the difficulty level changes. In addition, in order to aid the users in receiving the information of difficulty level under panicked situation (as the gaming process will be getting tougher), we have also added a buzzer to play Despacito, Super Mario and StarWar background music.
- Representation
The steering input was purposely implemented in the toy to represent the gaming situation as an immersive driving process. Therefore, the toy can immerse the players as if they are driving on a road to avoid other obstacles.
Procedural Rhetoric
The purpose of this toy is to impart the players with an awareness that safe driving requires high attention and unexpected accidents will definitely happen on the road without proper speed control. To make the players experience the possible obstacles that might be encountered on the road, we have added in many small objects that is different in shapes and sizes on the platform of the toy to increase the difficulty level of “smooth driving” in the game. In addition, the toy was programmed to increase the speed to an extend that is very difficult for the players to control and stay on track. Eventually, the car that is controlled by the players will go out of control and get into an “accident” in the fastest difficulty level. The purpose is to emphasize to the players the importance of slowing in the driving process. As a conclusion, the consequences of unsafe driving are argued through the gaming procedures of steering the car away from the obstacles in an increasingly speeding environment.
Physical Computing
To demonstrate the idea of physical computing, the toy is built with Arduino software and cardboard as well as electronic hardware that are able to sense the users’ steering and token input and respond to the analog world by rotating motor, display down counting digits, play background music and blink LED.
According to Hiroshi Ishii, radical atom is a dynamic material that is able to transform, conform and inform with human interaction. The concepts are partially implemented in this toy and are analyzed as follow:
- Transform
When the player inserts a token to trigger the microswitch, a digital signal from the microswitch will be sent to Arduino board in five seconds, the platform will start to rotate and hence the shape of the toy is constantly changing until the game stops. The players can reconfigure and transform the physical interface of the toy manually with direct manipulation of the steering and token inputs.
- Conform
The toy is designed conform with a set of constraints. To ensure the safety of players when the shape of the toy is constantly TRANSFORMING, the motor that spins of the platform is set to rotate at a safe speed that will not injure the players. Besides that, the LED is purposely embedded under the platform so as to filter out some of the dazzling brightness and protect the eyesight of the players.
- Inform
The toy is invented according to human senses. For example, a physical steering is selected to be the input of the system to steer the vehicle away from the obstacles. This is because steering is a well-known object that is defined as a machinery that controls the direction of a vehicle. Intuitively, this steering input is able to inform the players that the toy is controlled by turning the steering.
In addition, the system used Tangible User Interface (TUI) to allow the players to interact with digital signals in a physical gaming environment. For instances, the system is designed to detect a physical token input before starting the game. Once a token is entered by the players into the toy, a microswitch mechanism will send a digital signal to the Arduino microprocessor to inform the system to begin counting down. This shows a clear interaction between physical and digital world, as physical signal is being transmitted into a digital system for processing, subsequently following by several digital outputs such as 7-segment counting, background music and LED blinking.
Robot
It is also a programmable machine that is able to sense the steering and token input, think through the algorithms that is programmed on Arduino Uno and output through motor, buzzer, 7 segment and LED strip. Arduino plays a big role in robotizing the toy as it gives those electronic components a thinking ability, hence allowing them to know when to output the right signal when a particular input is given. In other words, the Arduino is the “brain” of those electronic components.
Computer
Besides that, Arduino can be considered as a computer because it is an object that is able to take in stimulus such as the token input and update itself according to the rules of integrated development environment (IDE).
Janet Murray’s 4 affordances
SPATIAL (LOW)
It is spatially low device, as it is not implemented to navigate and organize huge amount of information in a virtual place. In addition, the memory intensive components are very few, which reduces the amount of information that needs to be processed.
PROCEDURAL (MEDIUM)
During the game, the toy will require some procedures to take in user’s input, transfer digital signals to the Arduino board and execute the output according to the designed algorithm.
ENCYCLOPEDIC (MEDIUM)
Apart from some software programming memory that is stored in Arduino, the device does not contain high capacity of information that is formatted in different media. The only software that was used in Arduino is the integrated development environment (IDE).
PARTICIPATORY (HIGH)
It requires human to physically control the steering in the real world to complete the gaming process.
To sum up, the toy is an more interactive device as it contains lesser immersive elements.
How does it make use of the new abilities of computers?
The toy is implemented with easily programmable microprocessor, Arduino Uno that makes use of integrated development environment (IDE). The toy mainly uses Arduino computational abilities to:
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detect inputs from microswitch in order to respond to the system once a token is detected
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store ton of codes
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make decisions with the inputs
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perform arithmetic function such as up and down counting
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communicate with another Arduino microprocessor and peripheral devices to take in inputs or transfer digital signals.
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Produce outputs such as buzzing interesting background music, emitting attractive LED lights and display digits on 7-segment.
Instead of just performing arithmetic operation and memory storing, the toy also made use of Arduino’s computational abilities to communicate with other devices that are connected in the network and produce visual and auditory outputs. These are definitely something that are not achievable with an Analytical Machine that was implemented by Charles Babbage in the early century. Therefore, being able to observe and listen to the effects that are produced by a computer is a major breakthrough as compared to the ancient times.
How does it build off other projects you have seen?
We have utilized various online platform such as YouTube and Google to do researches, brainstorm and gain insights. Firstly, the idea of cardboard outlook is actually inspired by the Google cardboard VR, where they used cardboard to build a virtual reality device. We are amazed by the powerful usage and convenience of cardboard at a glance of Google cardboard VR. We learnt that, with cardboard, we can easily transform the desirable structure of the toy with simple tools such as hot glue gun, scissor and penknife. Unlike toy that is made of metal, our cardboard fabricated toy is very light in weight even though it has a large size.
Secondly, we have also remixed many online Arduino project codes to achieve the desirable output. Those online projects are elaborated as the following:
1. Despacito, Super Mario and StarWar background music project
We think that background music is an alternative way to TRANSMIT the information of difficulty level auditorily to the players, as the players will need to pay full amount of visual attention to the toy in the gaming process. Furthermore, a toy with background music can intrigue the interest of the players to continue playing and motivate the players who did not win the game, and hence making the toy more entertaining.
2. 7-segment down counter project
In addition, we also need a down counter that is able to INFORM the players the game is starting in five seconds so as to give the players some buffer time to prepare. In addition, the difficulty level of the toy will gradually increase, therefore we have also programmed the 7-segment to display the current difficulty level.
3. Motor speed and direction control project
To vary the difficulty level of the toy, the motor plays a very big role, as the sudden changes in rotating speed and direction will surprise the players, and make them will more likely to stay alert for the incoming sudden changes. To provide the players the most conducive gaming environment, we learnt that we can adjust the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to the motor driver and thereby control the rotational speed and direction of the motor.
4. LED strip blinking project
We have also made use of LED strip to produce various blinking patterns so as to increase the attractiveness and aesthetics of the toy, making it looks like an electronic art. Therefore, the side observers can enjoy the artistic blinking patterns that are emitted by the LED strip, when someone is “driving”. This makes the toy more engaging.
Lastly, all of these projects are combined with a purpose in mind to stimulate an arcade-like environment that is able to fill players with the most enjoyable gaming experiences.
References:
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Despacito
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lok4QqFmWU
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Mario
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kkxs_fekWM
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StarWar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83xHpj3PstI
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7 segment common anode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVoSPTxePzQ&t=27s
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Arduino DC motor control speed, with code, for beginners and experts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VayB4KozCHU
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How To Control WS2812B Individually Addressable LEDs using Arduino
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhYu0k2woRM
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How to make a track car with magnets Desktop Game from Cardboard