scruffy days

This project revolves around playing a networked game of Pong in Processing. After trying out both of Tom’s examples using an accelerometer and force sensing resistors, I decided to stick with the FSRs as the sensors for my Pong controller. Achieving the right balance and best values for the threshold were tricky with the accelerometer.

I used some scrap materials from previous classes - some foamcore and some plastic vinyl from an innertube to construct my mini DDR style pad and housing for the circuit:

Stepping on each foot results in your Pong paddle moving either left or right. Each step is confirmed with a corresponding LED light (orange for left, green for right). The switch on the box allows the player to connect or exit from the game (indicated by a red LED), and when the player is successfully connected to the server, a white LED goes on.

I realize I’m not truly using the FSR’s sensing capabilities here - these should just be digital switches in the footpads; but for now, I’ve got this working and I’m happy with its functionality. I’ll come back to this and swap it out later.

What I’m still working on: Looking to see if I can modify Tom’s code to have my screen’s paddle track the ball, and move on its own regardless of where I stomp…

Arduino code | More pics

(photo credit: kuan huang)

Came out to play the Manhattan Story Mashup in Times Square this morning (Part of the Come Out & Play Festival). The instruction sheet was long-winded, but I ended up having fun and learning the rules as we went along. I ran around with Avani Patel & Steven Jackson, and we forced each other to pose for a number of keywords throughout the game. What’s the appeal in these large scale, mobile games? Some other ITPers and I were chatting about how popular and well-funded development for mobile devices is now. But the themes of these games are often the same - some kind of photo scavenger hunt.

So what brought us out to play?

• Free phones! (temporarily at least, but the latest Nokia N80s)
• Our friends are playing too
• Curiousity? It’s the first I’ve heard of a mobile game w/ over 200 players

What was fun about it?

• Best played in small teams, so you get a collaborative effort even if you are “competing” against each other
• Running around the city
• Interpreting keywords and taking pictures
• Guessing how other people chose to visualize their keywords
• Seeing it come together on the Reuters screens

What sucked?

• Server problems (crashed mid-game)
• Quite a bit of waiting for keywords or photos to come through
• My application crashed several times

Adam Greenfield was also part of a lecture series at Conflux. His presentation was titled “Killing the Fathers, Or if you meet Jane Jacobs on the Road”. He’s referring to Buddhist philosophy in which you must destroy or remove anything that hinders you from achieving your own enlightenment, even if Buddha is standing in your path. For Greenfield, his Buddhas are his own urban theory heroes: Jane Jacobs, the Situationists and Archigram.

I found his approach to everyware/ubiquitous computing very interesting; to grasp how it will affect urban environments and personal space within that, we must be aware of influential viewpoints in urban theory’s history, but also understand that these particular frameworks don’t suffice in guiding us to “fully understanding the ramifications of everyware”. Instead, he suggests we look at gaming and mapping environments (specifically mentioned SecondLife, Grand Theft Auto, SketchUp), and seeing how these have altered how we interface with space, both virtual and real.
There’s the issue of privacy and user control. How do we prevent it from becoming like the Panopticon as Greenfield mentioned? How technologically adaptive will one need to be in this environment in order to have a handle on what’s happening?

I’ve been getting into soccer with the world cup going on, and also trying to pick up some basic german in preparation for my upcoming visit to Düsseldorf & Berlin. I was disappointed Germany didn’t make it, and I was rooting for France because of Zidane’s performance in the last few games. Too bad about that headbutt move, though. Materazzi was definitely not worth the energy.

It’s interesting to see the TV ads during the games - it’s clear they’re marketing to a more international audience. Adidas takes the cake with their José + 10 commercials. Great storyline & beautiful production. Take a look.

But then again, it better be good for all the money they’re pumping into this campaign. They bought up all the ad space in order to shut out Nike from placing any ads, according to this BusinessWeek article. And no wonder, the Cup’s viewership exceeds any other sporting event worldwide, including the Olympics and the SuperBowl.