Author: Xintong Xie

• CONCEPTION AND DESIGN:

Introduction

My project is called “feel me, catch me,” which is a game model. In this game model, there are three kinds of players, devil, angel, and ordinary people. Angel player’s task is to find the devil player; at the same time, the devil player’s mission is to find the angel player. Ordinary people don’t have a task. They will continuously move around during the game, interference with the identification of angels and devils. Because each player doesn’t know who the other player is, the angel and devil recognize each other by listening to background music (which is why it’s called catch me, feel me).Each player holds a game box. As the angel approaches the demon, the background music continues to produce a heartbeat, and the heart image on the computer continues to beat.  

Because this project is a model, the complete game version can be applied to life as an ice-breaking game. For example, this game can be played in school, at this time only angel players and devil players, while ordinary players are students who do not participate in the game. The play site is the whole school, and angel and demon players will wear Bluetooth headphones, which will be connected to the computer. When they get close to each other, they will hear intense heart beatings in the earphones. Whoever recognizes the other’s identity first, namely shout out “catch you,” who wins.  

In what ways did your understanding of how your users were going to interact with your project informed certain design decisions you made?

In this work, the most critical decision I made was to establish the connection between players, instead of the interaction between players and the machine. In real life, we spend most of our time communicating through eye contact and oral communicating, but we ignore the role of listening. So I want to use “hearing the heartbeat to judge each other identity” as a new way to build a new kind of interaction between players. When the angel and the demon get close to each other, both two sides will hear intense heartbeats. This design goes beyond the purely visual influence but adds more hearing element. Also, this design goes beyond the connection between the player and the machine, establishing a relationship between players and players directly.

what form, material or elements did you use? What criteria did you use to select those materials? Why was it/were they best suited to your project purpose, more than any other one/s? What might have been another option? But you rejected it—why?

In this work, my primary materials are radio frequency link, Arduino nano, and power bank.

Radio frequency link：

 

               （receiver）                                           （sender）
The most important reason for using a radio frequency link is pairing. That is, the sender sends a signal, such as “hello,” and the receiver can receive many signals. Still, it only responds when it receives “hello.” In this work, I used two sets of receiving and sending terminals in total, one for matching devil and angel, and the other for matching devil and computer. The computer connected to a receiver, the devil box had a receiver and sender, and the angel box had a sender. The sender in the angel box keeps sending “hello”.

But only when the receiver of the devil box receives the “hello” signal, the sender of the devil box will send another specific message “ghost” to the computer, indicating that the devil and angel have matched so that the Processing can start.

the receiver of the computer receives the “ghost” and completes the heartbeat instruction through the Arduino to processing program. 

In the beginning, I was hesitant to choose Bluetooth or rf, because both can use to match, but I decided rf at last for two reasons. The first reason is that the radio frequency distance is very long, which can reach 40m~100m, which means that the game range can be broader. However, the stable Bluetooth range is only 3m to 10m. The second reason is that Bluetooth pairing can only be one-to-one, but rf is not limited to one-to-one matching. Rf receiver can receive multiple signals, which means that a demon (receiver) can accept various angel (sender) signals so that more players can be added to the game.
Arduino nano

Compared with uno, nano is smaller in size, but with full functions and is easy to carry, so nano was chosen instead of uno.
Power bank

The power bank can provide independent power to nano. However, the power bank has a disadvantage that it needs a specific resistance to provide a constant power supply. So I connected a 220-ohm resistance to the breadboard so that the power bank can provide continuous power supply to nano.

• FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:

the most significant steps in your production process, both in terms of failures and successes.

Using radio frequency link as pairing is one of the most critical steps in production. I used the Bluetooth pairing between the player’s device at the beginning. I then used the radio frequency link as the connection between the computer and the player.

 

But during the User Testing Session, one of my classmates suggested I can add more players into the game. In this case, the Bluetooth’s one-to-one match is not appropriate. I need a device that can send and receive a particular signal. I consulted a faculty of IMA, she recommended me to use radio frequency link, because its sender can emit a specific message, but the receiver is not one-to-one matched. As long as the specified signals can be recognized, it can be paired. At the same time, the radio frequency link can reach a distance of 40m~100m, which is similar to my game design. Therefore, after the user testing session, I gave up using Bluetooth and used radio frequency link as my main element.

When I used radio frequency link to do works, there was a relative failure that troubled me for a long time: there would be mutual influence between the senders of radiofrequency link at a close distance so that the receiver might confuse the two signals. That is: there is a sender in the angel’s box. The demon box at the same time also has a sender to send signals to the computer. The computer has a receiver, while it is possible to distinguish the signal of the demon box. Still, because of the interference of the angel’s box signal, the receiver is often disturbed. On the control panel of the Arduino, there often appear signals that should not be received, leading to the wrong action of the processing. To solve this problem, I optimized the Arduino code of the computer’s receiver. Previously, my code was to generate specific effects for processing when the computer receiver received the signal from the devil box. The optimized code means that when receiving the signal from the angel box, no operation is generated. When receiving the signal from the devil box, Processing is performed. In other cases, no actions are made. After this optimization, the Arduino didn’t give the wrong instructions because it recognizes the signal separately.

• CONCLUSIONS：

How do your project results align with your definition of interaction? How do your project results not align with your definition of interaction?

My goal is to build interaction between people by using machines as a bridge in the form of games. After a semester’s study, my definition of interaction gradually changed from the four mechanical steps at the beginning to focus on the interaction between people. In my opinion, when people interact with machines, they should pay more attention to the interaction between people, and machines should act as a bridge to promote interaction or connection between people. My model of the game wants players to connect through machines, but their attention isn’t on the machines, it’s on the players. They can identify each other by the box containing the machine. Still, in order to win the game in the end, one of them needs to shout “catch you,” which means that the two parties are no longer independent existence, but build a kind of connection based on the machine. This is what I called interaction. The machine is an essential medium here. Still, the ultimate purpose of the product is to allow players to recognize each other and interact with each other.

Based on both your definition of interaction and your expectation of your audience’s response, how, ultimately, did your audience interact with your project?

During the presentation, because a wire of the devil box disconnected accidentally, the effect did not play out. But at the time of the IMA show, I invited four players to experience the game. They don’t know how to play at first, but after explaining the rules, they are scattered in the classroom and began to walk. When the demon player and angel player approached, the computer made a loud heartbeat. Still, when they separated, the heartbeat stopped. At this point, the demon player immediately locks on to the player who approached him, then walks up and says, “catch you” and wins the game. The results were similar to what I expected. Still, there were some differences because the ordinary player (has no special missions) was moving back and forth, so they didn’t enjoy themselves.
Moreover, the devil player quickly finds the angel player, which is also different from what I imagined, so the interaction is not reflected. In my opinion, this problem mainly arises from the fact that this project is only a model rather than a real game. In the actual game, the identity of the ordinary player is the students who are not participating in the game, so they do not have a sense of game experience. At the same time, if you play this game in real life, there will be a lot of uncertainty, so the devil or angel will not quickly identify each other’s identity.

How would you improve your project if you had more time?

If I had more time, I would have constructed a complete game and planned a more specific rating rule. For example, if the angels want to win the game, they need to identify all the demons and send their names to the computer. If the angel finds all the names first and there are no mistakes, then angel wins. But if there’s a mistake in the name, they lose. Such ratings make the game more exciting and complete.

What value have you learned from any setbacks and/or failures? What do you take away from your accomplishments?

This is the only big project I’ve done on my own this semester. Without my previous dependence on my peers, I need to be responsible for myself, take responsibility and consequences on my own. Because cooperating with my classmates, I used to feel my partner can share the burden, or when it is close to the deadline, we can depend on each other. But this time is different, this time I only have myself, I need to create the plans by myself – how to arrange the time, do research or ask information from the faculty. Although it is hard and tedious for me to work along, the excitement and thrill can’t be described when my project is successful. It is the happiest thing I feel. At that moment, I felt that all my efforts were worthy. I think this is the most important lesson I have learned from this project.

In this high-tech age, people are more and more immersed in the interaction with electronic products such as mobile phones and computers, while ignoring the most direct communication between people. Machinery, no longer as a tool, but as an interactive partner, replaced the role of “human.” Maybe this is the current trend in society, but I still want to make a little change of myself. I think the interaction should be based on the human-mechanical, but the goal is the human-human interaction. And the machinery should be just a medium or a bridge. Although we can interact with the mechanism, we should still feel the existence of people behind the machinery and the emotions and intentions of the people who created the machinery. “To communicate with people through machinery”——this is my understanding of the interaction and the original purpose of my product design. It is also my most significant gain in this course.

For the Arduino, I used two potentiometers to adjust an analog value.

For the code: I used the multipleValues code, sending from Arduino to Processing. 

For Processing:  I used Image function and the sensor values are used to change the position of the image.

• code in Arduino:

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
int sensor1 = analogRead(A0);
int sensor2 = analogRead(A1);
Serial.print(sensor1);
Serial.print(“,”); // put comma between sensor values
Serial.println(sensor2);
delay(100);
}

• code in Processing:

import processing.serial.*;

String myString = null;
Serial myPort;
PImage photo;

int NUM_OF_VALUES = 2; /** YOU MUST CHANGE THIS ACCORDING TO YOUR PROJECT **/
int[] sensorValues; /** this array stores values from Arduino **/

void setup() {
size(1300, 1300);
background(255);
setupSerial();
photo = loadImage(“1.jpg”);
}

void draw() {
updateSerial();
background(255);
printArray(sensorValues);
float x= sensorValues[0];
float y= sensorValues[1];
image(photo, x, y);
}

void setupSerial() {
printArray(Serial.list());
myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[ 0 ], 9600);

myString = myPort.readStringUntil( 10 ); // 10 = ‘\n’ Linefeed in ASCII
myString = null;

sensorValues = new int[NUM_OF_VALUES];
}

void updateSerial() {
while (myPort.available() > 0) {
myString = myPort.readStringUntil( 10 ); // 10 = ‘\n’ Linefeed in ASCII
if (myString != null) {
String[] serialInArray = split(trim(myString), “,”);
if (serialInArray.length == NUM_OF_VALUES) {
for (int i=0; i<serialInArray.length; i++) {
sensorValues[i] = int(serialInArray[i]);
}
}
}
}
}

FEEL ME, CATCH ME

• PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The work I’m going to do is a game with three players, one “ghost” and two “people”.The player does not know the identity of the others, the purpose of the ghost is to find and identify two “people”, and the goal of the “people” is to avoid the “ghost” at the same time to find another companion. Each of them would wear a headset, and when the “ghost” and “person” approached, they would hear a rapid heartbeat. When “person” and “person” are close, the heartbeat will be heard more gently. In this way, both parties can tell which is a “person” and which is a “ghost”.The game is aimed at everyone, and anyone can play it.

The inspiration for this work came from another idea I had. I originally wanted to make a teddy bear that could generate simulated heartbeat vibration while remote hugging, but this idea was overlapped with a product called pillow talk, so I wanted to continue exploring with the inspiration of heartbeat vibration and remote control. At the same time, there is a famous game called Dead by daylight.

I refer to its game design. One player in this game is a killer. The killer wants to kill all the other players. The other players have to work together against the killer. Although my game has simplified a lot of content, I have applied the core idea of Dead by daylight to real life, using heartbeat simulation to let players feel the tension and stimulation that the virtual game could not provide in real life.

• PROJECT PLAN

• Equipment:

Arduino,  infrared ray receiver and exporter for Arduino, headphones, independent power, speakers……

• Description:

I think this work needs to generate different reactions by judging the distance between players, so I need infrared sensors to receive and export infrared rays to judge the distance. Meanwhile, I need processing to control the sound of the heartbeat. I will use the knowledge I learned in class to connect processing programs with Arduino. Arduino mainly controls the receiving and output of infrared ray, that is, the estimation of distance. Processing, on the other hand, generates different vibration frequencies according to the distance, that is, plays the heartbeat vibration. So I might need A to P code. I also need to put the Arduino into the headset, which means I need a separate power source to put the Arduino into the headset. And I need speakers to put into the headphones to play sounds.

• Steps:

1. Buy equipment above on Taobao or borrow from the lab. (DDL:11/24)
2. Write codes to receive and export infrared rays by using Arduino and build the circuit. (DDL:11/30)
3. Using processing to mimic the vibration of the heart beating. （DDL：12/3）
4. Connect the circuit that made in step 2 to processing code.(DDL:12/5）
5. Assemble the circuit to the headphones. (DDL:12/7)
6. Add independent power to both circuits to let the circuit work without computers. (DDL:12/10)
7. Try to use in the real-life and gain some suggestions from others.

• CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

In the mid-term, our project was a library noise sensor. At that time, my definition of interaction focused more on the communication between humans and machinery. It was more important to analyze human behavior and make responses mechanically than just receives and export simply.After a period of study and the unique experience of the field trip, I have a deeper understanding of interaction. In the beginning, I found some products suitable for long-distance couples, such as vibrating bracelets and message boxes, etc. These products are not only meaningful but also have aesthetic value. At the same time, they can achieve interpersonal communication through the communication between people and machinery, that is, the machine becomes a bridge for interpersonal interaction.

For this product, I think it is a good reflection of my thinking process. First of all, I think it satisfies the most basic definition of interaction, namely, receives, process, and output. At the same time, it has certain playability, not only practical value but also entertainment value. It also serves as a bridge between players, allowing players to feel the scene of mobile games in real life, and it also allows players to establish an unusual connection. This connection is not through language, but through hearing, through feeling, through observing others’ emotions.

Although the idea for my product originated from the game Dead by Daylight, applying this game to daily life can promote teamwork ability, and at the same time, the actual stimulation and tension can’t be provided by ordinary games. I think my products can be applied to large team activities, such as ice-breaking activities, this time we can add more players and there may be more roles for it. This allows you to quickly familiar with each other because each player doesn’t know the identity of the other party, only after hearing the vibration and watching each other’s facial expressions that they can decide whether they are”ghosts” or”people”. Using this product into ice-breaking and other activities can not only deepen the ability of teamwork but also help team members get familiar with each other quickly.