From the start, I really wanted to stress interactivity via multiple inputs. To do this, I reinvented Line Rider, a one player game I used to watch my brothers play growing up, and made it multiplayer. Another key goal of mine was to include multiple sensors and tools that would force users to move their bodies and coordinate with each other rather than just sitting still looking at a computer screen alone. In order to achieve this goal, I used a motion sensor, a distance sensor, a joystick, and a potentiometer. Some of these made perfect sense in terms of the actual game while others were used purely to make users move their bodies. For instance, the potentiometer and joystick made sense for the users actually drawing the line and moving the rider’s position on the line. The motion sensor and distance sensor were less intuitive for the rider and were included to make people move and for added fun.
FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION
Because I wanted to emphasize collaboration between users, I designed a single box that held all of the inputs. I could have had separate boxes and increased distance between users, but I wanted the users to be physically close. In order to not make it too crowded for the players who had to physically move around, I put the motion and distance sensors on the end of the box/control panel to give them more room.
During our final presentations, someone suggested that I design the box in a way that connects to the project more, which I agree with. Someone else suggested that I create separate boxes for each input. I disagree not only because I wanted the users to be physically close, but also in discussion with the lab assistants during laser cutting, that would have actually wasted more material than creating a single big box.
One failure I noticed after laser cutting was my design for the labels on the sides. Instead of having them at the top of the box, they were written sideways which was a little inconvenient for users to read. During user testing some of the feedback I got suggested that I should decrease the number of inputs and that not all users have equally important roles. I disagree, however, because without each input, the users are not able to ultimately reach the target and the users must coordinate with each other and collaborate because of the unique roles at the very end.
CONCLUSIONS
I ultimately wanted to recreate a game I played growing up but with multiple players and a high level of interactivity. In this game, users not only had to interact in various ways with the game itself, but also with each other. From the line’s y position, the riders x position/speed, the rider’s size, and the visibility of the rider, there were many ways that the users influenced the game. Additionally, each user had to communicate and collaborate with the other users to reach a goal. In this sense, the interaction was a true conversation that was constantly changing and adapting.
During user testing, before I had laser cut the final box/control panel, users seemed to genuinely enjoy playing with my project. Unfortunately, during final presentations, users seemed less enthused. I definitely should have added a sound component and designed it so hitting the target was more obvious and there was more of a reward. I also think that different difficulty levels would have made it more appealing to different skill levels. I do think that even if users did not necessarily enjoy playing it the way I had hoped, they still nevertheless had to collaborate with each other and that to me is a success.
There are of course many multiplayer games out there in the world, but Line Rider is part of my childhood. In talking with other Americans my age, it also was a big part of theirs. I am happy that I was able to recreate this game and make it multiplayer because as someone who is the youngest of five children, I think the best times are spent with others. Had my siblings and I had this version of Line Rider when we were younger, maybe our relationship would be even closer. In an age where everyone is on their cellphone and becoming more isolated in many ways, I hope there are more collaborative games that get people moving and talking with each other.
The interaction of our project consists of two parts: processing ( with a series of scenarios ) + Arduino ( a Menu made of buttons )
In this project, the users are allowed to explore by themselves. The final feedback/report they get is also based on what they choose. When we made the proposal ideas we wanted to make it an educational device informing people to have a healthy diet by keeping the balance among all the nutritions intakes. But thanks to Prof. Marcela, we do think that idea will only be accepted by a small range of audiences —— people who care about nutritional balance to gain a healthy diet. People have their own standard to choose a healthy diet. Otherwise, our concept was too narrow to make our device an inspiring one.
BrainstormBrainstorm
The three scenarios are created to make a comparison. In the first one, there’s no limit. The users can choose whatever they want in the menu. ( People want to try curry rice simply because it’s been a while not having it ). In the second one, there are three clips of weekly vlog filmed by a famous Youtuber ( I will put the link down below ). It indicates that people nowadays can be easily influenced by social media. Psychologically speaking, most people tend to follow what others do. When those famous Youtubers are promoting their healthy styles, the audience will follow suit, not considering whether the recipes suit them or not. Or the recipes themselves are not healthy at all. In our project, people need to press “v” to watch several clips. In the last one, there’re news/scientific reports popping up on the screen with the corresponding voice. It’s like we are surrounded in a world filled up with either real or fake information. We tend to believe the so-called “scientific facts” when they are actually not. The most important lesson we learned from the midterm project is to create an all-dimensional experience for the user, in which the audio is inevitable most time. So here, from both visual and audio sides, we want to make it more a reality. The experience is like reading newspaper or checking daily news. When you look through that news, you can choose to read thoroughly or just skip it. But you can’t resist the information pouring onto you. That’s how we develop the third scenario. Finally, based on whether they’ve chosen a different dish or not during the process, we will give a feedback to the user.
For the visual design, we made a menu with buttons on top so that it feels like a restaurant. We specially chose a similar cartoon style. We made some visuals (pictures and texts), but due to time constraints, we didn’t draw all the dishes. We definitely want to try next time to make it more aesthetic.
We could have used more words but we think that there might be too much load or more like a lecture instead of an interactive experience where people are put into the “conversations” all the way.
Fabrication and Production:
The most significant and challenging part of our production is to put all the scenarios in a single processing page. We use if statement to count the scenario number, delay() to make transitions and refresh the background in between. Also, it’s important to decide when to display the image or to play the sound. For example, it happens that the new image covers the old one but the sound continues to play. It’s important to put them under the correct conditions.
During the user text, we only finished the third scenario then. And we received lots of helpful feedback from classmates and professors :
(1) Better to have clearer instructions. ( This is actually a tricky one. We do want to make it clear, but not too obvious. Or the experience will be responsive rather than interactive. So later we added some hints or notes.)
(2) The information given may be overwhelming? ( We thought of this problem. But that’s why we also added the voice. It also makes the scenario more realistic. Later people also told us that now it’s better because more visuals, more elements(sound, video, image), and more interactions are involved.)
(3) The menu can be better designed. ( We also think so. If we still have time, I want to make it more like a sheet or book or make more decorations on the box we have)
(4) Make it a little game. ( That’s also a very good starting point.)
(5) Create a replay/reset button so that the user can play it again. ( Yes! later we added that on the report page).
All the feedback is very helpful for our following production decisions. We made some improvements:
We try to put the user into a conversation, where he or she is making choices not only for himself/herself but also for the girl, Lisa, in the story. When the user is making decisions for that girl, it also indicates that it’s not you but the social media that influences your food decision. Besides, the conversation like this can be part of daily life so the users may quickly familiarize themselves with what’s going on. We want the conversation to make the scenarios more of storytelling, rather than just a “lecture”.
For the fabrication part, we used the layer cutter to make the box. The dishes are made of cardboard with pictures atop.
Conclusions:
The goal of our project is to convey the information that we can be easily affected by social media in terms of food choice to get a healthy lifestyle. You are the receiver of all kinds of information, and you thought you were making your own decision. But think about it: Are you ordering your food? Or is there anyone else ordering for you? Are you really making independent decisions? This project is never to tell people the best nutritional balance to reach in order to keep healthy. Instead, all the people can get their personalized experience in this device. Based on our report at the end of the project, if you are someone who holds the original choice you’ve made, it’s a good thing, except that you choose the junk food three times. The latter will be reminded to have a healthier alternative. As we observed, most people easily changed their mind after they got that information. We hope this project will make them realize the invisible power of social media.
Our project generally aligns with my definition of interaction that it is a process in which an actor receives and processes the information from another through a certain medium and then gives the results accordingly. It’s sufficient to describe a basic interaction. But to be a successful one, in my opinion, the experience should (1) self-explanatory, clear, and obvious (2) put the user in a continuous loop to make responses (3) be multi-dimensional with visuals, audio and other factors involved so that the user will be more engaged. I think we still need to make our project more self-explanatory. It can be achieved through various forms of interaction like recognizing the users’ gestures, which may be more close to daily life. Or we can provide more hints rather than just texts. I think we did well in (2) and (3), but there’s still space for improvements.
Since the users need to stay focused on the scenario, I’m glad to see they are more than willing to navigate throughout. Although sometimes they got confused about what’s the next key to press, and that we didn’t have a very detailed, personalized report in the end ( we expected that the feedback is given based on every food combination. But due to technical constraints, we found it difficult to realize). some of our friends said that they really saw the difference and improvements we made after the user test.
The values we learned from our setbacks and failures are that we need to thoroughly think about the ideas we want to show rather than the particular techniques for interactions. But when we begin to think about the interactions, we easily neglect some details. For example, we made the video wrong size/format, or we forgot to put the bracket, etc. Therefore, we also need to spare time for these possible mistakes besides the main parts.
Another thing we need to reflect on setbacks is how to convey the information more explicitly and quickly. So we designed a plan B for the 3rd scenario: we let the user chooses whether to go through every piece of news or simply get the abstract by skimming. The latter is meant to create a feeling of the explosion of information, mimicking a realistic environment filled up with all kinds of information. It has all the news and big titles moving while the voiceover will be a combined soundtrack with varied voices telling different news or slogans. In this case, even if they are not patient to see the news one by one, they get the main ideas rather quickly.
To conclude, we want to let people realize the influence of social media on their decision making. Studies show that when we order our food, we are affected or misled by many external factors. Social media is the major one in today’s world. If we just blindly follow whatever others eat or the so-called scientific report says, we are going to face some food safety issues. The prevailing pop culture including live streams and articles gains profits mostly by driving the traffic and catching people’s eyes. Some may be true facts, and some are really not. But consumers tend to believe whatever they see or hear. Following the social media blindly may lead to some disorders or obesity or heart-diseases. In our project, by asking people “who’s ordering your food”, we want to let people think twice about their food choice or decision making in general.
The visual part of his project will be a Frida Kahlo painting or some icons extracted from Frida’s paintings that will equivalently symbolize her ideas as an embodied material of her statements.
Ideally, this interactive installation needs to be set up in a room. On one of the walls, Frida’s painting will be projected. At the entrance of the room, there might be flowers prepared for visitors so that they can take some and put in front of Kahlo’s painting to demonstrate respect to this person’s legendary yet ordinary life. This is also motivating the users/visitors to feel the sense that they are participating in a ritual, a tribute to someone they might not be familiar with and they are on the way to know this person.
In the room, a nonstopping soundtrack of heartbeats will be played and looping in order to surround the users by strong sounds. While Frida’s paintings/ portraits are projected at the center of the wall, some 3-D printed organs such as (Frida’s)eyes, (Frida’s) heart are presented. In the heart is a distance-detector that senses the audience approach. Once the users are close enough, the painting on the wall will shift to next – in other words, the user’s approach triggers changes. The change represents the change of Frida, different stages in her life.
I want this installation project to offer a rather immersive experience to the users where they can feel surrounded, familiar and unfamiliar, known and unknown. I hope this can be an introduction as well as a tribute to Frida Kahlo. Like her paintings and life stories that always lure people’s attention and awe, I hope that this immersive experience can lure people’s curiosity and reflection. So the visitors can leave with questions: Who is this person? Why am I introduced to this person today? What is this person’s story? Do I know this person? Do I know her well enough?
In this recitation, work individually to create a Processing sketch that controls media (images or video) by manipulating that media’s attributes using a physical controller made with Arduino. Reflect on this week’s classes to guide you in your coding process, and think about how you can incorporate interactivity and computation into this week’s exercise.
I chose one screenshot image from one of my favorite documentaries called Life is Fruity. (image attached below)
import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;
int valueFromArduino;
PImage pimage;
void setup() {
size(1440, 824);
background(0);
pimage = loadImage("pimage.png");
printArray(Serial.list());
// this prints out the list of all available serial ports on your computer.
myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[ 5 ], 9600);
}
void draw() {
// to read the value from the Arduino
image(pimage,0,0,width,height);
while ( myPort.available() > 0) {
valueFromArduino = myPort.read();
}
if (valueFromArduino == 1){
filter(BLUR,10);
}
println(valueFromArduino);//This prints out the values from Arduino
}
[code]
int button = 6;
void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
int buttonstate = digitalRead(button) ;
Serial.write(buttonstate);
// too fast communication might cause some latency in Processing
// this delay resolves the issue.
delay(10);
}
[/code]
Above are respectively processing sketch and arduino sketch for this exercise. Basically, I used a button for the physical interaction to trigger the BLUR filter over the original image in processing. The video below shows the effect.
Document your work on your blog. Use this week’s reading, Computer Vision for Artist and Designers, to inspire you to write a reflection about the ways technology was used in your project.
The documentary itself is about two elderly people sharing their life stories in the countryside to the audience who are interested in and eager for encouraging power and wisdom from their life experiences. At the end of the documentary, as an audience, I witnessed death as well as life. Therefore I chose this image in which two of them are holding each other – showing trust and love towards each other. I want to trigger the blurry effect over the image to mimic the sight when someone is in tears, to earn a blurry sense of this life fruit.
Bullying Simulator – Min Jee (Lisa) Moon – Marcela Godoy
Because my project was more of a statement piece, there wasn’t much interaction going on.
in order to give a first-hand experience of getting bullied by others, I made the project to be on the phone, just like how the victims of the bullied would always receive bullying messages on the phone.
To resemble the similar terror inside the user’s mind, I added the background sound and the ringtone. (Frankly, I got really sick and terrified of the ringtone of the project ringtone).
Collected the real text messages that I found on SNS to make the situation realistic.
Tried to make the project code heavy than the physical part, so that the user can somewhat interact with it, the way users do with their real phone.
For the fabrication,
Initial physical outline for my project
Rastering the laser cutting material
Finished laser cut material
Just like above, I intended the paper role to fall right in front of the hole, into the trash bin, because I thought the bullied are treated like an “emotional trash bin” since all the bad feelings of the bullies would be thrown into bullied as if the bullied are trash bin.
However, during the user testing session, all the users would not get the “emotional trash bin” idea. Due to the outcome from the user testing session, I realized I would have to change my physical part.
What I moved onto (the idea that I got from the user testing session from the test users) the idea of the messages (trash) thrown to the user. As a result, I worked towards the paper roll shooting the trash towards the user.
The first prototype was the one using the DC motor.
As you can see from the video, the stepper would move the push bar to feed the trash messages to the dc motor wheel.
However, as you can see from the above video, the DC motor would throw the trash message to the right front. In addition, the DC motor would get too loud to even make the entire table vibrate. As a result, I decided to change to prototype 2.
The shooter inside the deviceLaser cutting the wheel to hold on to the strip/hook behind the paper shooter working like a triggerThe device without the feeder stepper (just for the better view inside the photo)
This is the shooter inside the prototype 2. The feeder from prototype 1 was kept the same. If the feeder feeds the trash messages inside the gun, the stepper inside the device would pull on the trigger behind the gun to shoot the trash message towards the user. However, because pulling on the material would be too hard. Therefore, I moved on to the last idea.
For the last idea, I do not have an image or video, but the basic idea can be found here.
Just like the video linked above, when the feeder feeds the trash message paper to the right place, the stepper wheel attached to the catapult would keep on pull on the material, and finally, the servo motor pushing down the catapult would release the catapult, making the trash message to be shot up at the user through the whole.
However, the rubber pulling the catapult would be too weak, and the friction between the wooden boards between the catapult would be too strong to make the catapult shoot up the material effectively, failing the entire physical part’s intention. As a result, I, sadly, was forced to focus all my projects on my coded application part.
HERE is the link to the code bit (The demo of this code bit can be seen from the video at the beginning of this post)
CONCLUSIONS:
This project was motivated by several videos about the suicide video of Amanda Todd and suicide notes of the 13 years old girl K (Korean) who decided to do suicide after continuous bullying. I collected a lot of the real bullying texts that the bullying victims got in their facebook messages, text messages, Kakaotalk (Korean WeChat), etc. to give a realistic experience.
Because my initial and the main attempt was to give the user first-hand experience from the perspective of the bullied, I believe I was able to give a half-successful project. However, unlike my initial attempt of putting the users into the shoes of the bullied and the users tended to view the project in the perspective of the 3rd person’s point-of-view and since this program can only be run on my phone, I think it was still a project that has some space for improvement.
In order to improve this project, I would love to get an approvement from our college and actually publish an actual application that actually sends the messages to the user’s actual phone, which would give more hands-on experience to the user.
I believe this is a very meaningful project after-all because bullying is an ongoing issue all over the world. When I asked the NYU Shanghai students and instructors if they know who to contact if they encounter someone bullying others, nobody was able to answer the question. When I also asked if anybody knows how it feels to be bullied, nobody had a clear idea of how it would feel to be bullied by others. I believe this shows ignorance towards issues like this. Raising awareness to the NYU students and instructors (people whom I presented my project to) would satisfy my initial purpose.
