Project Title
Pickmon: Pick Your Pokemon!
Project Statement of Purpose *
In our discussion and research, me and my partner Karen found that people can be greatly pleased when they get a sense of belonging to a collective, on which most existing fun tests are built. However, we think these fun tests have more potential in providing entertaining experience, so we intend to make a new version of fun tests with an interactive dimension. This means we would like to challenge the traditional way of participating tests, particularly adding to the complexitiy and randomness of information delivered and received. To intensify interestingness, we decide to focus on pokemon as our theme subject, targeting at pokemon fans.
Project Plan
We plan to make a physical machine which tests ” the pokemon type that suits the participant”. The machine will compose of a separate screen and five boxes assembled as a cross, with a testing box at the crossing point and four result boxes around. The participant will be putting a finger on the poke ball in the testing box and answering questions put on the screen silently in mind. After answering all questions, one of the result boxes will open, showing a representitive pokemon of the type that suits the participant.
We intent to achieve the input of information to the machine by monitoring the heart rate of the participant when answering questions: The testing box is equipped with sensor/monitor and send the data to Arduino then to Processing, where they will be calculated into a final value. The value will be sent back to Arduino to control the result boxes to open.
During the using process, the user will be required to be attentive to thinking, which emphasizes the importance of users’ participation in the input of information. The actual heart rate data that is collected, however, adds to the randomness of processing information. As for the final answer of “type”, it provides the user with a strong sense of goal/reason along with psychologic reward.
Context and Significance
In my preparatory analysis, I reflected on the previous experiences of creating interactive projects, and led myself to the emphasis on final feedback/reward this time. I defined interaction as a course that provides a final result by multiple particpants delivering complex information, processing and giving instant feedback to each other, so I worked on how to attach a sense of “passing the finishing line”. When discussing this with partner, fun tests that are designed according to and based on certain results came to my mind. Therefore we decided to re-create a advanced version of those fun tests. We plan to make a more engaging process of testing, involving not only simply answering questions but also bodily engagement and high awareness. If successful, our project will improve the experience of categorizing oneself for a psycological treat, and lead to more complex and fun future exploration on the form of fun tests.