Connor S. – Final Project Essay

“Soccer Skills Assister”

Physical interaction has seemed to have taken the gaming world by storm — systems like the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect became massively popular upon their release, and demonstrate how marketable physically interactive systems can be. I really enjoy the idea of taking an experience or activity that would normally require a large amount of space, and shrink it down into something much more accessible, and equally stimulating. I was initially inspired by the soccer free kick simulator I referenced in a previous post as it played into my love of soccer, and sparked my interest in the concept of creating small-scale versions of things that require more space. My project follows a similar trajectory, which incorporates my love of playing soccer with the idea that people can have fun learning and playing the sport without leaving their home, and let alone going to a soccer field. The “Soccer Skills Assister” would give people the opportunity to learn soccer skills to better themselves as players, or get a bit of fun out of an exercise that may operate differently than pretty much anything else on the market right now. 

My plan for the project is essentially to first recreate the game Dance Dance Revolution using Arduino and Processing, and transposing it to be soccer related. My idea would of course include a soccer ball, and four cardboard sensor pads around the ball to the upper right, upper left, lower right, and lower left of the ball. After selecting the skill move the user wishes to learn from a menu on a computer in front of them, a video of someone doing the move appears on the screen, and replays as many times as the user needs to understand how the move is performed. When the user is ready, a countdown timer starts on the screen, prompting the user to get ready to attempt the move. When the countdown reaches zero, the pads on the ground will light up, directing the user to step on them in the same sequence they saw in the video on the screen. My idea is after a certain skill move is selected from the menu, the speed at which the user has to perform the move increases each time, until the fastest viable speed to perform the move is reached. The first round will be fairly slow, to allow essentially any able-bodied person to get  the basics of it, regardless of skill level. By the third or fourth round, the speed will have increased significantly, leaving only skilled players, or people who played the game a lot, a chance of succeeding. I plan on spending a substantial chunk of the next two weeks making sure my sensor pads work properly, because if people are unable to step on them or the sensors are not sensitive enough, then I think the whole thing is a total loss. Once I make sure the sensors are working properly for the project’s intended purpose, I will write the code for the game itself, creating the menu, making sure the pads light up correctly depending on the chosen skill, etc. 

The research I have done so far in relation to this project has essentially been limited to my admiration for games like Dance Dance Revolution in that they take the activity of learning how to dance and make it both easily accessible and fun. I thought a lot about my definition of interaction when drafting the idea for my final project, and concluded that out of the ideas I brainstormed, this one would be the most interactive. I personally think a soccer ball sitting on the ground would be reason enough for someone to approach my project, just out of curiosity. When the potential user approaches the project, my goal is to get them to say: “Hey, let me see if I can move my feet quickly like a pro soccer star” rather than “Eh it’s just a sports game and I don’t even like soccer, I’m not interested.” I think what makes my project particularly unique/significant is the fact that it can attract both people with an interest in soccer/athletics, as well as those without a strong interest in sports, but who are nonetheless somewhat interested in the idea of a quickness game where they can get some exercise and have fun. I’d say this project is also significant in that it can be made into both a casual, arcade style game, and a more serious soccer drill for players to develop their skills. If I were to continue improving upon this idea, I would probably make two versions of it: A casual, arcade soccer skills game, and a serious tool for coaches to buy for their players to use at practice.           

Week 4 Assignment by Ian (You Xu)

Reflection of Field Trip:

We visited many of their club activities and one autism therapy class. By taking a look at their club activities, I think the school has already tried the best to maximize their personal capabilities and interests. Art activity leaves me the most impressive impression where some of the students are free drawing, and the others are doing some complex works. The coordinator in the school told us that they design the tasks differently for students with different skills and capabilities. I think it best fulfills different students’ needs by customizing the teaching plan for them. However, we got to know that the school has limited human resources. When we are watching the autism therapy class, even though there were only two children in the class, we still think the difference between the two children makes the class less efficient. It would be better to treat one child at one time. I think the iPad app that the teacher is helpful to different materials for different levels of learners. However, it focuses on how to reduce the burden of the teacher. I think it would better to design a technology that is customized to the learner. Therefore, it can minimize the effect of the recognition gap between peer learners. I think Young has a good idea for designing something to attract students’ intention so that they can stay more focused.

club

Moreover, while listening to the autism therapy class, I was also observing the classroom settings. I noticed that the school might intend to make a warm and safe room setting for students. However, it is not successful enough. Inevitably, some facilities that are out of line. Then how about change a perspective to design something applicable to students themselves to make them more comfortable in an unfamiliar environment? I do not have a specific idea, but I think such a design will be helpful for students especially with autism.

classroom setting

Describe your project idea

Describe your partner as a person

My partner is very quiet. When I first took a glimpse at him, I did not identify anything abnormal about him. He walks a little unbalanced, but that does not make him look strange. We started to ask questions and introduces ourselves to him. He seemed to have understood our words but only replies in limited voice and hand gestures. None of us understood it. Therefore, we found a pen and a piece of paper writing down our conversation. He writes comparatively slow, but the characters are clear to understand. After that, we had a long conversation with his mother. While we are chatting with his mother, I noticed that he is quietly listening and paying attention to our conversation. Later, his mother posted some questions on the paper, and he started writing the response. He even actively started writing a sentence to us while he is a little ignored by us. Therefore, I believed that he has a strong desire to join our conversation. However, the way to communicate is a big challenge for him.

What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

He has many challenges. Throughout our conversation with his mother, we noticed that he never goes out by himself but also with his mother because of the potential dangers on the road. Since he lacks a certain degree of the ability to control the left side of his body, it is very hard for him to keep the balance. Also, he expressed his desire to have a romantic relationship with his mother two years ago, but his situation is not socially accepted. Furthermore, his mother is also concerned about his safety at home since he might open the room door for strangers. However, after all, we nearly forget that our target audience should be himself instead of his mother. We were chatting with his mother all the time instead of him. We then realized the most significant difficulty for him is the inconvenient environment of his communication with others. We could hardly communicate with him until his mother came.

What is your project?

We spent some time finding a pen and paper to write down words in communication. Also, we did not aware that he is unable to hear and speak at first. Therefore, we came up with an idea to address this problem. So, the purpose of the device should enable him to communicate with others without any barriers in any situation. We still think writing and reading is the most effective, stable, and safe way for his daily communication. We find the existing writing pad online. It is convenient to carry, write, and swipe the previous writing. However, it is not initially designed for disabled people. Therefore, we want to build a device that makes the writing pad accessible to him. We need to figure out the following details in design by prototype and test.

writing pad

  1. Notify others about his lack of ability in hearing and speaking. We may use the sound notification.
  2. Attached the writing pad to his body but should not block his daily movement and make him uncomfortable. We may design a special bracket for him.
  3. Avoid two people writing in opposite directions or make their writing readable to each other. We may want to make the device rotatable.
  4. Make sure the pen will not be lost while walking. We may attach the pen to the device with wires.

Week 4 Assignments – Ariana Alvarez

  1. Reflection of field trip

The field trip to the Shanghai Pudong New Area Special School was very insightful as it provided me with a closer look on the difficulties faced by children with intellectual disabilities. We were able to observe children in different classes, personal development, and extracurricular activities such as performing arts, African music dance, and interacting with plants and nature. It was interesting to see how through the simplest of activities such as molding shapes with clay, playing with legos, and color coding drawings with small sparkles, kids learned the most. However, not only hands-on activities were used in the school, but actually technologies were employed to make children’s learning more efficient. Such case was seen in the personal development section of the school, where the teachers used an application in an iPad, to help kids learn and recognize basic everyday shapes like fruits and vegetables. These technologies went in hand with physical objects that also allowed children to touch the figures that were being displayed in technologies. In the end, the most beneficial factor of the field trip was allowing me to understand how there can be many ways of helping people with disabilities, even if it is through the slightest of change in an object. I am hoping this will help me improve in further ideation processes in Assistive Technology, since even though last week’s session went pretty well with my partner, there is always room for improvement in asking the correct questions in order to obtain the best results for the final project. 

  1. Project idea

a. Describe your partner as a person

My partner is a very happy, energetic, and passionate woman. She has worked before in assistive technology workshops, therefore she already knows the dynamic in us trying to make a product that will help her overcome her difficulties.

b. What were their desires/challenges/difficulties?

Since my partner uses a wheelchair, her main difficulty is carrying an umbrella when she is outside and its raining, as the umbrella is too heavy for her to hold onto the whole time. Therefore, her desire is for something that will help her facilitate that process; an object that will keep her umbrella in place under any circumstance that she may need it. 

c. What is your project? 1 paragraph description + Photos + Videos

Our project idea is an umbrella holder that will be fixed onto the left side of her wheelchair in such a way that it will be accessible to put an umbrella there at any time. The holder inside will have a structure similar to valves, in order to prevent the back flow, and allow the umbrella to stay in place under any weather conditions. I have attached photos of the development of the first prototype in cardboard and paper. 

Initial Prototype Sketch with partner

TaoBao inspiration design of

Second inspiration design “Paraplis Umbrella Holder”

First Prototype Idea made with paper

First Prototype Idea, storage function in wheelchair (Paper)

Prototype Iteration made with tube and cardboard, tested to support umbrella.

Yanru Zhu-Assistive Technology-Week4-Assignment

  • Reflection of the field trip (individual)
    • The field trip on Wednesday is really educating. As soon as I entered the school, I suddenly realized that although the special school is also on Century Avenue, where our school is located, if we don’t pay attention, we wouldn’t find that there are many people in the world who are suffering from the disabilities. This group of people deserves more care. After observing their club activities and individual training, I also realized that being a teacher for special school requires much more patience compared to teachers in normal schools. Regardless of their additional knowledge, they have to deal with special kids, teachers have the patience I can’t image when facing endless incidents made by kids. I kept thinking about how to help the teacher to teach kids with more focus and easier for students to follow. For example, the African drum could actually be turned into a game for students to train their focus. We could set a sensor in the teacher’s drum to detect when the teacher bangs the drum, and send this signal to students’ drums with LEDs. So students will receive sound and visual inputs to ask them to also bang the drums, and I guess that could improve student’s focus.
  • Describe your project idea (individual)
    • Describe your partner as a person (not PwD)
      • He is a 30-year old male who loves playing computer games and using the computer to search for knowledge(e.g. how to take public transportation from home to NYU Shanghai). 
    • What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?
      • As he is deaf and cerebral palsy, he has difficulty in communicating with people. Actually, during our first conversation with him, the conversation was basically dominated by his mother who is quite talkative. So we found that communication is the problem we need to help him to solve.
    • What is your project? 1 paragraph description + Photos + Videos
      • We want to build a portable electronic writing board for him to carry on wherever he goes. The board should be easy for him to write, and easy for other people to read, and write him back. Additionally, it should be easily erased, so that’s why we don’t use a traditional writing board. 

RAPS assignment5 (Katie)

This is the final output of my patch:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QzwV3WO8B6ogglVcj1f5o1jeDO9PvxAa/view?usp=sharing

This is the link to my patch

https://gist.github.com/JiayanLiu27/8bc52ca522e90c67fb6f7ea3341ac9cb

I download a 3D model obj file from website. And upload it through the “read” function in my max patch. Then I click the toggle to start capturing camera video and routing this visual into a named texture object called “myface”. In order to apply the visuals captured by the webcam to the texture of the 3D model, I click the little green button on the left of the jit.gl.model and found the texture function and add it to the jit.gl.model. I then send a message of “myface” to the “texture”. then @texture myface in the jit.gl.model.

This way the visuals I captured by web cam can be routed into the texture of the 3D model. The final step is to adjust the speed, scale and position according to the output.

This is my overall patch: