Hi. My name is Lee "The Tank" Brown Apted. This is my awesome portfolio for Studio II - Physical Computing 2010. This semester, we had to create some kind of physical computing device that fit with the themes of Street Computing and Physical Activity. I present to you, our project called Jump On The Line.
Before we dive into the project, I thought I had better explain what these themes are in a little more detail. The theme of physical activity is probably the easiest to understand - if you aren't sitting or lying down, it probably counts as physical activity. Now Street Computing, that's is a little harder to explain.
Webster's dictionary defines 'street' as:
and 'computing' as:A thoroughfare especially in a city, town, or village that is wider than an alley or lane and that usually includes sidewalks.
To use a computer.
So, you might be thinking, Street Computing is probably some kind of combination of both of those, possibly what is seen below.
Well, you would be wrong. A better definition can be found in that bastion of knowledge, Wikipedia:
An emerging field of study that focuses on the use of technology in public environments such as cities, parks, forests and suburbs. It also studies the interaction between humans and such environments, which is becoming increasingly common as access to computing devices extends beyond home and office.
from "Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City" by Eric Paulos, R.J. Honicky, and Ben Hooker. It's this field of study that our project slots in to - a piece of technology, out in public, that anyone can use.
Jump On The Line is an interactive floor game. It consists of a 1mx5m long, pressure sensitive, light-up floor.
The concept for the game is simple - lines of light move towards you on the ground, and you jump on them. The more lines you jump on, the more of a cool song is revealed. Jump on enough of them, and you will reveal a whole song. Miss them, and the end of the song will remained obscured forever! Simple huh? I think elegant is the word you are looking for. Also, fun. Don't forget fun. Have a look at our video below from when we exhibited our game at The Edge at South Bank.
It fits with the themes because, it can be placed in a public place (like on a street) and you have to jump on it to use it, so its physical. Tada!
This is a 4-pad dance floor rhythm game. We borrowed concepts of the pressure sensitive floor and dance-rhythm concept and simplied them for a street computing setting.
Basically, It's a rock-music rhythm game with a guitar shaped controller. From this we borrwed the concepts of rhythm based music exploration.
For a detailed version of how our design progressed throughout the semester, look at my blog on ning.
So apart from my awesome looks, wicked personality, and lovely singing voice, I contributed the following to the project:
Here are some pictures of the developmental stages throughout the semester I contributed to:
Overall, I thought it was very good. On the day it performed very well, even with the difficulty of transporting it to the Edge.
When exhibiting our project, I found that people preferred the projected side of our project, to the LED lit side. This may have been because the projected side had newer, more sensitive sponges, and therefore the gameplay was more responsive. I actually prefer the projected side as well, as it was far easier to construct and still effectively demonstrated our concept.
I presented an interesting talk about a physical computing project I was interested in, Project Natal (now called Kinect). Read it.
This was on the the proposed idea/topic for the studio project, presented by my team, Team Extertainment.
This was a proof of concept presentation intended to allow us to report on the progress we had made with our project.