PP3: A Hidden Mystery

For Pressure Project 3 we were to reveal a hidden mystery in 3 minutes without a keyboard or mouse. Bonus levels were to make it unique to each user, have users move in a larger environment, and for users to express delight in the search and reveal.

Rather than making it unique to each user, I wanted to make an experience in which users must work together to reveal the mystery, and decided to make a treasure hunt.

I chose to start with putting a penny into a jar to signify the investment. The Makey Makey is attached to the penny and the tin foil that lines the jar. When the penny enters the jar, it triggers the next scene. In this scene, I video is projected onto a white box, and my voice (which has been slowed down) explains the next clue. They are to find the window and set it on top of the while box. The window has a strip of tin foil on the bottom, so when they set it on the box, it tin foil closes the circuit and triggers the next scene. (If you look at the image to the right, I have wires set up on either side of where they set the frame. These wires connect to the Makey Makey.)

In the next scene, the voice gives some vague directions that become more clear when the projection appears on the window. The users figure out that they need to link hands in order to close the Makey Makey circuit this time. This is the moment when the whole group needs to work together.

In this instance it would have been helpful to use something besides a penny, because the penny used in the first scene got mixed into the penny’s used in this scene.

Then, the next scene provides another riddle. It is pictured on the right.

They figured out that they needed to go back to the jar where they began. Taking the penny out of the jar triggered the next scene. I crossed my fingers that they would get the “Dig” message, but it wan’t clear enough. In hind sight, this scene might have had the voice tell them to keep digging. While we did it, however, I told them to think about the clue, and they figured out that they needed to go into the jar to find the treasure!

I definitely think that they expressed delight as they uncovered the treasure! Inside the jar, but obscured by the tin foil, I had hidden a bunch of chocolate coins.

To watch the experience, check out this video!

Final Project and Plan

11/13 – compiling the audio and projectors

light bulbs

audio/stereos

3 projectors

several objects, including smells

makey makey wired between them

isadora programmed for audio and visual trigger of each

Final Project Plan and Schedule

For the Final Project I will be creating a VR experience with three parts:

1. Intro to Firebird Cube

2. Interact with Firebird Cube

3. Environment Change with amount to interactivity with Firebird Cube

[The whole experience will be surrounded by the music of Stravinsky’s ballet Firebird.  The music will be from the following ballet and album

The recording will be the Carlo Maria Giulini recording with the Chicago Symphony recorded in 1979

My Plan and Schedule is as Follows:

PP3

Task: For our third pressure project, we were tasked with creating a mystery the did not use a keyboard and keypad.  I decided on a basic interactive 360 photo mystery. I found this task to be a good exploration of 360 photos and also the workings of 360 photos in the context of Google Maps and the ability to call images of public places from Google Pictures that are placed on Google maps.  I learned a bit about “text to speech” (as there is no dialogue, only auditory speech.)

Process: For this project, I started with a  map of California.  I wanted to take the user on a scavenger hunt up and down the coast with the “mystery” being a theft taking place at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  I also wanted the user to get a sense of the environment.

I started with drawing the cities, environments, suspects and the items that were to be used in discovering the thief.  I wanted to scavenge to take the user to cities and landmarks in CA.

Once I had the ideas written out, I found the images of the environments I was going to use.  The environments helped to dictate the pictures of individuals that were to be used and represented.  After I had all the images together, I wrote some dialogue for the suspects.  Once I had all the elements, I brought them into unity and linked them up using some basic scripting and a 360 template.

Feedback: I believe that my project was well received.  Due to the fact that only one person could go at a time,  there were only two classmates that were able to try the experience. However, they really seemed to enjoy the project and kept giving me the note that they had felt like they had been transported to another place.  This was my intention, so I was very pleased with that response.   I also asked for some feedback on the “voice to text” and the users seemed to love it.  This may be something I include in my thesis moving forward.  Text bubbles seem to disrupt the FLOW of the experience.

If I did it over again, I would have changed the photos to basic models.  I could have just used a simple command to then make their face (the photo) appear.  I believe this would be interesting as we have to decide to look at a person’s face in a public area and could have created some intrigue within the scene itself.

Schematic and Schedule

Pressure Project 2

PP2 was to create an interactive fortune teller in 9 hours. Similar to last time I challenged myself to completely begin and end the the process within that nine hour limit (this includes the brainstorming phase). Unlike the first pressure project, I went a route I assumed would be a(n attainable) challenge but instead realized the error of this assumption.

My original idea was to use a program called Max- a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling ’74. The program is similar to Isadora, but I was more familiar with how to use it and various sensors. I wanted to try to create a “fortune teller” that could use some sort of sensor to tell your fortune.

When I had spent too much time trying to figure out Max, I decided to turn to the Arduino, which I was familiar with and thought could work to create a physical fortune teller machine, similar to the 20 questions little game I had as a child.  I also knew that Arduino’s have tons of tutorials and help guides that might be able to assist in case I got stuck. It also helped that I had all the equipment from a previous class to get started (working by the light of a laptop):

My plan seemed straightforward: use an lcd screen to display questions to a user. Two small buttons would correspond to Yes and No answers to these questions.  The order in which a user answers would after a few questions generate a custom fortune. I began by wiring my arduino and led screen, using using a helpful code and preset sketch. This part was a success!

Next, I attempted to modify a few codes online, one being a simple fortune teller and the other being a code that have various forms of  “if this order of yes and no answers (ex: yes no no no yes) then do this (in my case read fortune).

This is where I ran into issues. When I put in a code, Text no longer showed up on the screen and my led stopped turning on. Then, my led light stopped completely. Then when I tried to get the box made so it would be held in something nice, I dropped the Arduino and messed up where the wired had been.

Then I ran out of time.