1. The Rock ‘em Sock ‘em hack
- Manali Gortekar
Yishi Yang
2. Concept
Robots
Research
Design
Wrestling ring bed
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Joysticks
Concept:
Mechanics:
This game is essentially a boxing game where
two robots fight with each other until one of
them loses.
The game has a plastic wrestling ring bed
on which two robots are mounted. These
robots are operated by joysticks which are
attached as an extension to the either side
of the bed. On pressing a joystick, robot
punches. Two joysticks correspond to two
hands of the robot. They have limited space
within which they can move and dodge
from punch. On punching the head of the
opponent robot several times, it springs up.
This indicates the other player has lost the
game.
Number of players:
Prototype link :
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=2eysrYnNP1c
Two
3. Concept
Robot eyes
Research
Design
Prototyping
Music button
Lessons learned
Trash talking button
Points recorder
Arduino enhancements :
1. Eyes of the robots lit up by LEDs.
...........
To indicate that player is still in the game.
2. LED’s on the wrestling ring bed to keep a ...........
count of how many games each player has
won.
To showcase number of points a player has
scored.
3. A button on the side of wrestling bed to
start music while playing the game.
...........
To make the gaming experience more
immersive.
4. Robots trash talking during the game.
...........
To make the boxing game more competitive.
4. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Research
As a part of research for this assignment,
we visited Wonderlab science museum
in Bloomington, IN to observe different
ways children interact with toys. We
wanted to study how different dimensions
of engagement, learning, creativity and
playfulness are adjusted in every exhibit
object. We went there with an open mind
to derive inspiration from the various ways
natural properties are utilized to create
a playful and interactive experience for
museum visitors. We narrowed our user
focus group to teenagers age between
10 - 16 years.
that the degree of active participation and
learning aspect of that game kept players
engaged for a long time. The other exhibit
example was that of “lift you own weight”
(img. 2) where maximum three players
compete to reach to the top of a structure
by lifting their own weight by rope. The
competition aspect of the game added
dramatically to the playfulness. The third
interesting exhibit object enabled visitors
to leave their impression. The interesting
mode of feedback and novel usage of
materials attracted visitors to this engaging
experience of the object.
Few of the interesting observations we
came across in the exhibit was one that of
an “Earthquake shake table” (img. 1) where
a player has to build a wooden structure
and connect them by pipes to sustain the
jerky movements of table. We observed
In addition to this museum exhibit visit, we
also visited Target store to explore available
options of analog toys . We did onsite
brainstorming session of interesting analog
toys to discuss their possible experience
enhancement with arduino and finally
decided on the “rock ‘em sock ‘em “ toy.
img. 1
img. 2
img. 3
5. Concept
Research
Design
Rationale
Ideation
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Intended user group
The intended user group for enhanced
version of “Rock ‘em Sock ‘em” toy is
teenagers between age 10 to 16 years.
Intended context of use
This toy can be used as a game played
between two friends in an outdoor party. We
imagine this toy to be played by teenagers in
their pajama party. It can also be played by
adults for their bachelor/bachelorette party.
Goals for the experience
Chris conley et al. from Institute of design,
Illinois have classified engaging experience
in four different realms: 1. Entertainment
engagement 2. Education engagement
3. Escapist engagement 4. Aesthetic
engagement. We intend to provide players
escapist engagement where they could escape
from their normal, daily reality for some time.
This form of escapism is necessary for a
person as it is not usually a part of their daily
life.
We intend to solidify this experience
of escapism by focusing more on two
parameters mainly user active participation
and immersion. The active participation
aspect is addressed by the competitive nature
of the toy design which was already a part of
it before it was hacked. Through arduino, we
intend to create more immersive experience
by enhancing the existing toy with different
modes of feedback like light in the form of
LEDs and sound in the form of speakers while
playing.
<<http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642>>
6. Concept
Research
Design
Rationale
Ideation
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Why should HCI care ?
Play is a psychological necessity. It very
important for an individual’s social,
emotional, physical and creative development.
Playing increasing social competency and
emotional maturity. It provides a way to
express and cope with feelings. It also
contributes to overall body awareness and
creative thoughts.
There can be several intentions for playing
this game. The escapist engagement can
actively contribute to an individual’s social
development. It can enable players to practice
verbal and non-verbal communication skills
while playing and respond well to each
other’s feelings. The competitive aspect may
enable an individual to experience other’s
point of view by working through conflict’s
about space, material and rules. Players can
also relate escapism as experimenting with
different roles , in our case boxers, by coming
in contact with their needs and wishes which
they would have never experienced in their
real lives. Since this is not an individual
game, the added dimension of player’s
emotional maturity while competing with
each other, quick decision ability and practice
for spontaneous action adds more to the
advantanges of playing this game.
7. Concept
Research
Design
Rationale
Ideation
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Early concepts
1. Dance Mattress
While going through the toy store, we came
across a dance mattress where a player has
to place his foot on a selected areas in an
attempt to match dance step along with the
music. The original analog version of this
toy was just a mattress with marked areas.
The brainstorming session of using arduino
technology with this toy led us to add both
visual and sound feedback as a way to
enhance experience. A player will be given a
sample dance step to match in the form of
light patterns which would be different colors
LEDs glowing on different areas of mattress.
These LEDs will have pressure sensor and will
glow if a person places his foot on them. The
player would be able to see if he is matching
with the given patterns and music that goes
with this step simultaneously. We thought
that the degree of active participation would
be much higher as player has to utilize his
entire body while playing this game
8. Concept
Research
Design
Rationale
Ideation
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Early concepts
2. Changing Barbie
This toy design utilizes conductive fabric to
dress up a Barbie doll. The fabric will basically
change into different colors and textures
depending on user’s input. User will select a
color and texture to be formed on the dress
of doll on computer screen and the doll will
lit up with different dress all the time. We
thought that this would be an immersive
experience as it involves learning and
experimenting the fashion in endless ways.
The immediate visual feedback on the doll
might add more to it.
9. Concept
Research
Design
Rationale
Ideation
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Early concepts
3. Driving Madness
This analog toy is essentially navigating a
steering wheel to drive the car and reach to
destination bypassing all the hurdles. Player
get to see the route on a small screen in the
middle of the steering wheel. We thought
the idea of balancing and navigating a car
would be interesting as it requires players to
concentrate till they accomplish their task.
Few toy enhancements we thought about
were - giving sound feedback while driving
to make it more realistic, visual feedback of
the location of car in map and feedback in the
form of vibration when a player clashes on to
a hurdle.
11. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Arduino enhancement
1. Eyes of the robots are lit up by LEDs
indicating player is still in the game. The
moment head of either robot springs up, eyes
stop glowing. This indicates robot is dead and
player has lost his game.
Rationale: To make those robots more ‘real’
and give visual feedback to players for when
should they start playing.
Technical stuff: There is a photo sensor which
senses the motion of head and causes LEDs
to glow. The moment head springs up, photo
sensor senses and LEDs stop glowing.
13. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Arduino enhancement
2. LED’s on the wrestling ring bed to keep a
count of how many games each player has
won. The no. of games a player wins, those
no. of LED’s glow. This system essentially
tells us how many points a player has scored.
Rationale: We wanted to showcase a
scoreboard because of the competitive nature
of the game.
Technical stuff: We coded the point recording
system in Arduino. We modified the serial
button code in examples library to make it
work.
15. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Arduino enhancement
3. A button on the side of wrestling bed to
start the music while playing the game.
Rationale: To make the experience of playing
the game more enjoyable and immersive.
Technical stuff: Code to play music on
pressing a button. We stored the music in
the form of .wav file in SD card attached to
the circuit. This circuit is hidden below the
wrestling ring bed.
17. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Arduino enhancement
4. Robots trash talking during the game.
Rationale: To leverage the “competitive”
nature of the game and make the overall
experience more engaging.
To introduce a comical element in order to
loosen up the tension between players.
Technical stuff: Code is similar to the one for
playing music. There are several .wav files
stored in the SD card of the circuit. There is
also a button to either side of the wrestling
bed besides joysticks. When the a player
presses a button, it triggers the trash talking
sound.
19. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Process
1. Research:
Soon after we got this project we started
exploring different ways existing toys can be
made more playful and engaging.
We did secondary research to come up with
some ideas regarding different forms of
feedback mechanism toys use. We could not
really do much of concept sketching or take
any major decisions before analyzing existing
analog toy options.
2. Field Visit:
We visited the field site mainly to explore
different forms of engagement museum
exhibit has installed and get inspired by their
creative usage of different materials and their
natural properties.
3. Store Visit:
The next step was visit to a local toy
store. We explored a lot of options and
simultaneously discussed on possible
arduino enhancements. After considering
several toys, we decided on “Rock ‘em Sock
‘em” because of the two player boxing game
challenge. We played the game onsite and
found the that to be very engaging. Playing
the game helped us in thinking through
what additional arduino enhancements
could later be added to this game to make it
even better.
20. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Process
4. Hacking decisions:
We decided on the main arduino
enhancements we wanted this toy to have.
We drew inspiration from Toy hack exemplar
of Zach lovall and Alberto Samaniego - our
previous cohort friends, in the process.
5. Prototyping:
We started making stuff. Considering
available time and skills we had, we
practiced arduino to get more comfortable
with this new technology. We hacked the
toy, dismantled every single part of it and
observed the materiality and connections.
6. Documentation:
We made a working prototype and shot
video of it. Finally documented our process.
21. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Reflection
How do the input and output methods you
chose to speak to the intended experiences
and context of use ?
The intended experience we want players
to have is one that falls on the realm of
escapism and joyfulness. We want players to
have an engaging experience while competing
with their opponent.
There are three different inputs to this toy.
One input is in the form of joystick which
facilitate punch actions of robots, other is in
the form of a button that is used to produce
the sound of trash talking and the third input
is also button for playing music. The joystick
input method induces playful aspect to the
overall gaming experience. Holding it by both
the hands and pressing it for robot punching
is very intuitive. The trash talk button input
method is also intuitive in terms of operating
it. It is placed closer to the joystick so that
player can reach for it easily while playing.
The music button is placed equidistant to
both the players. It basically to start the
game.
The button input form is one of the most
common form of input methods familiar to
everyone. There is almost zero learning curve
on how to operate it. Due to the competitive
nature of the game, we wanted players to
be able to give input effortlessly. Hence the
choice of buttons.
The output method is mainly in the form
of visual and audio feedback. The eyes
of robots lit up during the game. This is
to add human element to the robot. The
output of point recording system is also
in the form of LEDs. This is because it is
easier to perceive number of LEDs glowing
than to read a number on digital display. A
player can know how much he has scored
by looking at the glowing LEDs from his
peripheral vision more accurately than from
a display number. The audio feedback of
trash talking and music is mainly to add to
the gaming environment and create it an
immersive experience. The audio feedback
is also for a player to get into the mode of
playing a game and get excited about it.
22. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Arduino hacking
Process
Reflection
Lessons learned
Reflection
How does your concept evolve while working
with the material ?
We started off with a rough idea of how
things should work but changed our direction
while prototyping due to constraints on
materials, skills and time.
Initially, we made a circuit to sense the
motion of head springing up. Our core idea
was to lit LEDs of Robot’s eyes. The eyes will
glow when the circuit is closed else it won’t.
We coded the arduino part and figured out all
the hardware connections. It worked well first
few times but later maintenance of hardware
and software connectivity got difficult. In
an attempt to fix this, we then used photo
sensor to sense the motion of robot’s head
springing up. Thus in this case, the initial
idea got deployed successfully with changed
working mechanism.
We never had any point system feature in our
minds when we started. The idea of player
scoring points evolved and got developed
while working on arduino code of serial LEDs.
We used waveshield chip for sound feedback
mechanism in the toy. This decision to use
the chip was not one of the best decisions
as it coasted us a lot more time and effort
than we expected. Our major chunk of
prototyping time was taken by sound
feedback mechanism but we made it work
towards the end.
23. Concept
Research
Design
Prototyping
Lessons learned
Lessons learned
What would you do differently if you were to
do it again ?
Firstly, we would start with this project
right from Day 01 to work on arduino.
With available time and skills we could only
explore limited options. Dealing with both the
software part of arduino and hardware part of
toy took lot of time than we expected.
Secondly, we wished we could have more
flexibility to try different circuits at early
stage of prototype working. We had already
soldered few circuits and fixed wire on the
robot before working on code.
The sound feedback chip took us a lot of time
to get that working. We wished we could have
directly purchased a ready made sound chip
which could have saved us some time. We had
to meticulously solder every connection to
make it work but we learned a new technique.
What would you have liked to have included ?
We would include more feedback mechanisms
to the toy by exploiting different properties
of available sensors. Due to the limited time
period, we could only include audio and
visual feedback mechanism in the toy. The
other options we would have liked to have
included are:
1. Feedback in the form of vibration
(sensory feedback) when a robot punches
the other.
2. Robots producing punching sounds.
3. Give other options than punching to fight
with the opponent robot.
What would you like to be able to do with
Arduino next ?
We would like to make a scary halloween
costume next year with arduino. We would
like to design a face where eyes would be
made from LEDs. These LEDs will glow in a
pattern that can simulate blinking of eyes.
There is a video tutorial available online that
enables people to change their voice via
arduino code. We would like to modify that
to have scarier voice when we speak.
Link :
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=8HZFY4Xti7k