Snake Me Sideways

Exhibition Poster + Pics

2008-06-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Heres the poster used at the event, and a few pictures.

RAVE ON AIR 2008

2008-06-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION TO THE GAME

2008-06-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

this will be a introduction to the audiences before
they play the game. hopefully this will be presented
on a tv screen or some sort to present.

Testing 01

2008-06-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

Today has been a good day for all. We finally hooked a projector up to Max/MSP and saw what it could do. Unfortunately the ceiling in our room isn't high enough for the projector to project a large enough area, so the trails weren't directly behind the cars, but we'll sort this out tomorrow.

With the tracking, i'm thinking moving away from LEDs, as they don't remain really stay at an even brightness, and the batteries they use cost many English pounds. Instead i suggested using florescent post-it notes on the cars, and have a UV (black) light shinning onto the cars. This would highlight the cars with out over powering the projected trails, and also illuminate the cars hub caps. Beautiful stuff!

To save us using 8 batteries per car in each controller, Mr. Robert Strode hooked the controls up to a power pak that pumps out 12volts. Works a treat, and from here we can add a switch to cut the power when the a car collides with a trail.

Video courtesy of Mr. Russell Smith. I thank you!

ADDED PICTURES AND FOOTAGE

2008-06-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

Trail Drawing Update

2008-05-31T06:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had abit of a breakthrough. Thanks to the help of a certain Mr. Topfner we have colour tracking working with the trail drawing patch, and collision dection works too. However there are a few kinks to sort out. For some reasons we need two LEDs of the same colour being tracked to get a trail drawn. And the trail drawn is a little patchy at times, so we'll need to either darken the room so the LEDs show up brighter, get more LEDs on the cars or track a colour on the car its self. Alot of stuff to get sorted in 3 days but we're getting closer.

^The top screen shows the input from the camera and the bottom shows the output that will be projected onto the floor behind the car.

2008-05-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

A rough Logo design concept for the game and the exhibition.

MAX MSP Tracking....

2008-05-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

The MAX MSP tracking is now working due to a little help from out resident genius... ;-)

This first picture shows the code as a whole, it demonstrates how many different windows are required to get this working and shows some of the logic between how our ideas are working...

Here shows a more detailed view of the piece of code that controls each car, the three boxes that run across the top keep the positions of each car and then as this moves down into the larger box it shows whether the cars have collided and then there is an opportunity to put an "if" statement were they to collide. There is also the positions of the trails for each car within this piece of code.

This final picture just shows the tracking working in practice, two red leds are being used and the code creates a box relative to the positions of the LED's and the area between them, if there were two red LED's and two green you would have two of these boxes, one for each colour.

Arduino Problems....

2008-05-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

Spent today trying to discover exactly how to get the arduino boards to act as switches do disable power when a user crashes, i have been searching through the arduino website forums for things that are relative, but everything i find keeps not quite being enough.... I am currently waiting to be approved as a member of the forum so that i can post up our problem and hope to find some help.

On the bright side whilst trying to find answers to our problems i have stumbled across a reference page full of "if" statements and others which i should be able to apply so that when "car x" collides with "car y" something should happen!

The Tracking +

2008-05-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Heres a look at the LED dome we will mount on the cars. Each car will have a different coloured bulb.

The Tracking

2008-05-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

To track the cars in Max MSP, there will be an LED mounted on top of each car, diffused by half a ping ponG ball.

Mini T

2008-05-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took delievery of 4 beautiful Team Losi Mini T R/C Cars from Horizon Hobby UK. They handle brilliantly and should do exactly what we want them to do. Now to get the Max MSP side to work!

Things to do in Max

2008-05-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

Colour Tracking : Each R/C car will have a different coloured LED attached to the top, which a camera will track. 4 jitter matrixices in max will then track each car.

Project Trails: Using the co-ordinates gathered from the colour tracking, Max/Flash or Java will draw a a trail behind the car.

Collision Detection of trails: Comparing the co-ordinates of each car with the other cars, Max will work out weather a car travels over another cars trail.

Sounds FXs: Intergrate sound with collision detection. When a car is knocked out, a fitting sound plays.

Bluetooth Arduino Board

Intergrate with cars: Connect Bluetooth Arduino boards with cars to power on and off LEDs with the cars current status in the game. The boards will also cut the power to the cars when they hit another cars trail. Each board will be powered by 2 AA batteries.

Jobs over the weekend:

Fraser = Research Colour Tracking/ Collision/ Trail
Aaron = Research Trail/ Collision Detection in Max
Abdul = Research Trail/ Collision Detection
Roberto = Research Arduino Board Connectivity/ Car + LED connections

Trail Animations

2008-05-13T05:37:00.000-07:00

RESEARCH

http://orionmultitouch.blogspot.com/

App Loader (+ User Background Image) Plus Guide!

AppLoader (+ user background image) is now available. I have modified the code slightly to allow for a background image of your choice to be displayed.

I have also written this easy guide for anyone who wants to make there own.

Before i start, I have included the files needed to run your own AppLoader so don't worry. :-) Also, I am an absolute beginner at flash so if I can do it, so can you!

I have also included the source files if you wanna make your own changes too :) ... I didn't write this program (and I can't find out who did - it's not in the readme on the SVN), but it's really easy to modify so here goes...

Getting Started:

1) Download the attached file below.

2) Once you have extracted the files, they should be added in your [b]'deploy'[/b] directory (e.g. C:\Multitouch\touchlib\AS3\src\deploy and make sure that the global flash security settings link to the swf or folder.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html

(I selected my entire directory (/src) and added it to the site to make sure that any program I put in the 'src' or 'deploy' directory will run without an issue. )

Adding Apps / Editting AppLoader:

The Background image can be changed at any time by changing the file "\deploy\www\img\apploaderBack.jpg".

Applications can be added by editing the file "\deploy\www\xml\applist.xml"

I edited the applist.xml file and added the name of the program I wanted. Under the Category in the applist.xml file you will find the name of the program (e.g. WaterRipples) and the description to be displayed (Water Ripples for fun). The AppLoader will then look for the file “WaterRipples.swf” in the ‘deploy’ directory to try and load it when the load button is pressed. (NOTE: AppLoader only loads .swf files).

If you change the ‘name’ in the applist.xml file, then you need to change the .swf name in the deploy directory.

Here’s a sample of my applist.xml file:

WaterRipples
Water Ripples for fun

Sometimes if though you do this, the app still wont load! I’ve found that a different build of the app (.swf) may fix this.

To get the screenshots and thumbnails to work, you’ll need to put the files under "\deploy\www\img\apps" They are (E.g. “WaterRipples_screenshot.jpg” and “WaterRipples.png")
You must make the name the same as the name listed in the applist.xml file for the images to be displayed. The Thumbnail size default is 72x72 and the Screenshot file is 395x295.

I’m running 2 types of Ripples. One is the default (Blue screen - ripples.swf) and the other is called WaterRipples (by wSatori), which can be customizable to display a video background, pebbles, still images...etc.

You can find it here:

wSatori's WaterRipples

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

DI Multi-touch Test 1 - ORION v2

This blog has been designed for a Multi-touch DI setup I made called ORION mt. Here are some apps to show the performance of the Multi-Touch interface. Please see the original post on Nui Group forums here:

Sound & Stage setup

2008-05-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Cars: Horizon Hobby.uk

2008-05-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Horizon Hobby.uk, a Surface and Air R/C specialist, our group should be recieving 4 fantastic Mini T RTR's soon. These cars will suit this project to a tee, and help us crack on with the coding and electronics of the whole event. Brilliant!

Jobs For Wednesday

2008-05-12T09:51:00.001-07:00

Here's a list of tasks our group needs to address for Wednesdays formative presentation.

LEDs on top of cars: Ping pong balls to diffuse light (Used to track cars). Power, ON/OFF with car
Circuits: On the cars and controllers
Podium: To allow players to view the arena. Location of exhibit
Camera: Resoloution, mounting.
Projectors: Angle of projection, height of projector, brightness
Max MSP Code: Colour tracking, immobilisation of cars, Quad core Handling
Bluetooth Arduino Boards: Circuits, power, code and functions
Trail Animations: Animation type (Fire/Ice/Fade/Gradient....etc)
Score Boards: On the play surface and projected on wall in front. (Tag cloud)
Size of Arena: Meters2. Materials, finalise colours and design
Slowing of Cars: Electro magnets?
Sound Effects: Environmental music, SFXs
Speed Limitation: Restrict trigger movement on controller

We'll be presenting this in a similar format to the first presentation, but this time the presentation must show the project in alot more depth, and a realistic roadmap towards the ROA deadline.

The Arena

2008-05-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

Heres a mock up of an arena. A circular enclosure allows the cars to roam around the playsurface without getting stuck in corners unlike a square arena. The inner black circle will be the main 'floor', where most of the action will take place. The outer yellow and black striped ring warns players to try not to enter it, or they will be confronted by a barrier on the outside of the whole arena. Warning the players before they hit the barrier will help reduce the need to reverse the cars and hit their own tails in the process.

Illustration of possible positioning of the players

2008-05-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

This illustration depicts how the players will be able to control the cars, each controller (joy pad) for the car will be placed on a small podium which will be standing on each side of the rail on the first floor of the broadcasting atrium... and from there the players will look down on the lower floor and control and move there specific car.

Sound FX

2008-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Softwares for FX:

Information
http://www.imitationpickles.org/ludum/2007/12/13/sfxr-sound-effects-for-all/

Research and Examples

2008-05-01T04:57:00.000-07:00

http://orionmultitouch.blogspot.com/ very useful, everyone read, take a look and download "apploader.exe", which hold examples of flash java script. you should be able to edit change/add
SWF video etc.

webcam with bulit in sensor
software: creative live

-----------------------------------------------------------

: Check out www.SampleTank.com
this is main use for presentation function to do with sound/sensors and more.; 28 April 2008 04:27
A-KING said...: reminder:
check out L2 lab rooms, to see the pc connections to projector and how is functions

Monday 28/04/08
check after lunch; 28 April 2008 04:34
A-KING said...: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Game_Design_and_Programming#Game_Tools; 28 April 2008 06:43
A-KING said...: http://www.rm.com/Support/TechnicalArticle.asp?cref=TEC320935

The SMART Board Software contains a driver that is required if you want your SMART Board to interact with your computer. This driver must be installed and can be obtained along with the SMART Board Software from the Smart Technologies web site (detailed below).

When you first received your SMART Board, this would have come with a SMART Board Software CD. It is preferable that this CD is not used and that you download the latest version from the Smart Technologies Web site. If you do not have access to the Internet to download this software then use the CD; alternatively contact RM Support and we can arrange for the latest version to be shipped to you.

Smart Technologies Web site URL: http://smarttech.com/.; 28 April 2008 07:15

Cyclops

2008-05-01T04:50:00.000-07:00

In order to track the remote controlled cars so a 'trail' can be projected, I originally thought infrared LEDs would be a good way to go (See 'The Presentation Post). Mounting the LEDs in a specific configuration on top of the cars would give the camera somthing to track and allow a trail to be projected along the path the car had taken. This setup would depend on a couple of things however. The camera mounted above would need to have a high enough resolution to distinguish the LED configurations and the cars themselves would need to power the LEDS, so more battery juice.

With abit of advice from Mr. Durrant and some research, Colour tracking would suit this project a little better. Painting the roof of the R/C cars different colours would allow the camera and Max MSP to track the cars without the need for LEDs or extra battery power.

After having a look on the Max Object website, i found an extension to analyze greyscale and color information from a live image. The plug-ins called Cyclops, which allows the resulting Cyclops data to control MIDI, audio, video and anything else that you can do in Max. Bad thing is that it costs 99 American Dollars, but i seems to do what we need. Well partly.

http://www.cycling74.com/products/cyclops

The Component List

2008-04-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

For this project we will need:

4-5 x Remote Control Cars on different frequencies
A colour camera: to track the R/C cars on the play surface
A Projector
A coloured play surface to be projected on, and cars to move on (yet to be decided on shape and colour/material)
Software: Max MSP, Processing, Flash, Java, Shockwaves
Paint: to cover the cars with an individual colour
Boarders: A physical barrier that allows the cars to bounce off of and a projected boarder to warn players
Speakers: To provide Sound FXs and atmospheric music

After doing a little research, R/C cars in the UK only come in two frequencies, 27MHz and 40MHz. This means only two remote controlled cars can play at the same time. In order to increase the number of players to 4 or 5 at a time, removable frequency band crystals may need to be used. This increases the number of channels available to six. But only higher end cars tend to have this ability. This will be researched more.

2-3 Removable frequency band crystals
Servos: To immobilise the cars when player loses

The Play Surface

2008-04-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

Just a mock up, but this is how the play surface might look. Still not decided on the shape, (Circular, triangular or a weird new shape) but the idea will remain the same. When a player wins, they enter their name into a laptop, where for the rest of the event the names of winners will be projected onto the surface. The more times the player wins, the larger their name will appear. This will hopefully entice users to play over and over again, to try and get the size of their name increased.

The background colour is also up for debate.

The Presentation

2008-04-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a few slides from the initial presentation to give you more of an idea what the project involves.

The Concept

2008-04-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the Nokia mobile phone game Snake, five users control individual remote controlled cars within an enclosed area. Each car trails a snake like tail projected from a projector mounted above. The player must survive as long as possible without colliding with their own, or other players tails. Combining Flash, Processing and Max MSP amoung others, our group plans to design and construct a working exhibit to display at Rave On Air this year. We'll keep you updated on how it develops.