Summer Internship 2013 at Experiential Design Lab, New Delhi.
PROJECT TITLE: 'Designing a game controlled through Physical Interface for 2-3 year old Children'.
PROJECT TITLE: 'Designing a game controlled through Physical Interface for 2-3 year old Children'.
PROJECT GUIDE: Mr. Anurag Sehgal
About:
We were asked to make a product, a device which on one end gets connected to a tablet and on the other end can be made to interact with a 2-3 year kid for a game, which he can also see on the screen.
This problem was selected because a 2-3 year old kid can neither perfectly understand the way a game on a mobile or a tablet is played nor can use distinct control gaming devices like x-box, video game etc perfectly. So we were given the task to make a game which kids can perfectly understand and interact with.
Meta Project-
Constraints : The solution must
Attributes : User will experience
Brainstorming Phase :
User Survey-
To get the in depth details of the kids of that age group, we went to a playgroup school (Shikshalaya, greater kailash,Delhi) in Delhi. Our main aim was to know the hand movements, body movements, activities, likes and dislikes that the kids of that age group do. In the playschool we interacted with some kids about what do they like to play, noticed the games that they were actually playing and also noticed the movements that they were doing.
To get the in depth details of the kids of that age group, we went to a playgroup school (Shikshalaya, greater kailash,Delhi) in Delhi. Our main aim was to know the hand movements, body movements, activities, likes and dislikes that the kids of that age group do. In the playschool we interacted with some kids about what do they like to play, noticed the games that they were actually playing and also noticed the movements that they were doing.
The results
that we found were that kids of that age group did not move their wrist
joints, finger joints, ankle joints very often. Their grip was also not
that strong. So they did not have a very flexible body because their
bones were not still strong enough. Also while interacting with them we
found that they were able to play some touch screen games like Angry
Birds and Temple Run. This was in contradiction to what we assumed
earlier.
we
saw children to have an affinity towards games where in only a single
interaction drives the output, i.e. they are not able to use both of
their hands. Also we observed that the kids show a greater affinity
towards the objects that produce musical sounds.
Some images from the field:
The meta project for this problem is shown below :
Goals: The solution should
● Encourage audio feedbacks.
● Embed the Screen as a console OR have no divided attention.
● Involve parents/teachers at different levels in the game
● Have simple interactions
● Provide adaptive feedback
● Incorporate learning
● have interaction with natural elements
Constraints : The solution must
● Be commercially viable
● Be physically sturdy and durable
● Have one interaction at a time.
● Assist in the development of the child
Attributes : User will experience
● Fun - 90/20 , Seriousness - 50/50
● Educational - 80/60 , Enjoyable - 90/10
● Tangible interactions - 80/10 , Digital interactions - 60/50
● Simplicity - 90/10 , Complexity - 0/10
● Collaboration - 10/10 , Individuality - 90/20
Each attribute is defined by an ordered pair of numbers in which the first one represents the
intended value of the attribute out of 100 and the second indicates the acceptable tolerances in
the attribute(also out of 100).
the attribute(also out of 100).
Brainstorming Phase :
This phase included idea generation through brainstorming. A group of six participated in the activity. The activity included two stages :
1. Nominal group – stage 1 (20 mins)
2. Real group – stage 2 (30 mins)
In stage 1 all participants worked alone, noted their ideas and these ideas were later pooled together for evaluation
In stage 2 all participants worked in a group with discussion and presentation of ideas via a moderator.
The ideas generated were noted without any judgment on their usefulness or viability and at the end of this phase we had 53 unevaluated ideas.
Evaluation Phase
In this phase we evaluated our ideas based on the parts of the meta project, i.e. the goals, constraints and the attributes of the project. Each idea was thoroughly discussed and evaluated on each attribute by the group and then the two highest scoring ideas were:
Idea1-
A Platform with multiple sockets to fit in toys. The toys thus placed are reflected on the tablet
and each toy carries some embedded functionality. So the platform was made to like a garden and the child will have various equipments that are found in the garden like fountain, benches, trees, Ferris wheel, see-saw etc as pieces and he can make different arrangements within the park (the platform) with these pieces. And as soon as he keeps a piece in the platform it will appear on the screen and do some animation.
Idea 2-
This used the child to do single interaction at a time. And two such interactions found which were easy for childrens- one of sliding handle and the other of a push action. Both these interactions were made and incorporated on a single board.
Idea 1- The Final Product:
The system was basically consisting of a central platform containing a mother microprocessor which
could communicate to the toy pieces. And then the ‘mother’ microprocessor which communicates with the tablet.
For the mother microprocessor we used a PIC 16F877 microcontroller, while the toy devices had a PIC 12F675 microprocessor for the controls. Codes for appropriate actions were written in both the types of microprocessors.
1.The Fountain : The fountain is represented by a physical fountain with a spring attached to a
microswitch which when pressed by the kid activates the fountain in the tablet and fishes start jumping in the fountain. We used a microcontroller , PIC 12F675 here.
2.Ferris Wheel : The ferris wheel contains three Reed (magnetic) switches at an angle of 120 to each other on one fixed surface and a magnet on another surface which rotates with respect to the reed swithches. The magnet activates the switches when in the proximity thus the switches are activated sequentially and the sequence in which we receive signals from the switches tells weather the rotation is clockwise or anti-clockwise and at what speed the kid is rotating the wheel. And the Ferris wheel in the tablet rotates with the speed that is obtained and in the direction in which the kid rotates the wheel.
3. The See-Saw : The see-saw also consisted of two Reed switches which were activated by
magnets and this told the microprocessor which side of the see-saw was down. And by this the see- saw in the tablet would go in a similar fashion and at the speed that is obtained.
4. The Tree : The tree has a bend sensor attached to a flexible industrial stick, the bend
sensor decreases its resistance with increasing bend and by this we calculated how much the tree has been bent. And using the resistance values the tree will bend to same extent and at the same speed.
The game - The platform was made to like a garden and the child will have various equipments that are found in the garden like fountain, benches, trees, Ferris wheel, see-saw etc as pieces and he can make different arrangements within the park (the platform) with these pieces. And as soon as he keeps a piece in the platform it will appear on the screen and do some animation.
We also intended to keep the solution open for easy addition of modules in future like simple benches in a park or bicycles rotating in the park. The board was made to be ready for updates. So that more and more toy pieces could be used.
Idea 2- The final product:
We made a board which supported two interactions- a sliding interaction through a handle and a push interaction through a spring.
The Handle-
The handle was a rod mounted on a ball bearing and attached to two springs to bring back the handle to position after use. To the springs were attached two magnets and at the support of the handle two Reed switches were attached. So whenever the handle would come near to one side, the magnet would come near to a reed switch and we can get the side to which magnet has come and hence the direction.
The Push –
In this at the end of the spring a microcontroller was kept. Whenever the spring was pressed the microcontroller circuit was complete and we would get a signal. And hence we could know the push.
Both of these were connected to a microprocessor PIC 12F675. Which was coded so as to give the same response on the screen.
The game-
For Handle- It was a football game where the computer will shoot at some random time and the kid had to save the ball from going into the goal using the handle. A goal keeper was shown which the kid could imagine himself.
The push- The game was simple. A player would be running automatically and there would be obstruction in the way, the player had to dodge them using the push button.
Software work for making games was done mostly using Adobe Flash, Illustrator and Photoshop. Also softwares like PIC C, Hyperterminal etc were used for programming the microprocessor.
The process of making the game was mostly sensor based and we used microprocessors like PIC12F675 and also sensors like bend sensors, proximity sensors, microswitch and REED switches. Basic electrical circuits were made using these components.