Title: A simple game exploring physical human interface and game play.
Context: Experimental Interaction Workshop, Media Lab, Fall 2002
Who: Outi Kotala (Visual) / Nir Ruckenstein
Two players are provided each with 3 sensitive floor mats. The players need to jump on the mats according to a pattern shown on the screen, showing them where to place their feet. Following the pattern correctly get the player a point and a different pattern. The first player to get to the winning score wins. |
This work was done at the Experimental Interaction Workshop during 5 days. The objectives were to explore a different kind of interface, using sensor technology to involve users in a physical way, while learning how to set up and program an interactive installation, and of course, having fun. We were interested in getting participants physically active. Having the form of a competition, and the need to actively jump got players involved and excited despite the simplicity of the game and its interface. We call it a workout game the area almost smelt like a gym after a short while. |
Educational objectives fulfilled were experimenting with Sensor Technology (the mats), connectivity through ICUBE and MIDI messages and simple programming using Cycling74s MAX. |
This work is a working prototype. It demonstrates the educational and game objectives but misses effort in the interface side, both feature wise (high scores, menus, better stepping feedback, timeouts, start automatically and more) and visually (more engaging graphics accompanying the play, better sounds, possible story). |
Different games can be implemented with the same setup. To name a few: |
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