Guest Lecture Mason 30apr09

Physical Gaming 7 ways to combine computer games and sweat

Thursday, 30 April 2009

1. iPhone, iPod Touch • Pros • Fun • Cool • Widespread • Cash • Slick development environment Thursday, 30 April 2009

1. iPhone, iPod Touch • Cons • Costs to enroll in developer program ($99, but that gets you a lot).

• Mac only development, and you need to learn Objective C (but learning new languages is a good thing, right?)

• Small movements - would take a lot to generate sweat

Thursday, 30 April 2009

1. iPhone, iPod Touch • Firemint’s FlightTracker, whilst not a

physical game, has racked up a great deal of downloads and attention.

• Designers should to be careful not to ‘gush’ over the platform too much, and thus produce a heap of bad, gimmicky games. The concepts actually need to be good, not just clever uses of the platform.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

1. iPhone, iPod Touch • Some favourites: • Flight Control • Finger Sprint • Pocket Guitar • Falling Balls Thursday, 30 April 2009

1. iPhone, iPod Touch • How? • http://developer.apple.com/iphone • xCode • Get a phone or an iPod Touch (the iPods

are way cheaper and really cool if you already have a phone but like games). iPod Touch 8GB: $293 from JB

• Beginning iPhone Development (Mark and LeMarche, Apress)

Thursday, 30 April 2009

2. Using the WiiMote with Flash: WiiFlash • Pros: • French... it must be good... • Free! • Flash is familiar / easy to program • Flash is readily available and used by loads of people (but not free).

• A more interesting way to control Flash Thursday, 30 April 2009

2. Using the WiiMote with Flash: WiiFlash • Cons • Can be slightly flakey on my laptop

(bluetooth connectivity issues etc...)

• Very heavily associated with Nintendo (but you can use a disguise)

• Not much else, it’s really rather good Thursday, 30 April 2009

2. Using the WiiMote with Flash: WiiFlash • How? • http://wiiflash.bytearray.org • Download source code and examples there

• Wiimote: $60 from JB Hi-Fi Thursday, 30 April 2009

3. Location based game • Make a user run around the city or an open space to find clues or complete aspects if the game in the real world.

• A-Lure - mobile phone mediated (via

SMS). Used website and SMS gateway to provide clues / discovery.

• Can be connected or disconnected though.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

3. Location based game • There are lots: • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locationbased_game

Thursday, 30 April 2009

3. Location based game • How? • Many ways to go about this. • Use mobile device for electronic mediation - processing of clues gathered from location?

• Use GPS data to provide information? (more advanced)

Thursday, 30 April 2009

4. Arduino • Provides a simple, cheap and geeky way

to get electronic inputs into a computer via USB or wireless.

• Prepare to buy breadboards, resistors and wire and visit Jaycar a lot.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

4. Arduino The Captain’s Blog

Thursday, 30 April 2009

4. Arduino • How • Inputs can be captured in the Arduino programming language and Max/MSP, among others.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

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Demos: http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-40-arduino-projects-of-theweb/

• •

Info, software, downloads: http://arduino.cc Buy in Australia: http://www.littlebirdelectronics.com/collections/ arduino/

5. Motion Tracking with Max/MSP • Max / MSP is a tool originally designed to allow musicians to program

• It has a unique ‘patching’ interface • It makes no sense to traditional programmers at first

• It has great use in the installation / art community

Thursday, 30 April 2009

5. Motion Tracking with Max/MSP • Projects • Talking with Your Hands • Residency • A Game of Marbles Thursday, 30 April 2009

Thursday, 30 April 2009

Thursday, 30 April 2009

Thursday, 30 April 2009

5. Motion Tracking with Max/MSP • Use free (or with free demo) external patch libraries to allow motion tracking:

• cv.jit - http://www.iamas.ac.jp/ ~jovan02/cv/

• Tap Tools - http://

shop.electrotap.com/collections/taptools

Thursday, 30 April 2009

6. Keyboard Hack • Find an old USB keyboard and take it to pieces.

• Build a box around it and work out

some way to actuate the keys. Pressure pads on the floor? Big buttons on colourful boxes?

• Try removing keys and replacing with other electronics.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

6. Keyboard Hack • OR • Use a product like the I-PAC: • http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html • This product is halfway between an Arduino and a traditional keyboard hack - the computer thinks it is a keyboard

Thursday, 30 April 2009

6. Keyboard Hack • IPAC • Pros: • Easy to program using Flash for

example as keyboard interactions are well supported

• Cons: • A bit of a ‘fumble’, but well worth looking into.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

7. Creative use of Mouse • A mouse is a very accurate and

responsive infrared sensor with multiple buttons. That sounds like an ideal device, but a little boring...

• It is also (obvisously) completely

supported by the operating system, which makes development a breeze.

• Think about ways to build around the mouse? Attach it to something?

Thursday, 30 April 2009

7. Creative use of Mouse

• Wire stuff into it’s buttons?

Thursday, 30 April 2009