Interactive Lighting Dancing Shoe

Interactive Lighting Dancing Shoe Tom FejĂŠr B2.2

MOVE-IT playful interaction coaches: dr.ir. Mark J. de Graaf Rob Tieben 2010 TU/e ID

Move-it (Curiosity and Fitness)

TU/e ID is involved in a design research project called PLAYFIT. The aim is to persuade obese youngsters (VMBO students) to be physically active by forms of physical play. In this project you will design a playful intervention which motivates youngsters to be active and have an active lifestyle. You can test your product in a real environment (ROC Brabant) and work with consortium partners in gaming, sport and education.

Chapter One

Exploring Context / Problem with the youngsters lifestyle

The goal of this part of the project to write bill of requirements based on the research and brainstorming about the youngsters lifestyle. I tried to find the place, time and context of the game and the healthy lifestyle.

Chapter Two

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Concepts generation / Designing playful interactions

Designing a new kind of interaction is a different assignment than designing a ordinary product. It includes much more abstract thinking, try-outs, prototyping than the ‘classical design process’. The final goal obviously to create a fun, challenging, interesting game which in my case specially focusing to the movements and the youngsters.

Chapter Three

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Final Concept / The making of design

To motivate the youngsters to move has never been an easy task but instead of the regular punishment this concept tries to make the kids move in a playful way and brings the sport to their everyday life by a wearable interactive fashion gadget. In this chapter you will see several prototypes I made during the design process.

Chapter Four

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Reflection

Final results and conclusions from this project.

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Chapter One

Exploring Context / Problem with the youngsters lifestyle

The goal of this part of the project to write bill of requirements based on the research and brainstorming about the youngsters lifestyle. I tried to find the place, time and context of the game and the healthy lifestyle.

Chapter One Exploring Context

places

school / home / free time (shopping mall, cinema, house party, street, restaurants)

food

junk-, fast-food, full of sugar and artificial ingredients, deep-frozen food, sweet drinks with co2, chips, cookies, fat

games

computer (online flash games / serious strategy, sport, war games / online multiplaying) new movement centered consoles (nintendo wii, playstation 3, xbox 360 kinect) smart-phone games (small touch and balancing games) portable consoles (nintendo DS, PSP)

what’s cool / trends

Internet, Facebook, Youtube, gadgets, photos, movies, TV shows, comics, superheroes, pop music, retro games (8-bit, Gameboy, classic consoles) , Japanese, apple, clothes / fashion, 3D movies, HD movies, cartoons, tattoos, graffiti, skateboarding, snowboarding, robots, break dance

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter One Exploring Context

home

no time for the family, no physical activity only watching TV and eating (fast food) parents liability the youths sitting alone in their rooms in front of the computer playing PC games or killing time on facebook

school

no healthy canteen, not enough PE lessons, no playful free creative places to spend active freetime (indoor/outdoor) no education about healthy lifestyle, food - the students are not aware of the consequences of their eating habits not enough fun social events

free-time activities

playing video games together / eating junk-food in the cinema no real social interaction / no physical challenge

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Chapter One Exploring Context

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter One Exploring Context

requirements

basic requirement - the concept should includes these make the kids move fun everybody can play / no special skills required interaction

desired requirements - would be nice if the concept includes these moving in an indirect way social challenging in every level some kind of result / feedback during the game / shareable simple / obvious rules music

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Chapter Two

Concepts generation / Designing playful interactions

Designing a new kind of interaction is a different assignment than designing a ordinary product.

It includes much more abstract thinking, try-outs, prototyping than the ‘classical design process’.

The final goal obviously to create a fun, challenging, interesting game which in my case specially focusing to the movements and the youngsters.

Chapter Two Concepts generation

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Two Concepts generation

light painting

Also known as light drawing or light graffiti is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source. In many cases the light source itself does not have to appear in the image.

The light can either be used to selectively illuminate parts of the subject or to “paint� a picture by shining it directly into the camera lens. Light painting requires a sufficiently slow shutter speed, usually a second or more. Like night photography, it has grown in popularity since the advent of digital cameras because they allow photographers to see the results of their work immediately.

Flash lights, bicycle lights, cell phone screens or light pens can also be used to create images.

Different colored or flashing lights can be used to project an image on the CCD.

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Chapter Two Concepts generation

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Two Concepts generation

up in the air

This concept is a playful extraordinary game controller which is focusing on the ‘experience of flying’. The player is wearing a belt which is connected to a easily assemblable and adjustable frame. The frame includes a sound system and sensors which can measure the rotation and the different positions of the user. Because of the rotation this tool is not suitable for one-screen-play only if you put the screen under the floor or use a beamer from the ceiling but none of them is practical or bright solution so I thought a ‘interactive-LED-carpet’ would be also a nice part of this concept.

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Chapter Two Concepts generation

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Two Concepts generation

dancing shoes

A wearable dancing gadget which able to track the player movements by several sensors and make the game really attractive by the interactive built-in lights. The game can be individual or can be connected to existing consoles like to nintendo wii, xbox 360 or playstation 3 or it can has an own game system which really specified to the games which are connected to feet movements like dance, sport or fight games.

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Chapter Two Concepts generation

light painting up in the air about the technology long exposure / bright spot lights advantages final result is a creative unique picture / easily shareable / you can play alone or with friends disadvantages you can’t play in a really bright place context indoor / outdoor / small or big places

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switches / sensors unusual challenging movements

have to set up the frame / not so social indoor

dancing shoes switches and lights inserted to the shoe looks cool / hidden physical challenge

charging / fashion market home / party / public spaces / public transport

playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Two Concepts generation

dancing shoes

first prototype: foam + LED-s + switches + battery second prototype: same as the firs + wearable (integrated to the shoe)

up in the air

paper + cardboard prototypes for the frame dog leash + stairs at the university + a brave Australian architect

light painting

D-SLR camera (Nikon d40) + tripod + bicycle lamps + stopwatch + 20 enthusiastic exchange student 19

Chapter Two Concepts generation

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Chapter Two Concepts generation

playful interacton move-it project 2010

Light Painting

Up In The Air

Dancing Shoes

makes you move

basic gymnastics exact terms of time

feet, leg, the whole body

fun

looks funny/unusual creation/creativity incredible results magic technology art numerous players / sharing the pictures on the web indoor / outdoor

unusual extreme movements back, abdominal, chest, hands muscles looks funny/unusual creation/creativity incredible results magic technology art

social

context

challenge

result feedback interaction rules

music

PC/smart-phone app (for existing cameras) painting a scene, text, forms, figures, special effects being creative in exact terms of time countdown final picture predefined challenges (paint a flower or write down your name...) during the painting to know how much time left

home / arcade

physical challenge turning, touching, reaching things

dancing together recording videos and share it on the web house party / public spaces / public transport

move cool catch the active lights get the highest score

screen / interactive lighting carpet under the user depends on the game (catching, collecting, escaping, …)

green - good red - wrong scoring points “portable Dance Dance Revolution” step or jump to inactivate the light sound effects - exconnection between the press the flying experi- lights and the music ence frame + rope + belt + shoe + sensors + LED-s sensors + interactive + controller carpet

parts camera + speaker to additional tools countdown/music + display for the result special light-painting tools for effects (color / flash / intensity) technology long exposure (shutter sensor to measure the speed) rotation high f number (the reference number for the amount of light that is passed through the lens)

dance lights flashing

sensors / LED-s / chargeable battery

lighting-touch-sensitive-carpet which react to your movements (you can feel you are flying in a specific direction) 21

Chapter Three Final Concept / ‘The making of design’

To motivate the youngsters to move has never been an easy task but instead of the regular punishment this concept tries to make the kids move in a playful way and brings the sport to their everyday life by a wearable interactive fashion gadget. In this chapter you will see several prototypes I made during the design process.

basic movements

playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Three Final Concept

Dancing Shoe

The idea based on a ‘portable-dance-dance-revolution’, and after I built two wearable prototype I knew two important thing: making the lights on your shoes flashing by moving your feet is fun controlling a game with your feet is possible, challenging and also fun For me this design-challenge includes opportunities to know more about sensors, lights, and by making several different prototypes how can I design a product, a game what includes interactivity and fun.

I had to decide how to give feedback to the user from the device because that determine the whole game. The main idea is a ‘portable dancing game’ and if it is connected to a screen or to an another device it looses the mobility and the idea of making a ordinary object playful in your everyday life. That was the reason why I placed all the visual feedback on the shoe itself and with this decision this product became a ‘wearable interactive fashion gadget’.

When I choose this concept for further development I knew that with this project I’m in the border of a fashion and gadget market and I had to make a decision what kind of product I would like to design - focusing on the form, the trends, colors or on technology and making a nice playful interaction and keep the form in the background. Both direction is an interesting challenge but for now I want to concentrate more to the prototyping and integrating technology so my main goal became to make an interactive working prototype and keep the ‘styling’ as hidden and simple as possible.

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Chapter Three Final Concept

social aspect

In game design - and in design in general - thinking about the context is really important. And the context includes not only the places (home, house party, club, street) and the time of the day than also the social aspects which are in this case dancing together, dancing against each other and showing the skills to the others. By connecting the shoes when they are meeting on the street and the players can challenge or invite the other users to a dance can make the product more fun because playing with others always more fun than playing alone.

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Three Final Concept

home alone

house party

club

street

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Chapter Three Final Concept

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Three Final Concept

sensors / micro-controller

For making my very first ‘interactive working prototype’ I used a ARDUINO UNO micro-controller which is an open-source electronics prototyping platform but before I could start building it I had to define what kind of movements I would like to track, and how can I measure them. I made a video-research about my dancing movements while I tried to follow some different dancing tutorials and videoclips on YouTube and tried to simplify and categorize the steps.

Jumping / Kicking Step forward Step backward Standing I tried to keep it as simple and cheap as possible and the photo-resistor / LDR (light dependent resistor) looked a really reasonable solution for me. With placing this sensor to the bottom of the shoe I can measure the light under the shoe and if I put two of them there I can make difference between the steps.

LED-s I used:

Flat top LED 5mm T1.75 90° 2800mcd / Flat superFlux LED 120° 2200mcd 29

foam (lights / switches)

shoe (switches / LED-s)

cardboard (mouse integrated inside)

shoe (two photo-resistors)

playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Three Final Concept

prototype making

During the product development I built several prototypes to find the way of the interaction and by trying out these prototypes I could go further and further in the development and in this way I could make decisions based on the usability not only my imagination.

foam (lights / switches)

It could make it very quickly and it helped me to explain my idea.

shoe (switches / LED-s)

I could easily put the LED-s and switches from the previous prototype into a real shoe and made it wearable. This one also helped me to explain and present my idea to the others.

cardboard (mouse integrated inside)

Before I chose a sensor and defined the rules I wanted to try out how does it feel to control a game with your feet and I found a really easy and fast way to make a prototype for that: I put an optical wireless mouse into a foam/cardboard shoe and I started playing simple online flash games with that.

shoe (two photo-resistors)

After I decided which sensor I want to use I built a prototype which tests the sensors and proves that it is possible to track that kind of movements I choose.

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grouping the cables

attaching the cables to the bottom part

placing the ARDUINO to a case

grouping the cables and resistors

connecting the shoes to the ARDUINO

adjusting the lights

with an extra cable it is disassemblable

synchronising the lights with the sensors

playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Three Final Concept

final prototype

After making a ‘research-movie’ - trying to figure it out which basic movements could be trackable by which sensor- I defined different groups of movements which are easily recognizable but also gives freedom (creativity) for the user during the game. I had 2 LDR-s in the bottom parts and 5 LED-s (grouped in two part: 2 for front and 3 for back) in both of the shoes.

trackable actions: action Standing Stepping with the front part of the shoe Stepping with the back part of the shoe Lifting up the whole shoe

light effects: No light Front light Back light Full light Blinking the group of lights

front LED-s (2) low high low high blinking

front LDR low low high high

back LDR low high low high

back LED-s (3) low low high high blinking

When the player puts on the shoes and turns it on he/she can see that different parts of the shoe is lighting randomly and by stepping with the right part of the shoe or jumping in the right time he/ she can make the shoe blinking for a second.

First I wanted to give an extra feedback called the ‘activity’ which gives brighter lights for the player if he/she is more active but with this micro-controller and LED-s I could not make it. For a final product I can imagine it could me a nice reflection for the user’s activity (with every right step the shoe would be brighter and brighter).

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Chapter Three Final Concept

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

Chapter Three Final Concept

The basic requirements for the final prototype make it compact

I grouped the cables in the shoe and on the arduino and after that I built a cable which makes the connection between these two. With this solution it is easier to handle the prototype during the test and even when I transport it.

make it wearable

After the first prototype I made I realized I need to build wearable prototypes to try it out because only with these I can experience the real interaction I designed. A wanted to build a prototype which is as resistant as I can even jump in it without any limit of cables or materials.

hide the electronics

With hiding the cables and the micro-controller I can present the shoes nearly as I imagined at first - without cables and any additional tool - you put on the shoe, turn it on and play. And in my opinion with this gesture - hiding the electronics - I can reach ‘the playfulness’ and redesign a ordinary shoe to an interactive dancing gadget.

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Chapter Four Reflection

Final results and conclusions from this project.

playful interacton move-it project 2010

the process

1.) brain-storming / research

It was a really short and early time of the semester when we did brain-storming but after a few sessions with a group and after we visited an interactive playground in Eindhoven all of us found their own way in the project.

I did not spent time in the library to find the average size of a 16 years old dutch boy or girl than I started playing and watching myself when and how can I play and tried to remember how did I do that a few years ago. In these days I had no idea about the limits of the technology and my ‘future prototyping skills’.

2.) working on 3 different concept

Choosing one concept for further development was not easy because I liked all the three concepts but the decision finally based on which one fits better to my development plan and in this semester I wanted to learn more about electronics and prototyping which after all worked pretty well. I made 5 prototypes from the chosen project but before that I tried out the two other concepts as well.

3.) further development of the chosen concept

This semester was a big step for me in the electronics because it was the first time I worked with micro-controller or even with LED-s or sensors. To making a working prototype was a big challenge and after that to build a final one which is represents what I designed was even bigger and took much more longer than I first expected.

connections to the assignments

The Sketching (...) assignment helped me making sketches and posters for the communication and presentation, the Trends cockpit helped in preparing to the exhibition, how should I present myself, the Cardboard modelling gave me the patience for prototyping and the Creative programming helped me to write the codes for my firs interactive working prototype.

prototyping

I made different type of prototypes during this semester from the small cardboard model to a smart working prototype. All of these helped me with the decision making, stepping further in the development and presenting my ideas to the others.

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playful interacton move-it project 2010

presentations/exhibitions

There was two presentation and two exhibition in this project. To find the balance between the visual and verbal information is really hard task but if you know what kind of feedback you want to get than you can prepare properly. A nice poster and a video not just makes your presentation or exhibition more attractive than gives you more condidence.

coaches

In this project both of my coaches made a really good job because I started working here in an area which was completely new for me but with the every week consultations I never felt myself lost and I always get useful and inspiring feedback or opinion and without pushing me in a direction they let me make the important decisions. I enjoyed working with them and on the project.

teamwork

After a few brainstorming we decided that all of us going to work individually but in my work Pepijn Fens was an incredibly big help and not only in the university issues but at the beginning also in the electronics and programming.

final result

To be honest in September I did not know exactly what can I reach here in 5 month but I even surprised myself with my interactive lighting wearable and working prototype. I’ve never designed interaction or made a working prototype before in this quality and overall I am a little bit disappointed because I had not enough time for user testing and refine the codes.

important conclusions

Start making prototypes in the beginning.

Do not drop out any prototype you made.

Start building your final prototype in time.

Document everything. Not only in picture than in video and text also.

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