Arquivo da categoria: ITP – Tisch – NYU

Inclusive Game Design – very simple game

Starting to work on a game for children… a simple tamagochi where the character (a dog) on-screen asks to be petted… a real stuffed animal with switches will then know if the child has petted the right place.
Click HERE to see the first version to test the code and switch… press any key on the keyboar to make it bark and move its mouth 🙂
Now I have to add switches to the rest of the stuffed animal and create a more interesting (and pretty for that matter) dog on screen which will to be petted and point to where it wants to be petted.

Happiness

For Computers for the Rest of You we had to read “Happiness In Everyday Life: The Uses of Experience Sampling” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeremy Hunter.

For me the most interesting aspect of this paper is to show how smart nature is. Basically our bodies trigger happiness in us when we are socializing and doing activities that are not stressful but require us to think and use our abilities – from that we see that nature is basically tricking us into finding a partner and evolving into something better by giving us a “cookie” when we are doing such activities. Another interesting finding of the study was that those who actually spent time studying or reading, which bring on lower levels of happiness, report a higher than average level of happiness when doing sports or socializing proving the concept that you cannot know true happiness if you’ve never experienced true sadness.
The second part of our homework was to think of the logging project we want to work on. I am thinking of the following:

  • One illusion I have is that I am a very active person when I am awake and when I sleep I am motionless. To test that I want to use an accelerometer to see how much of my day is actually producing movement. I would use the Nokia accelerometer coupled with a bluetooth equipped cell phone to record and log the information. I would attach the accelerometer to a hat to include class room time as active time – if it was in my pocket the accelerometer would be still. I am also interested in measuring how much I move around at night while sleeping.
  • Another illusion we have is that pictures represent more than what is actually framed. I want to enhance that illusion by recording the gps location, the ambient sound during the time I am taking pictures as well as record what music I was listening to during that moment. This will add some context about the framed object, its surroundings as well as the photographer’s mood. I intend to do this by coupling a GPS, a sound recorder and my iPod/iPhone to the camera. The click of a picture should trigger the GPS for a reading, record ambient sound for 30 seconds and log the name and artist of the song that is playing on my iPod. Some more about this idea here.

    • Inclusive Pong – version 1

    So the new Pong is almost ready – have to figure out some mouseButton bugs… right now you can only adjust the settings of the game OR play it…
    To see the adjust settings game click HERE.
    To play the game without adjustments, click HERE.
    Will post the final version soon.
    As per the documentation I included, here are some features I still need to include:

    • Allow user to change color of background
    • Allow user to change color of text elements
    • Include a color-blind mode – gray scale applied to the entire game
    • Allow user to adjust the speed of the ball
    • Allow user to adjust the speed of the enemy
    • Allow user to play with the keyboard

    Inclusive Pong Documentation

    For “Inclusive Game Design” we had to implement changes in the game to make it more accessible for people with disabilities.

    I’ve identified the following problems with the original game:

    • PROBLEM: The speed of the game can be an issue for the motion or learning impaired. Reference/source:
    • SOLUTION: Allow user to change the speed of the game and skill level of computer, as proposed in the following article:
    • IMPLEMENTATION: I created a settings menu that allows the user to:
      • Adjust the speed of the ball.
      • Adjust the speed of the computer player.
    • RE-BALANCE GAME: Adjusted the skill level settings of the computer player and limited how fast and how slow the game can be set to.
    • PROBLEM: There is no audio feedback for the learning or visually impaired. Reference/source:
    • SOLUTION: Add sounds that indicate game play events, as proposed in the following article:
    • IMPLEMENTATION: Add sounds
      • Game begins
      • Ball hitting the paddle
      • Player scores
      • Game ends
    • RE-BALANCE GAME: Tested different sounds to see which one would fit the game play.
    • PROBLEM: The game has no instructions or a pause when a player scores which could be a problem for the learning or motion impaired. Reference/source:
    • SOLUTION: Provide instructions for the user, as proposed in the following article:
    • IMPLEMENTATION: Added a start screen with instructions and a pause screen in between scores.
    • RE-BALANCE GAME: Added a counter to start the game once the user clicks to start/continue.

    Now have to dive into the code to make all this work 🙂

    Reading assignment

    For “Computers for the Rest of You” we had to read two texts about consciouness: What Consciousness is Not and Power of Now and comment on them.
    Here are some excerpts that I found interesting:
    “Consciousness actually reduces our earning abilities of this type, let alone not being necessary for them.”
    “Members of a psychology class were asked to compliment any girl at the college wearing red. Within a week the cafeteria was a blaze of red (and friendliness), and none of the girls was aware of being influenced.”
    “At this point, we can at least conclude that it is possible – possible I say – to conceive of human beings who are not conscious and yet can learn and solve problems.”
    “And our memory fades as to what just happened even as we are trying to express it.”
    “We often talk about the three B’s, the Bus, the Bath, and the Bed. That is where the great discoveries are made in our science.”
    “Here it is only necessary to conclude that consciousness does not make all that much difference to a lot of our activities.”

    Here are my comments on the readings:
    a) What struck me the most is that learning does not seem to be a conscious process – we seem to just absorb things as they come, to be processed later – makes sense if you think of babies – they have no idea what school is or that they are learning by simply being around language. The collective consciousness also was very interesting (tell girls in red that they look great and in one week every girl is unknowingly wearing red) – which for me indicated the notion of God being a social/collective unconscious phenomena – you tell people every time something “miraculous” or disastrous happens that it was an act of God – sure enough, after a while, everyone is able to see and feel God as if it was real.
    b) I agree with Caleb in the sense that there is no magic pill yet the if the methods of the book are taken seriously, I believe that they can truly work. In an interesting parallel to the previous reading, this book starts with the assumption that consciousness is not only real but that it affects your body. I remember not wanting to go to school when I was a kid because I had not done a homework, and sure enough I would wake up with a fever. I actually learned that behavior and repeated it a few times – though after the third time I realized that a fever hurt more than the teacher’s scorn or the bad grade. I guess the conclusion here is that there is mind over matter but there is also matter over mind (red is said to be cool, and suddenly everyone is wearing red – a thought is transposed to reality).