New Website

I am moving documentation to a new website - address coming soon.

Demos

Here are three demos of the concepts which I would like to develop in the future.

Sickness

Captain Planet

Group Painting

The Future

Here are some outlines of ideas which I intend to develop in the future of the project.

Captain Planet

I was inspired by the cartoon show Captain Planet - I wonder why it ended and isn't around now to help fight global warming. Anyways the field displays a world covered in pollution. The players have the power to clear the pollution - they act like erasers on the screen. However their efforts do not last long and the pollution returns. Separately each of the player's efforts dont' seem to do much however "With your powers combined" they can create a larger and more permanent eraser. The idea is to get the people in the space to put aside their personal space for a more important cause.

The color these images is funky. Currently the space is just covered with rectangular images of pollution, in the future I intend to change how I present "pollution". I also hope to apply this idea to other issues such as sexually transmitted diseases or UCSD.

Magnetism

In this concept, each person has an influence over an object. The object is presumably something that the group needs to protect or transport somewhere. As the team moves across the terrain at times certain people will have more influence over the object. For example when the green figure is over the green area it will have a stronger pull. Enemies will appear and the team will have to coordinate in order to avoid disaster. The idea here is to acknowledge that different people have different strengths and that the team must communicate/coordinate to protect a target/goal. Culturally it shows that in group dynamics there are often times people who are more dominant and those who are less involved, and rarely is there an equality among all members of the group.


I want to work on the overall visual aesthetics of the project. Currently the backgrounds and such are somewhat crude. However, I choose the pedestrian silhouette to represent the players because it is a symbol of physical movement rather than machine mediated movement.

Sickness

I was somewhat inspired after catching two colds/flus this quarter. After thinking about the hide and seek game and toying with it some more I realized that actually playing it is somewhat boring. I've modified the hide and seek game to behave more like a sickness.

We come into contact with people everyday not knowing what kinds of sickness they may carry. How would people behave if they knew the health status of people around them? Today people with HIV or AIDS constantly wonder about how people would react if others knew about the disease. Sometimes people try to keep away from other persons who are presenting symptoms of a cold.



The hidden object in the field is silent. However when a person comes into contact they "catch" it. As the person moves around the field and comes into contact with other people there is a chance that the other person will also "catch" the object. However if the other person "catches" the object then the original person will "recover". Also there is a chance that the object may leave the original host without any notice. Other players will be alerted if they come close to "infected" person via vibration.

In this demo the "sickness" behavior is portrayed as a game of tag where nobody knows who is it until it may be too late!

Ideas

After last weeks discussion, the project is taking a new direction. Basically I would like to use a downward projection onto the floor, and multiple wiimotes to explore the dynamic physical/virtual/cultural relationships in space. I also did a little bit of research looking for projects which involve some kind of spatial physical exploration:

http://www.camilleutterback.com/arctangent.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHXw1niqvPs

Ameoba
- utilizes a couple of participants to form the body and moving appendages of an Ameoba.
- the remaining people become paramecium or prey of the ameoba
- the people making up the amoeba have to work together to ensnare the prey
- when captured, prey become part of the ameoba
- this increases the number of people and also the amount of cooperation needed

Snowflakes
- I was inspired by a video game which helped you see your targets by superimposing virtual lines of sight to your target
- while people move around in the space, lines are drawn connecting each person
- the resulting pattern is then used to create snowflakes representing the unique, ephemeral, and dynamic physical relationships between people
- allows groups of people to create an artist representation of themselves, kind of like a logo or something
- similar (maybe too similar) to arctangent

Hide & Seek
- there is a hidden something in the environment (what it is and what happens if found I don't know yet)
- this hidden thing at first is stationary
- it emits shockwaves
- like ripples on water, as the waves travel though the environment they can be felt by people wearing the wiimote
- the people in the environment must collaborate in order to locate the source of the shockwaves
- the "net" of people become a kind of radar detection
- however the hidden something may move when it seems like it may be found
- may want to include audio as well

some thoughts

after wednesdays discussion I feel that using the wiistrap on and wii butt, while having some shock value, don't really bring a lot of intellectual thought to the project. They are very literal interpretations of the penis and may come off as sexist. Also while sexual body language might be a new way to interface with the virtual world I would like to find another way to use the wiimote capabilities.

Halloween

Here is an updated list of links to wiimote+pc information:

http://wiiflash.bytearray.org/

- the wiiflash website is about connecting the wiimote to flash. they do it through the use of an api and a server - this method works pretty well and I am currently using it for my project, caveats would be that it requires adobe flash 9 and above and learning actionscript3

http://wiimote.chloefan.net/wiimote.html

- this is a helpful site that utilizes the wiiflash.org way of connecting the wiimote to your pc and creating programs using adobe flash and actionscript3

http://www.wiicade.com/

- this site is for developing flash games for the wii

http://www.wiili.org/forum/

- the wiili.org forums have a lot of information on how to connect the wiimote to the pc and information on how to get started using GlovePie, a scripting program which works well with the wiimote

Whats it gonna look like?

I've been thinking a little bit about how I want the end product to look like and function. Ideally I would have a projection in a public place or a gallery on to a wall or a ceiling. Visitors/guests/participants/players whatever one wants to call them would wear special wiimote equipped apparatuses. The strap-on wiimote and the buttplug wiimote respectively.




The projected content would be some kind of arousing imagery displayed through Flash. The wiimotes will connect to Flash and be represented by icons (maybe hands?). Moving the wiimotes will move the icons. Initially the movie will be paused. There will be another set of icons displaying motions on the screen, overlayed on certain parts of the movie. In order to move forward in the movie players will have to match the motions displayed on screen by moving their bodies. In a way the participants become physical actors of the virtual content being displayed. If the arousing content displayed includes more than two actors then an equal amount of participants will be needed in order to continue the movie.

Debuggin

Have been trying to get the wiimote to work with flash for the past couple of hours. No success.

First attempt to get Flash to work with wiimote.
- software - flash 8
- wiimote
- method - labs.wiicade.com

I followed the instructions on the website: downloaded the api, placed it in the correct folder, created new flash document and added necessary code to connect the wiimote and flash. Tried the test swf file and got no response from the wiimote. I tested the bluetooth connection with glovepie and everything was fine there. I tried debugging the code and looking though the forums for troubleshooting but didn't find much help.

Second attempt to get Flash to work with wiimote.
- software - flash 8
- wiimote
- method - wiiflash.org

Downloaded the wiiflash server and network support for windows. All installed properly. Got the wiiflash server to detect the wiimote - everything is connected properly. Attempted to open the demo files and discovered that I need flash 9 and above to work.

Third attempt to get Flash to work with wiimote.
- software - flash 8 (hoping to get flash 9 or above sometime)
- wiimote
- ppjoy
- method - try to convert wiimote to joystick and connect joystick to flash.

This attempt is currently in progress

Flash

Trying to figure out how to connect the wiimote to flash. Came across a site called wiiflash.org which uses a server to work with flash I think. I downloaded the programs and got the wiimotes to connect to the server but I haven't figured out how to do anything with it. Currently I am creating an experimental game in flash that has users track movements in order to keep progressing.