Nien's ITP Blog

For our media controller, Patrick Hebron, Don Miller and I built a video game using Processing and the Arduino micro-controller. The game allows up to six players. Players work together to control a tank’s x-movement, y-movement, turret rotation, firing rate and force-field. We designed the game to work as a platform. Any media controller that sends out 2 digital bits (00, 01, 10) can plug in and control one of the tanks attributes. The game is called Double Agent cause when a tank is struck by a projectile, one of the players from the side which got hit will swap to the other side giving that side an increased advantage. When a side has no players, the game is over.

The controller hub and controllers.

• Download the Processing/Arduino Code

Using an H-bridge you can control a DC motor’s direction. Here I’m using the Texas Instruments L293NE. Setup and code can be found here.

Using a TIP120 transistor, we can control high-current DC loads. Here I’m using potentiometer to change the brightness of a incandescent light bulb that is powered by a 9V power supply. Setup and code can be found here.

Using 2 potentiometers and a switch, I’m sending 3 sensor values over to Processing to control the display of a circle on a black background. The 2 potentiometers control the x/y position while the switch controls the circle visibility. Setup and code can be found here. I had to change the value mapping to account for using potentiometers vs the accelerometer used in the example.
 

Using a potentiometer with Arduino, we can send serial data to Processing. The readings are graphed over time. Setup and code can be found here.
 

After trying to calibrate the analog sensor to play a tune, I was unsuccessful in getting particular shades to consistently play the tones I want. I instead tried to use the photocell to detect white or black, representing 0 or 1. Using 4 photocells, I can create 16 combinations which is enough for a 2 octave scale. Below is the printed chart I used to map the tones and a clip playing the 2 octave scale .

Using a photocell, I can play 2 octaves of the C major scale. The next objective is to try to play a tune.

Using a potentiometer and the Arduino servo library to control a servo motor.

For this lab I used 2 sensors to light up 2 sets of LEDs. The force sensor controls the green LEDs and the flex sensor controls the red LEDs. The number of LEDs that light up is dependent on how much force or how much bend you apply to the relevant sensor.