Tori and Kyle – Even More Dart Stuff

What’s up y’all we’re back! You know who we is. Our little old interactive dartboard has grown up into a big dartboard who is making its parents (us) proud.

Well, it’s still a concept, so not yet. Hey! Speaking of concepts, let’s get right into it…

Concept

Dartboard Interactive Hangman

• How will it work?
  • People will throw darts at a square dartboard (about the size of a whiteboard). On the dartboard will be 26 panels (4 rows of 6 with two letters straggling at the bottom).
  • If the letter that the user hits is in the word (that has been randomly generated by our list in Processing), it will appear on screen.
  • if the letter is not in the word, a sad but cool animation will happen to inform the dart-shooter that they have chosen incorrectly. The letter will then be placed in a “Letters Already Chosen” box and a body part of the Hangman will be drawn
  • The “game” is over once they get the word, or the man is fully drawn onscreen. In either case, a super fun animation will happen.
• What is the Purpose behind this?
  • Kyle and I both grew up playing hangman in our schools. It often brought together unlikely people and strengthen the bonds between friends. Putting this into processing and adding darts into it just extends a childhood game into our “adult” interests and skills and invites people in to form new connections with each other.
  • also darts are cool.
    • they have a sort of physicality to them that will work nicely to support interactivity.

Technical Considerations

• Durability
  • how can we make it withstand having darts thrown at it?
• Consistency
  • using switches instead of sensors should help with this!
• Proof of Concept
  • Will the game work?
• Program
  • will it do what we want it to?
• Dartboard Mobility

Equipment Requirements

• Projector (to be supplied by Kyle)
• Darts
• Arduino (2)
• Materials for Dartboard (Wiring, Conductive + Permeable Layers/Fabric/Foam)
• Acrylic for Housing/Protection of Wires
• Things to glue it all together!

Program

• The darts going through the permeable layers will act as a switch, thus triggering a response of either 0 (low) or 1 (high). We can then send that from arduino to processing. Once processing reads that 0/1, it can trigger a response.
• If it clicks the wrong letter, an animation will happen and it will draw a new body part. If it clicks the right letter in a randomly generated word, it’ll display the letter on a line to fill in the word.
• Note that once we conceptualize it and know the specific steps, it’ll be a lot easier to build the program and make the moving pieces work together.

Electrical Construction

It’s really just switches. The hard circitry is making an interesting switch. Plus, we may need more pin imputs… 😀

Physical Construction 

• Corkboard
  • Needs to be durable and reliable, as well as work with our system
• We plan to design an acrylic housing to not only hold the switches, but also to protect the wiring.
• We want to put it on a whiteboard like system so it is mobile.
• Make sure it’s consistent and pretty
• Make it physically satisfying- don’t lose the integrity of the dartboard effect.

Three Aspects that Terrify Us 

• Designing the Housing
• Making sure the Switch is Reliable
• Calling the Word and Triggering Letters