During the final presentations, to which friends and family are invited, it soon becomes clear that the students could have used another day of debugging. Some projects kind of work but are very fragile while others just really need one more day to work at all. If there would be more time, the projects would get a better exposure then they get right now. But that's not how rapid prototyping works at Dev Camp.
During the presentations some projects partially collapse, while others stubbornly refuse to work. However, the Dev Camp proves to be a success when so many of the students, (but are they now hackers? - they did not stay up that late...), admit they never worked with Arduino, or other hardware.
The camp opened up possibilities, doors and technologies and is at least from this perspective, a success!
For more in depth documentation of code etc, visit the Dev Camp wiki: http://trac.mediamatic.nl/picnic/wiki/PrototypeDevCamp10
Fixie Pong (use fixie bikes as input devices for a game of Pong)
Team members: Mick, Imara, Casper, Redençio
In a game of Fixie Pong, the contenders can use their back wheel as paddle to play an old school game of pong. Finally the team did not manage to develop coop-pong. During the final presentation the prototype ran into a bit of problems and got stuck after. However, for 10 whole seconds the game actually worked and was a at least a (or 8?) bit of success!
Casper Hofstede described the project also on his own page (in Dutch):
"De uitwerking van dit idee was als volgt: Er is een centrale computer, op deze computer draait het computerspel Pong in Java. Om dit te bedienen is er een interface gemaakt met knoppen die via een Arduino deze signalen naar de computer stuurt. Op deze interface bevindt zich ook de RFID lezer voor het scannen en doorsturen van de ingelezen Ik tag.
Het spel wordt vanuit de computer door een beamer op de grond geprojecteerd. Aan twee zijde van deze projectie bevinden zich frames met ieder een fiets. Deze fiets is een omgebouwde fixed racefiets, uitgerust met een vlaggetje, een rotary sensor gekoppeld aan een draadloze Arduino en BMX steps waarin houten verlengen werden geplaatst.
Om het eenvoudig te maken om naar voren en achter te fietsen zonder om te vallen werden de fietsen in een houten frame geplaatst. Door de houten verlenging van de assen werd de balans bewaard, door middel van een versmalling was het niet mogelijk om naar links of rechts te sturen.
Het software gedeelte werkte als volgt. In eerste instantie was er het basis scherm, wanneer één of twee personen hun Ik tag lieten scannen kon het spel gekozen worden. Door op de grote rode knop te drukken, starten het gekozen spel. Er verschijnt dan een scherm waarin de gebruikersnaam en afbeeldingen van de gebruikers geladen worden vanuit anyMeta. Na vijf seconde aftellen starten het spel." More here: http://www.cmhofstede.nl/eigen-projecten/prototype-dev-camp-10-fixie-pong/
Paperboy
Team members: Gilles, Arno, Steven
Paperboy is a game also based on a classic 8bit game, but translated into the physical - a cyclist has to race against time while posting as many RFID-tagged papers as he can. The amount of papers and his final time will be posted to his profile by using a Mediamatic API connected to the RFID technology.
The Paperboy-game was almost finished by the time the prototypes had to be presented (the deadline). The final hardware constructions however, did bring some interesting experiences and shortcomings to the foreground. During the morning construction sessions, Arno managed to evacuate the whole Mediamatic building, by triggering the fire alarm with his steel cutter. Both Arno and Gilles encountered their limits while working with tie-wraps, which presented particular challenges and convulsive laughter while the fact that neither Arno nor Gilles ever hold a hammer was worked around by using duck tape, which however broke down during the final presentation (see movie). All in all the prototype was pretty fun.
4-player Simon Says
Team members: Xander, Marc, Nurullah
While the concept of the Simon Says game was developed from the Ik-a-sketch idea, the game itself turned out to be closer to the classic, Simon Says multi player memory game. Unfortunately, for still undisclosed reasons, the prototype failed to function during the presentation. The hardware, build by Nurullah did look very nice.
Sorry - the memory in my camera was finished....
BMiX
Team members: Pedro, Thomas, Fabio, Saro
The presentation of the BMiX consisted of a power point and the presentation of the BMiX, which did not function. The BMiX is a bike that makes music while it is used to drive around, by triggering parameters from the Arduino Lilypad, accelerometers, and pressure meters. It will be finished and on display during the Sur Place exhibition.
