For this project when I heard about connection I immediately thought of the unconditional love connection you can develop with a pet. The type that you can have the worst day ever, but coming back home and seeing your animal super excited to see you just makes your day better. For this project I wanted to make a project that can be acted on with two people where one person is the animal and the other is the person.
The idea is to have the person looking into the computer monitor and using the Arduino to change the temperature and the light with simple camera commands or voice commands (still deciding on that one). The pet user will use a Makey Makey outfitted with pet toys in order to control the animals on the screen, they will be able to look at the projector to see the interactions. I want this to be one where both people can control the screen in different ways. Also the animals will be animated in my style.
This is a very quick demo of a super simplified prototype that uses camera manipulation with one Makey Makey button implemented. I wish to build onto this and to have somewhere between 3-4 animals. I want each of the animals to have simple yet unique commands and for certain actions to cause a reaction to the animal currently on screen. I want it to be hand drawn but not colored in order to make more aesthetically pleasing movements. Also if anyone is curious, the camera switches filters because different animals see people differently.
I am pretty open to ideas on how to make more interactions between players but currently I have the animal player controlling a Makey Makey and the human player is controlling the Arduino and camera/microphone.
I want to research on ways to make a video finish before an action triggers a new one. I am also going to be watching animal movements in order to create my simple but expressive animations. I will also need to set up a Trello board to see what is most important to get done in order to not get overloaded with work. I hope that I can find a long enough cable for the Makey Makey to allow the animal player to comfortably look at the big screen while interacting with the project. I think everything will come as it goes, and that achieving a balance of complexity to aesthetics should be a top priority.
Questions:
Should I focus on creatures that exist in the world (cats, dogs, ferrets) or should I make some pets up for this project?
What objects should be used for the Makey Makey controller and what camera or mic controls can you envision?
Like always any suggestions are appreciated and I am open to any feedback you leave in the Comments below.
Thanks for viewing.
I think using real animals tied to sensors built around items associated with that animal could be neat.
The idea is very relatable to almost everyone’s lives. In my opinion, using real animals would allow for the audience to relate more towards them. For the makey makey inputs, using pet toys and other pet accessories could be a good object for the controller.
Alright I am currently going down the pet video route. I have three animals and I am using toys to signify the actions that can be made. I am using pet toys for emotions and everything seems to be coming along smoothly.
To answer your two questions, I feel like for the sake of emulating an experience with a pet (much like the dog used as the display picture), it makes sense to use more typical pets. For the controller, I think that any old dog toy would do, but a rubber one in particular could be useful. If you can apply something conductive to it (like a strip of foil) and then attach the ground to the rubber of the toy itself, you could have a discrete and compact controller.
I have taken a tire but in order to show emotions I chose to use pet toys. Mostly so that I could give them to animals after I am done with this project. I am currently using totoro as my ground, but I am also testing out some ground dirt as well.
I really enjoy this idea as a pet owner! I think using real/common animals and pets would relate to almost all people, and using a dog toy would be a good choice. I do have a neutral question, do you plan on bringing a pet in for the demo in class on Monday or just recording a video for the demo?
I am planning on making videos of pets recorded and making the button inputs pet toys. I am currently thinking about videos of animals being a dog, cat, and ferret. I think for now the project for the pet controller will be a human but I can definitely see this being an interactive pet object as well.