“Our ?lives ?are ?split ?between ?physical ?and ?digital ?parts. ?The ?goal ?of ?this ?final ?project ?is ?to represent ?and ?combine ?these ?two ?parts. ?To ?create ?a ?small ?Arduino ?and ?Processing prototype ?that ?allows ?us ?on ?one ?hand ?sensing ?and ?manual ?control ?and ?on ?the ?other ?a digital ?feedback, ?through ?visualization, ?sound ?or ?anything ?that ?inspires ?you.”

Using processing and an arduino + pulse sensor, we created a game that uses the rate of the player’s pulse as the controller. To keep alive in the game a heart rate of at least 100 bpm must be maintained, but to lose, the player’s heart rate just needs to stay at resting (80 bpm) or below for more than ten seconds – at which point a game over screen and score read-out would be triggered. Building off of a particle array script by Irene Sanchez – particle behavior was remapped to sensor inputs to create a visual representation of winning and losing states. When a player is winning the particles attract, but when a player begins to lose the particles recede. Once a player is at a losing heart rate for ten seconds the game over screen is triggered in tandem with a full screen particle dispersion/explosion. The game – along with the particles and the score – resets five seconds after this point.

In essence this game is a visually abstract version of “wii fitness” or any other fitness based game. The most obvious way to get a high score is by running in place, but players can also succeed by having an anxiety attack if they wish.

Sabrina Naumovski

Gayatri Desai

Takeru Osoegawa