Outcome

From my research i have developed a Nintendo Wii game proposal. The game is aimed at 7-15 year olds and is based around perfecting technical steps. The user interface will consist of a webcam image, a video of each of the steps and an avatar of the user. The user will follow the steps shown on the video, which will then be mimiked by the avatar. The user will also wear wireless clothing which will detect their balance, posture, and positioning to get them into good habits. The user may also perform full routines and record the screen so that she or he may return afterwards and view thier corrections instead of watching the webcam image whilst dancing.

Artefact 7

In this artefact i wanted to prove that by constant use of the system i would create it could destroy bad-habit and through the use of repetitioon improve the users techique. I tested this out on an asemble soutenu, as it is an easy measurable technical step. The whole sequence was mid-shot so that the user could relate this image to their webcam image, the video also had all the methods tested in Artefact 3. Every day the 4 users completed the step using the video, webcam and a measuring tool so that they knew where their positioning should be.
I then took them away from the computer and asked them to perform the step without any assistance then measuring their proportions to see if the video was having any effect on them.

Alterations

For ballet the cables would benefit far more from being down the legs, arms, down the spine and chest as these are the main points of movement in ballet as discussed in my personal reaearch document.

The garments could then be used to generate signal to a computer which will outline and fine tune the performance down to every detail such as balance, posture, turnout etc.

Artefact 6

How can i use these garments in co-ordination with my project ?

The 3 garments were put into use as the dancers were made to move in the way that the garment made them feel, refering back to my written research document, audio and the way you feel has a huge impact on the way you move. I recorded the movement of the dancer by taking pictures. A session then took place where each dancer had to do a different style of dance as my video is based on ballet i observed and filmed the male dancer in his garment and made notes on alterations to the garment in regards to the way he moved.

The garments

As you can see above the garments have been made from specialised materials to recieve the wireless signals from the wires weaving into the garments.

NTU Smart Design - Development

The NTU Smart design development group are currently working towards a project that looks at how garments can produce a wireless signal through movement. The garment is still in the design process and doesn't work yet, the current stage that the project is at is concentrating on the design of the garment and how it needs to be adjusted to each style of movement. The garment has already been tested on musicians and dancers. As my project strongly links to this i am going to look at how these garments could work with my project if it became successful.

A solution???

Coming across a project from the NTU Smart Design group i thought i may have found the perfect solution to my problem. The project was developing and testing garments they had made using specialist materials to enable the cables weaved through the garments to react to movement such as dancing, instrument playing etc. and then this reaction would cause something to change e.g change of lights during performance or music.
I saw this as something that could be linked very closely to my project and something that could work alongside the development.

A slight hiccup...

As my game was meant to be for the Wii, and i was proposing the idea of incorporating a webcam as a new business idea, i was horrified when i came across this advert on youtube




In order to keep up with the market i need to come up with new idea's offering something that differs to the design above.

How the game will work ....

results of artefact 5

Overall everyone results scored the consoles at :

These results show that Nintendo Wii, was the most popular console to design my game for. This would mean that i have to look into adding an additional webcam feature to the wii, and looking at the tracking tool to measue the users progress.

Artefact 5

As i have decided to create a game and my last artefact showed me that the participants found it more beneficial to diagnose their movement through webcam rather than watching pre-recorded videos of themselves i decided to design a game for an interactive game console. So that i didnt waste my time designing a game that would work on different consoles, i decided at this stage in my research it would be a good idea to research and test the different consoles on the market at the moment. I looked at :

Nintendo Wii Playstation eye toy Itek

results from Artefact 4

After having and recording a 20 minute conversation with each of the participants, i went and listened to the conversations to pick im portant opinions they had on this method. The most interesting points were:

"I found this method a lot easier than having footage of me in class edited as i could see what i was doing wrong, and was able to correct myself there and then comparing what i was doing to the video."

"It was useful to see what i was doing but i got bored,and it wasn't very fun to do"

"It would have been better if there was different video's, the same one got a bit boring and also if thre wwas something to measure if i was doing it right, i could see that i was doing it wrong but couldn't work out how."