3D Paper Simon Says: I'm an Arduino n00b

     I was really excited to be assigned to build a game interface prototype using the Arduino for my alternative controllers class. I've never really worked hands-on with an Arduino before, so I was pretty stoked to try it out. When I broke open my Arduino I was really intrigued by all the seemingly endless possibilities of tinkering that can happen with this thing.
     I started brainstorming and remembered from class that graphite could be used as a conductive material. I thought that was super useful, as drawing with pencil gives you the freedom to do a lot of things, and I'm just really fond of using pencil because I'm a doodler. I looked up various ways to use graphite as a sort of input to the Arduino and found that you can make a button out of graphite drawn on paper. This opened up many possibilities in my mind, so I started to explore further.
     I thought of creative ways to use paper in this case. Sure, you could have it laying flat and draw some buttons or something, but I wanted to approach it from a different angle. When I think of interesting controllers, I think of something you can hold and move around and dynamically manipulate. So I looked into 3D folded paper shapes and wondered what I could possibly do with them.

Cool shapes that totally aren't complicated to make at all

     So then I came up with the idea of having some sort of 3D shape made of paper with graphite sensors drawn on the opposite side of each face. Each face of the shape would map to a certain color, and the player would be prompted by LEDs which color(s) to touch in a given time frame (like a mix of Simon Says and Twister). I imagine it would get increasingly harder, and the player would have to touch multiple colors and avoid ones they aren't supposed to touch. Sounds relatively simple... in theory.

     

 As if my desk didn't have enough crap all over it already

     Of course I'm naturally drawn to the artsy crafty side of things so I decided to do that (*cough* easy) part first and cut out an octahedron shape, draw out the graphite "circuits"and then color coded them cuz I'm fancy or something.
     I'm just gonna say it now, I didn't actually end up getting this to work with the Arduino. The paper shape itself was a bit small and flimsy, and the jumper wires got a little cramped and it was a bit cluttered. But hey, it's just a prototype, sooo.... Learning experience, I guess.
     I then just decided to move on to prototyping the actual game interface. I wanted to start out by just getting the graphite touch input down. Seems simple enough, there's a tutorial online and everything.

me_irl

     Heh, well the whole thing ended up being way more than I bargained for, and really made me realize how much of a noob I am with Arduino, which was surprisingly very finicky and caused a lot of frustration. It started with me looking up capacitive sensors, trying to implement it, which resulted in an LED light that couldn't decide what it wanted in life (I mean who can blame it, amirite?) and me repeatedly banging my head into my breadboard and having multiple existential crises.
     Anyway, I kindof got capacitive sensors to work, but it ended up being SO sensitive that even having my phone or hand near the end of the jumper wire caused the LED to go on. So for a good hour I was sitting there wondering why the LED was CONSTANTLY on, then I picked up my phone to procrastinate on facebook or something I realized that the LED went off, which caused even more confusion.

finicky LED behavior in its natural habitat

     

     Don't get me wrong, the super sensitive jumper wire was super fun cause it made me feel like a wizard when I waved my hand at it and made it glow. Also, a part of me feels like this is some glitch that's unrelated to what I was even trying to do.

Summary of me during this whole experience

     Anyway, long story short, I have to admit defeat for tonight and probably start fresh tomorrow. At least I have a good idea now of what NOT to do, and a general direction of where to go. Hopefully my Arduino will be more cooperative.