Week 4

Katie Hendricks & Scott Lui // Super [Mario] Elevator

Sensor Possibilities

The most important input that our object has to be able to sense is the location of a person in the elevator. We have discussed a variety of options that we think could be possible and are still researching to decide which will be the best (easiest to implement and most cost efficient.)

1. Pressure Sensors

An obvious way of detecting a person’s location is by the pressure they are exerting on the ground. This would produce an analog output, which would work but is not necessary for our project.

2. Physical Buttons

One existing system that shares similar characteristics to our project is DDR. The game needs to be able to identify where are on the game board the player is stepping. We found one example of a DYI arcade style ddr mat that turned each tile into a physical button that completed a circuit when pressed. This would produce a digital output if pressed or not pressed, which if fine for what we are trying to create.

3. Infrared photo sensors

Infrared photo sensors are another possibility we have considered. Just as a computer mouse can determine if it is being held in the air or on the table, we think the same concept could be applied to detecting a person’s location. If a person were standing over the infrared LED the infrared sensor would detect their presence. This would also create a digital output.