Update - Some Important Philosophical Thoughts

Hey Guys, we just had our SGM and our teaching team (as well as Lauri) have brought up some very interesting points. What if we assume the aiming technology is taken care of and focus all of our time on the form and other features?

Consider these points:

1) We have to think about what aspect of our product will be a breakthrough and innovation in our field. The Move Sharpshooter has proven that aiming can be done very well with a gun form. (Read reviews). Thus whatever we come up with for aiming will not be a significant improvement/breakthrough from the Sharpshooter. Why devote so much time to aiming when we can make sure breakthroughs in ergonomics and adjustability.

2) ME310 is a design course. Figuring out aiming is a technology issue. We feel that it is much more worthwhile to pursue the design challenges like form, ergonomics, and adjustability. Aiming technology is not something we are experts at. We must come to terms with this. There are people out there much smarter than us in that technology who can do this, so let's focus on what we are good at - product design.

3) Our form will likely require many iterations and lots of time. Once we have our form, it will likely require much iteration and time to make it adjustable. If we continue to pursue aiming we will sacrifice much needed time from these crucial aspects of our project.


Other Important Updates:
1) We have 2 CS students who have expressed interest in our project! We will meet them in a few hours at our SUDS. Hopefully if everything works out you can meet them in our next Skype meeting. We hope they can bring in some interesting ideas and perspectives.

2) We just bought this gun - basically the assault rifle form of the Move controller. You can also use it without the Move for aiming by using 2 thumbsticks. We'd like to take this apart to get an idea of how they wire and manufacture the buttons and locate everything internally. You need some weird triangle head screwdriver, so we're trying to find one of those.

3) Before break we set up a meeting with a guy from Scent Sciences, a company that is interested in introducing scents to gaming. We have a meeting with him on Sunday.

Touchpad proto

Aiming prototyping week, post 1

The beginning of spring quarter "diaries".

The first week we have decide to play around with aiming methods.

On tuesday we brainstormed any kind of accurate aiming ideas.

We chose to prototype touch pad-pointing aiming combination (both can be used to aim simultaneously), touch pad with buttons on each side (when button is pressed the mouse keeps going to that direction) and optic mouse camera aiming.

Touch pad with buttons on sides did not work, it was weird idea... (we ment it to be so that the area of touch pad is area of screen, so that when ur finger is on the far left side of touchpad the mouse is on far left side of screen. BUT it is not this way in the game. ) also it is quicker to just move the finger than press the side of the touchpad.

There could be buttons on the side of the touchpad, but for other functions.

Optic mouse camera is too difficult technically. (esa will explain more)

Touchpad-pointing aiming combination is under progress. (results will come friday) :)

Aalto Functional System Prototype handout

Wii position test summary

Test subjects played Resident Evil 4 for about 30 minutes in different positions with Wii Gun (see video)

Test person 1

Duration 30 minutes

10 minutes position of choice (sitting leaning forward)

About 7 minutes in standing position

About 10 minutes sitting leaning backwards

“Sitting position is the best, because it is possible to lean somewhere to get support”

“Placement of button and thumb joystick is awful”

“Playing is terrible”

Test person 2

Duration about 30 minutes

10 minutes position of choice (standing)

About 7 minutes sitting leaning forwards

About 7 minutes sitting backwards

“Leaning backwards is very difficult because hands are not supported, but have to be held in air”

“Standing position is more firm because hands can be held lower”

“Placement of button and thumb joystick is awful”

Gaming position test with Wii gun controller

Summary from cardboard mockup test

Aiming needs more accuracy than moving, so the most precise controlling method should be for aiming

Moving does not need very precise movements

Aiming and shooting must be in right arm

Right arm should be behind left arm

The more precise movement should be in right hand

It is very important to be able to lean elbows to knees

With shoulder support (2,4,5) the whole body moves with aiming

With shoulder support (2,4,5) one cannot choose the position the want

With shoulder support (2,4,5) it is more logical that aiming is with the whole gun, otherwise aiming should be with black handle

The grip is nice in first proto (1)

This feels awkward (hand are the wrong way round) (3)

Favourite (1)

1: “I want to aim with black handle”

2: “easy and intuitive”, “I can’t hold the way I want, support is on the way”

3: “feels weird and awkward” “I dont like”

4/5: “my hand and shoulders get tired immediately”, “unnatural, heavy, I couldn’t hold this for a minute” “I like the support”

6: “intuitive”, “too long, hands get tired”, “I like the shoulder support”, “I can’t figure out what to do with this”

7: “I can’t control moving with same hand that is supporting the gun”

8: “this sucks”, “hands are too far apart”

FSP Summary

Here is Stanford's FSP:

Summaries and Key Findings soon to come.

GlovePIE Script for simple touchpad gestures

GlovePIE only understands Synaptics touchpads, which means the external one we purchased isn't compatible. At least for PC's, most laptop touchpads are Synaptics and my beautiful script works nicely :) Copy and paste to GlovePIE and enjoy typing different letters by moving your finger in four directions:


Touchpad.swallow = true // Touchpad will have no effect on cursor

// This script is about making simple touchpad gestures produce keystrokes.

If Touchpad.FingerPresent = true then
var.touchlocx = touchpad.x
var.touchlocy = touchpad.y
wait 20 ms
If touchpad.x > (var.touchlocx + 0.05) then // Move finger right
Press K
Release K
ElseIf touchpad.x < (var.touchlocx - 0.05) then // Move finger left
Press J
Release J
ElseIf touchpad.y < (var.touchlocy - 0.05) then // Move finger up
Press U
Release U
ElseIf touchpad.y > (var.touchlocy + 0.05) then // Move finger down
Press I
Release I
EndIf
EndIF

Summary of few survey questions by different gamer groups

Would you like your controller to be customized/personalized?

	Yes	No
Non gamer	44,4 %	55,6%
Plays 1-5h week	19,6%	78,4%
Plays 5-15h week	31,2%	65,6%
Plays over 15h week	41,0%	57,4%

If I could choose I would use custom/personalized controller / use regular controller

	Custom / personalized	Regular
Non gamer	66,7%	33,3%
Plays 1-5h week	52,9%	45,1%
Plays 5-15h week	64,0%	31,2%
Plays over 15h week	68,9%	31,1%

If I could choose I would like to decide myself where different functions are located / I would not like to decide

	Decide myself	Not decide
Non gamer	77,8%	22,2%
Plays 1-5h week	66,7%	31,4%
Plays 5-15h week	77,6%	18,4%
Plays over 15h week	72,1%	27,9%

If I could choose I would buy ready made controller / choose parts myself

	Choose parts self	Ready made
Non gamer	22,2%	77,8%
Plays 1-5h week	23,5%	74,5%
Plays 5-15h week	41,6%	54,4%
Plays over 15h week	47,5%	52,5%

Aalto Functional System Prototype Plan

Our plan to research attachment methods for the modular concept has changed. Please comment on this, we'd like to hear your opinions. Do not hesitate to express dissatisfaction in case our sudden change of plans evokes such feelings. Here's the plan:

First, we're going to do user testing with different cardboard prototype iterations (including the Black Prototype) to look for an optimal general layout for the gun and its different grips. We are not focusing on button placement in this test. We intend to interview our test subjects about the concept of modularity in terms of being able to change the locations of the different functions as in the Gyro-Handle Warlord.

Second, we will make the winner of this cardboard layout test a functional prototype. This functional prototype will include a touchpad. The touchpad isn't intended for replacing the aiming function of the gun, but it could serve as a secondary mouse device (when resting the controller on the lap or when browsing the menus). When in fiery combat, the gun would still be used for the actual aiming and the touchpad could serve as a gesture input device for throwing grenades etc. . We feel that the touchpad has loads of potential! It could have a mode-switch to select between e.g. mouse mode, gesture mode, thumbstick mode and keyboard mode depending on the in-game situation.



The reason we are slightly doubtful about modularity, is that it seems like a concept without a real concept behind it. Like our research showed, many users just want a reliable controller without having to worry about its construction and such. We must make sure first that the default setup has a solid idea behind it and that it works.

Summary of survey (open questions)

Our survey showed that gamers care very little about the individual look of a controller. Also to achieve a truly custom look, you can’t just order a bunch of parts from a website. Customisation of a controller was mostly understood in the context of ergonomics. According to the survey results, adding weights and adjusting certain dimensions is believed to contribute to a very good controller. However, many expressed concern that they wouldn’t know which parts to choose without having first used the default controller. Many gamers simply wouldn’t invest their time and effort in selecting optimal parts. This means that the default should fit all sizes and be all-round awesome in several ways. One clear need (in perhaps the average non-hardcore gamers) that can be recognized is the need for a reliable basic controller that allows the gamer to concentrate on the game instead of the device.

Gyro-Handle Warlord

Here's a modular concept. Despite its modularity it doesn't require difficult decisions from the customer. This way you could also only replace the mouse with the pistol bit, or only replace the keyboard with the accelerometer handle.