Once I was given an assignment in school to design something that uses a pulse-sensor: the user holds the sensor for a given amount of time and is able to view the output range of values on a console of some sort. In this case, we were using the Arduino environment for this sensor.
I didn't want to make a stuff-animal that a user would hold to take a pulse, or any product that looked like a medical design. I thought I could do way better with originality.
So taking this obsession with set design, the past, architecture and my new-found love of circuits and wires, I actually surprised myself and built this crazy dollhouse. Further, taking my grandmother's old 50's crime magazines, I scanned them and used them for the facade of the building. I have no clue what I was thinking.
But after rigging the entire house with wires, LED lights, and motors, I programmed an environment that made the house come alive.
This new "casing" for the pulse sensor was a gamification:
- there is an imaginary intruder in the bottom floor, first room of the house
- the user holds the pulse sensor between their index finger and thumb
- if the reading is a pulse below a certain number, the user doesn't ascend to the next room
- if the user's pulse rises (panics), the intruder ascends another level
- each place the intruder has progressed is signaled by an LED light.
- the "victim" is in the attic which is the "end" for the intruder.
- the motor, simulating footsteps of the intruder, moves faster the more the intruder progresses
- staying calm will keep the intruder from moving
Here is the result with user interaction:
