I'll just start my counting of days over again. Its the beginning of our final days in Robotic Design Studio. In approximately one month we will have created some kind of final project in which to display our skills. One month, and a few days, and this class will be over. Well, better get started.
Today was serious brainstorming/tinkering around/solidifying slightly more your ideas about projects. When everyone was explaining their ideas today, it seemed like partners were already picked and I'm okay with that. Karishma and I are both huge Harry Potter fans, so if our one HP themed idea is the chosen one:) than we'll both be great on working together to complete that idea. So here are the three ideas that are currently muddled and turning together in my brain.
Idea #1: A Gryphlet
This was my one of my first thoughts when thinking about sensors and a final project. It followed the, "What can I do?" Fantasy is definitely one of my loves and wouldn't it be cool to do some kind of animals and what better than to do an animal that is mythical? Gryphons rank up there for my favorite mythical creature and baby animals are just sooo cute.
Today's further thinking/brainstorming pulled up possible ideas for what this gryphlet could do or sense in the real world and react to. One of the basic, I would like from it would be movement. It would be desirable to have the gryphlet move its feet rather than wheels, which probably be easier, but look really fake then. She movement and the shape of the creature would play major roles in this idea's success. Another idea was to have a button or sensor on its head, so that when it sensed someone "petting" it, it would react with a gryphlet cooing like noise. Don't know exactly what that would sound like, but yeah. Gryphons are known in most legends for guarding treasure of sorts and so the gryphlet could have a necklace or something, that when taken away from him would result in his emminet annoying squawking.
This idea would be pretty neat, interactive, and revolving around a theme that I'm interested in. Thinking up to ideas after this was hard to do, but possible.
Idea #2: Jedi Battle
If not fantasy, why not sci-fi. Lightsabers and battles between good and evil was too compelling to not think about. The idea muddled in my mind for a long time, as I tried to venture away from anything similar to the gryphon idea, trying to open my mind to other options. I jumped from Jedi and Sith to Rock 'um Sock 'um robots and tried to take some ideas from that game's play.
So, this idea centers around two jedi charachters, each wielding a lightsaber. One is good(Jedi) adn the other evil(Sith). How to move the charachters took a little of thinking, but I considered having the charachters hold their respective lightsabers with both hands, then moving one arm or the other to change the angle of the lightsaber. So now the charachterse can shield themselves, but to get in a shot or such, their would need to be a little more movement, so I also considered putting the two charachters on circular platforms, that would be able to move in one direction or the other when a sensor is pressed. So depending on what sensors are activated would determine what action the Sith or Jedi completed.
This idea I fiddled with constructing today,trying to see if I could get a lego construction/skeleton for the arms. This was accomplished, but I couldn't find a good combination or LEGO parts and pieces to allow for a lightsaber to be successfully used. So this idea is not totally out of the running, but most likely not to come out on top.
Idea #3: Castles
I found myself wandering back to the realm of fantasy and the castle setting. Two of my favorite castles include Howl's Moving Castle and the Hogwarts castle in Harry Potter. Howl's Moving Castle(HMC) would be fun to design and create just 'cause it looks so weird and awkward and doesn't look like it should move at all. Then there's Calcifer and the kid (Michael?) as well as Sophie and Howl, really cool charachters that it would be fun to give a part to.
While Howl's moving castle seems lots of comic relief, Hogwarts(HOG) is a more serious castle atmosphere as it plays up to the whole magic, good vs. evil, dark kept secrets, scary/creepy monsters/creatures. HOG would be a serious magical atmosphere that would be a classical sorta' fantasy and no doubt fun to design, create, and exhibit. We could have a barking fluffy you need to calm by given him the right music,(i.e. sound between a certain loudness level)
Both castles allow for ample use of sensors and such with their magical aspects. They also both allow for flexibility in how much sensors and stuff to put together to create the whole project. Only these three scenes or maybe it could encompass these two important rooms that each have a dozen sensors, or have many rooms with one sensor in each. There is a lot of flexibility and with a time set as five weeks, flexibility is a wonderful concept.
These are three really different ideas and the more I think about each one, the harder it seems to have to choose and make a choice. The castle(HOG or HMC) seem to be in the running for top place right now. The fleixbility of size is a very attractive quality in this project. And it could be this factor that decides what final project I do for RDS.
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