Outdoor shooting - movie making

we went out with a group of 4 participant today to let them try out the final version of our game, and we follow them all the way to document their journey. The game seems to turn out pretty good, and the GPS is working fine. Everything seems to turn out pretty well. We have a good documentation of our game, and the 4 participants seems to enjoy it a lot too.

Modifying the flash videos

Here is a modify version of the flash video I've made for the evil pops-up.

unfortunately the file size is too big and would not work properly when tested in Ipaq, and eventhough it would work, the text will be too small to view on Ipaq screen, so we have decided to stick with the simple original version of these flash videos.


Here is an example of the modified version:

Progress report2...

Me and Jony are continuing with the map design. We decided to illustrate out all the buildings along the path that the player will walk through because while playing the game, the map will be dynamic and only portion of the map will be showed according to the location of the player. So with buildings on the map it gives the player an idea of their whereabouts and knowing if they are going in the right direction.



and also, here's a character that I've design.
the good character - Dr. J. Smith

Project3 - progress report

me and Jony are both working for the map design.

I’ll illustrate for the locations : water front, botanical garden, and cable car lane

Jony will draw for the locations : civic square and railway station

Here are my map drawings:

cable car


botanical garden


water front

and the overall look of the map:

My task

I am focusing on the making of the map.

We reckon that by drawing up the whole map using isomatric view will make the map looks very complicated and especially hard for the user to view it on Ipaq. After discussion we have agreed on the style of the map to be a combination of 2D and 3D. The map will be based on a simple 2D top view, and for the specific spot that we will be using (civic square, water front, railway station etc), the area will be drawn out more detailed. This way, it will not only make the overall look of the map more clean and tidy, also it attracts the participant’s interest as it highlighted the spot that they’ll be going.

I’m planning to get it done by next Tuesday. Will post up the map once it’s done.

activity concepts for “civic Square” and “Water Front”

I’ve been thinking for the activity concepts for the sites “civic square” and “water front”.

for Civic square, it is near to the library, so one possible activity to do is to go into the library to do some research on some transports. Maybe ask them to find out the carbon emission rate for 3 of the transports that they come across when they make their way to the civic square. The method of research can be or not be restricted to books only.

for water front, at daytime I notice there are a few carbon free transportation driving around, eg, bicycle, skate board, the “four seater bike” etc. We can send them to find 3 of these carbon free transports and take pictures of them.

or… there are a few bus stops around Tepapa. We can set an active area and ask them to find and locate all the bus stops within that active area. This way, they’ll learn and remember all the bus stops around that area.

That’s all for now. Will updates if I can think of any other possible activities.

Arduino Project - The movie

project 2 - set-up

installation settings : 1st floor WIG building


infra red sensor was placed infront of the elevator to detects movement to the lift.





"arrow sign" LEDs board placed at the stairway, doors open for the installation period.

project 2 - progress...

final code



testing out the code to make sure it works alright

project 2 - equipment

the equipment needed for the installation is all ready!


"arrow sign" LEDs board
front view



back view



infra red sensor


Arduino microcontroller


overview

project 2 - progress

testing out the code with LEDs

the code


code for LEDon

project 2 - the installation

The setting of my installation will be from the front of the first level's elevator to the stairway.

An infra red sensor is used to detect movement when one walk towards the elevator. When movement is being detected, it will send a signal to the arduino microcontrollor and there'll be sound and lights flashing down at the stairway to attract the person's attention. The idea of this project plays on human instinct of curiosity. When lights begin to flash and sound begins to play, out of curiosity, one might walk over to the stairway to check out what's on. Once they arrive at the stairway, they might just walk up to the above levels without walking back out to wait for the elevator.

project 2 - concept

I notice that in our design school, there's a difference in term or the usage of stairs and elevator between the two design block ( Vivian St's building and WIG building ). People would normally walk up the stairs to the above levels in Vivian St's block, whereas in WIG block elevator is always being used. One of the main reason for this happening is because of the different placement of the stairs and lift between the two building. In the Vivian St's building, the stairs big and wide, and is being placed in a spot that is very eye catching, which in many cases it is the very first thing people sees when they entered the building. Whereby the elevator is being placed aside, not having much of an attention. Whereas in WIG building, the design/placement is completely opposite. The elevator becomes the main focus when people want to travel up to the above level, and the stairs are being located aside, and the stairway is always shut by a door.

As such, I see that the first thing the people sees or come across very likely will be the one they'll use.

The theme for this project is "sustainability". Elevator takes up a huge amount of electricity usage, therefore in order to cut down the electricity output by the elevator, my installation will set up to persude people to use the stairs in WIG building.

Research #4..

Green Cabs in Wellington

The Prius is widely considered to be most environmentally friendly vehicle available in the market today.The Prius is a series-parallel configuration hybrid, a vehicle that can run on just the engine, just the batteries, or a combination of both. Toyota's design goals are to reduce the amount of pollution and to maximize fuel efficiency. To do this, it uses a gasoline/electric hybrid powertrain, incorporating large batteries that are charged by the gas (petrol) engine directly or by regenerative braking. Either the engine or the battery (or both) can power the vehicle, depending on conditions. This gives it the acceleration and power of a standard car having a much larger gasoline-burning engine.

---> 50 million trees remove approximately one million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.

The Prius emits 106gms of C02 per kmWe estimate that each car will travel an average of 60000km per annum but just to be safe we'll work off 80,000km per annum per vehicleMultiply that by the 60 vehicles we haveOur vehicles will produce about 508.8 tonnes of C02 over the course of the year. To offset our emission for this year we will need to plant 30,000 trees.

note:
the average cab driver spends approximately $80 a day on petrol, the average Green Cabbie spends approximately $20 a day on petrol.

www.greencabs.co.nz

Research #3...

Car versus Bus carbon emissions
by Derek Zumsteg


I came across something online that claimed that diesel buses emit 200x the pollution of a normal passenger car. I looked into this, read some studies, and it’s not true.

The average vehicle on the road emits ~1# of CO2/mile (it’s higher for light trucks, lower for cars, but it works out quite well). I looked up some testing data, and a late-90s diesel bus on low-sulfur fuel (no trap, none of the new cool technology) puts out ~6.4# CO2/mile.
So an older diesel bus = about six cars, CO2-wise.

read more on "Hate Life, Will Travel"

Research #2

Public transport patronage in Wellington, year 1991 and 1996.

1991 1996
Population (million) 0.35 0.37

Passenger boardings (million)
Buses 16.2 12.4
Trains 10.8 8.6
Ferries 0.1 0.1
Total 27.2 21.0
Boardings per capita 76.8 57.4

(Source: Bachels et al, 1999)


Transport mode used for the journey to work to Wellington CBD.

1962 1976 1996
Car 36 34.7 56 (million)
Public transport 51 53.3 30
Other (mainly walking) 13 11.7 14

(Sources: Evans 1972, WCC 1979, WRC 1998)


read more on Wellington's Transport Planning Unsustainable

Research #1...

Planes vs Trains vs Automobiles - What is Greener

here is a research from "green price blog" on the comparison of a plain vs. train vs. bus vs. automobile ride, their costs, travel time and carbon emission.

-------------------------------> <--------------------------------------------
On a trip from my home of Washington, DC to Boston, MA and back, the financial, environmental and time costs associated with each mode of transportation are:

Automobile:
I based this calculation on the average gas mileage of an American automobile, which is 21 MPG . According to Google Maps, the distance between Boston and DC is 441 miles (so 882 total miles). The average cost of a gallon of gasoline is $3.13, according to Energy Information Administration.--- For a round-trip drive to Boston from DC and back, the carbon emissions are 0.368 Tons of CO2. For gas alone, the trip would cost about $131.46 and would take about 8 hours each way.

Train:
I looked at the price of an Amtrak ticket, leaving on a Friday (March 7th at noon) and coming back on a Sunday (March 9th at 3:00 PM).--- For a round-trip train ride to Boston from DC and back, the carbon emissions are 0.085 Tons of CO2. The train ticket would cost about $200 and would take about 8 hours each way.

Plane:
Using Hotwire.com and the dates of March 7-9 (Fri-Sun), from BWI Airport to Logan Airport.---- For a round-trip airplane ride to Boston from DC and back, the carbon emissions are .242 Tons of CO2. The plane ticket would cost about $220 and would take about 3 hours each way.

Bus:
Using Greyhound.com and the dates of March 7-9 (Fri-Sun)--- For a round-trip bus ride to Boston from DC and back, the carbon emissions are .126 Tons of CO2. The bust ticket would cost about $100 and would take about 9 hours each way.


So the rankings for carbon emissions, cost and time (from best to worst) are as follows:

Emissions: Train, , Bus, Plane, Automobile
Cost: Bus, Car, Train, Plane
Time: Plane, Train, Car, Bus

read more

Project1 - project debriefing

Being carbon neutral, or carbon neutrality, refers to neutral (meaning zero) total carbon release, brought about by balancing the amount of carbon released with the amount sequestered or offset. However, various special interests have attempted to promote a use of the term that refers to carbon reduction, which is clearly not neutral.

In this project, focusing on this globle issue, special attention is given to the transportation and the Wellington region.

Wellington is a very compact city where people live close to each other. Within a small and confined area, there are a lot of vehicles traveling in and out of the city everyday, emitting large amount of carbon and therefore the pollution rate can be very high.

The quickest and the most efficient way to reduce carbon emission is to reduce the amount of cars in Wellington region. With a significant amount of public transportations we have in Wellington, car is not a necessary tool for transport. As such, the target audience for this interacting game project will be mainly focusing on “drivers”, who are mostly office workers or university students. How can we create a game that can interest them, provides them an aesthetic experience, and at the same time addressed them the message that we want to convey?


project debrief pdf file <-- download