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- Midterm Project

Journey

to

The Core of The Earth

-Lin

-Inmi

Overall

Drawing inspiration from previously completed projects, I aimed to create a handheld game that simulates a computer screen. Unlike before, this time we had the freedom to choose our sensors and connection methods, allowing us to bring our prior project’s design to life. In this two-week project, Lea and I explored many novels and films to find suitable ideas and inspiring designs, incorporating various elements into our game. The first influence was "The Eyes of Her Eyes" by the Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, which provided an intriguing design backdrop: navigating a core probe in an underground adventure beneath the Earth’s surface. To achieve this, we researched interactive game examples online, including cardboard game consoles and a cardboard bowling game, which helped us decide how to present the game.

Processing

Our game uses two accelerometer sensors as controllers to operate the probe, with one controlling vertical movement and the other controlling forward and backward movement. Each player manages one movement direction, collaborating to guide the probe along a track to its final destination.

This description may be hard to grasp, so let's look at an outline of our setup (as shown in the diagram). The game has two parts: the background and the cart, each equipped with a responsive servo motor. The cart’s vertical movement is controlled by a string mechanism: the string is wound around a shaft connected to a servo motor fixed inside the game box. When the servo motor rotates, it raises or lowers the cart smoothly. Moving the cart forward and backward was more challenging, so Lea and I devised a workaround by moving the background instead, giving the illusion of the cart’s relative movement. For this, we turned a flat cardboard sheet into a large cylinder, carving out the probe’s track, the route players must follow. We attached a second servo motor at the bottom of the cylinder; when it rotates, the background cylinder rotates, creating the visual effect of forward and backward motion. It's worth noting that regular servos don't meet the requirement for a 360-degree rotation, so we found a specialized servo that could rotate fully in both directions.

After assembling the cardboard casing, our only remaining challenge was programming the accelerometer. We knew that the accelerometer has three directions (X, Y, and Z) to emit analog signals, and we chose X and Y, as they are equally functional for our purposes. Our aim was—using the X direction as an example—that when the accelerometer detects movement in the positive X direction, the servo rotates clockwise, with faster speeds at higher acceleration values; conversely, when the movement is in the negative X direction, the servo rotates counterclockwise, again faster with greater acceleration. This way, players can tilt the controller to different angles to control the cart's movement speed and direction.However, the code we initially had didn’t specify how to adjust the servo’s direction and speed based on changing accelerometer signals, making it difficult to implement. Finally, Lea came up with a solution based on her coding experience, correlating specific tilt angles with the servo’s speed (360-degree rotation) and angle (180 degrees). Through this differential-based approach, we achieved precise control.

Userte

With these issues resolved, we collected feedback during user testing, identifying two key areas for improvement. First, the design lacked decorations, as the cardboard appearance didn’t relate well to our underground exploration theme. Second, the controller design was misleading; due to the nature of accelerometers, most (if not all) testers didn’t realize they needed to adjust the tilt of the controller but instead looked for possible buttons on the design. With one week left, we refined these elements, achieving the desired outcome during our classroom presentation.

Conclusion

Overall, this was a highly successful project. The process of going from concept to execution brought novelty and a sense of accomplishment, making it a rare and valuable experience. Despite occasional clashes in ideas, working with my partner Lea led to satisfying results. I feel fortunate to have had such a harmonious and understanding collaboration.

Disassembly

Coding

#include <Wire.h>

#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>

#include <Adafruit_SSD1306.h>

#include <Servo.h>

#define SCREEN_WIDTH 128

#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 64

#define BUTTON_PIN 2

Adafruit_SSD1306 display(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, &Wire, -1);

Servo servo;

Servo servo1;

int xValue;

int yValue;

int mapMin = 0;

int mapMax = 210;

String speedMessage;

void setup() {

servo.attach(9);

servo1.attach(10);

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);

if (!display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3C)) {

Serial.println(F("SSD1306 allocation failed"));

for (;;);

}

display.setTextSize(1);

display.setTextColor(WHITE);

display.setCursor(0, 10);

display.println("Press the button to enjoy the expedition");

display.display();

}

void loop() {

xValue = analogRead(A0);

yValue = analogRead(A1);

xValue = constrain(map(xValue, 210, 290, mapMin, mapMax), mapMin, mapMax);

yValue = constrain(map(yValue, 210, 290, mapMin, mapMax), mapMin, mapMax);

int servo1angle = map(yValue, mapMin, mapMax, 0, 180);

servo1.write(servo1angle);

if (xValue <= 30) {

speedMessage = "HIGHEST SPEED";

servo.write(84);

} else if (xValue <= 60) {

speedMessage = "MEDIUM SPEED";

servo.write(86);

} else if (xValue <= 90) {

speedMessage = "LOWEST SPEED";

}else if(xValue <=120){

speedMessage = "LOWEST SPEED";

}else if(xValue <=150){

speedMessage = "MEDIUM SPEED";

}else{

speedMessage = "HIGHEST SPEED";}

}

TestVideos

Here are videos showing completed project

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