Wow... 5 gumstix? That sounds like massive tech overkill! Not to mention very expensive!
MAKE: has a you-solder-it simon-game kit that (with room to spare) fits on a CD-shaped circuit board. The lights are LED's, the switches are microswitches. The trick then becomes connecting the remote sensing and output devices (the skulls) to the input and output of the game core. So, the wand: A magic wand with a simple IR emitter in the end. The wand is hollow. It contains a steel ball bearing or cylinder. Waving the wand (flicking the wand) causes the ball / cylinder to slide from the middle to the end of the wand. The ball strikes a microswitch in the end of the wand (or simply creates a circuit between two contacts inside the wand) -- this triggers an IR emitter to send a burst--and could also trigger any special effects built into the wand itself (light, sounds, electric shocks...) The wand is therfore directional, *requires* flicking, and has as much range as you need it to have. The skulls don't need to be very smart, they just need a simple circuit that detects the IR burst from the wand (doesn't even need to be coded, though it cold be), and outputs a coded IR burst that the game core receives. THen it needs to be able to detect an RF tansmission from the game core to light up the lights. The IR detector can be very discreetly hidden in the eye-sockets. Both the MAKE: Store and SparkFun offer an assortment of microcontrollers, IR, and RF parts, and you-name-it. This seems like something that the folks who's projects I read about in the MAKE: Blog feed could spec out easily. I'm just guessing. Also, the fine folks at SparkFun might be able to offer suggestions on how to do this simply and efficiently. MAKE: Blog http://www.makezine.com/blog/ MAKE: Store, game kit ($40) http://store.makezine.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKGAMEKIT SparkFun Electronics http://www.sparkfun.com SparkFun RF Link - 2400bps - 315MHz http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=7813 It sounds like it will be a really cool project when it's done! ~~James http://www.turtlezero.com (JA-86) On 12/6/06, Giles Bowkett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Friamers -- I have something I need help with. > > I want to build a version of the 80s toy "Simon" in the form of a 20' > ring of four skulls. > > Simon was a small handheld toy which had four buttons. Lights beneath > the buttons would flash in a particular sequence, the player would > press the buttons to copy that sequence, and if the player keyed in > the sequence correctly, the player won the round, and Simon would > start again with a faster, more complex sequence. > > In this implementation, each skull's eyes light up, and the skulls use > Gumstix boxes (gumstix.org) with WiFi to coordinate the sequences of > their flashes. The user runs from skull to skull carrying a wand, > which contains either a fifth Gumstix or maybe a simple Bluetooth > device, and the wand, by proximity to a given skull, triggers that > skull to flash. Waving the wand at a given skull is therefore > equivalent to pressing a particular button. Strictly speaking, waving > the wand is not necessary, you just have to get it close to the skull, > but the wand will be decorated and waving it will be encouraged. > > I should point out that these would in fact be animal skulls from > Jackalope on Cerrillos, not human skulls. > > The goal here is basically an interactive art installation which is at > once terrifying, silly, grotesque, and fun. > > The problem is, although software to trigger flashing lights in > aribtrary sequences is obviously pretty easy to write, and Gumstix > makes the hardware part easy too, I haven't figured out how the "magic > wand" part will work. I really know absolutely nothing about how to > solve this kind of problem; I don't even know whether WiFi or > Bluetooth would make more sense for this. > > The ideal solution would be something incredibly simple, where a skull > would only become alerted to the wand's existence if the wand was in a > particular range of X feet, with X ideally being a small number like > 5, and further, where the wand's signal could only be picked up by any > one skull at a time. One suggestion I've gotten is to use a TV remote > inside the wand, and add remote sensors to each skull, but I think > more elegant solutions are possible. I just don't know what they might > be. > > -- > Giles Bowkett > http://www.gilesgoatboy.org > http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com > http://gilesgoatboy.blogspot.com > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > -- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
