Team Dinner with Rich's Family

Today Rich invited the team over to his parents' house in Moon Township. We were still a bit exhausted from our trip to Florida so we were more than happy to have a home cooked meal.

Rich's parents are really nice and so thoughtful. They cooked us hot dogs and hamburgers and even made sure to have plenty of vegetarian stuff for Karin & Anuja. Everything was delicious, and dessert was incredible. We had ice cream with a sauce that had strawberries, peaches, and other fruits mixed in. Rich's mom is an excellent chef and we must know the recipes. His dad is great at the grill too. Their dog was so adorable too!

We really thank Mr. & Mrs. Marmura for having us over. We enjoyed it so much and hope to see them again soon!

Disney World!

Today we had the chance to go to Disney World. Tracy, Rich & Rob's friend from Walt Disney Imagineering over the summer, was able to get the team into the Magic Kingdom for free. Brendan & Anuja had never gone so it was a great opportunity to finally get them introduced to the wonders of Disney in Florida. We went on just about every major attraction (expect Splash Mountain because we didn't want to be soaking wet on our way back home). We had tons of fun!



And as a side story, as we were walking back to our rental car that day, we couldn't tell which one was ours. We pressed the unlock button a few times and then saw a minivan's lights flash so we went over and got it. However, we soon realized this didn't exactly look like our car, and we saw a family staring at us. We quickly hopped out and apologized! I swear we're not car thiefs! Honest!

We're all back in Pittsburgh now and ready to relax. Well, at least for a week, anyway. We're all over the place nowadays!

GKTW Visit!

Today we went to Give Kids the World Village. We were given a tour by Kathy Aubruner, who is my main contact person for GKTW. We had breakfast and then were given a tour of the village.

We were all amazed at all the things they have there. It has its own miniature golf course with dinosaurs that spit water at you, it has its own train set with different areas you can light up, it has a clown that eats paper, an all-you-can-eat ice cream parlor, and much more!

We were shown some of the old ETC projects for GKTW as well. We saw The Big Surprise, a 4d animated movie created by ETC students that is shown in their movie theater. Some of the effects weren't working, and Evan & Brendan fixed a couple of them while we were there. Hopefully we can fix the rest of them as well.

We also went to the Castle of Miracles. Here they have an Animateering kiosk (similar to the one at the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh, it lets kids puppet 3D models), as well as a Project ER kiosk (which has children paint and then animate pictures, among other activites), and the Star Fairy project, which takes wish child's stars and helps store their pictures and location of their star on the ceiling electronically. The Project ER kiosk unfortunately was not operating, and the Star Fairy kiosk seemed to have some issues with registering the stars. Hopefully we can help fix these bugs.

We also finally got to see the current pillow machine in person. We found it to be exactly as it was explained to us: big, bright, loud, and scary. It doesn't even make much sense. How does doing the chicken dance with Elmo help make your pillow? We're hoping to make a much better job so this machine can have a nice retirement.

We then presented our five concepts to the representatives of GKTW. They seemed to like all of them, but when pressed, they were split between our Pillow Tree and Rusty's Machine concepts. They seemed to like the aesthetics of the tree and a lot of the interactions for Rusty's Machine. We're going to go back and refine these ideas, as well as try to find a way to combine the two.

We also learned that each pillow is now going to have a GKTW tag sewn onto them in a random spot, and that the child will deposit this tag at the beginning of the experience. We need to now incorporate this into our plans. It's a really novel concept and makes the child believe more that he or she created the pillow.

We hung out at Downtown Disney at night. We had a team dinner at the House of Blues. It was a nice way of relaxing after visiting GKTW and a way of talking to each other about our plan.

In general, we had a great time visiting GKTW. At the same time, we also know that now we have to do a great job. All the people down there are so nice and so willing to take time out of their schedule to help us and to help the children. Kathy is so much like a mom to us, except she keeps wanting us to eat ice cream. We don't want to let anyone down with this project.

On another note, we're actually going to be down in Florida again in under two weeks. We'll be representing the ETC at the SATE Conference, which was created by the Themed Entertainment Association. SATE stands for Story, Architecture, Technology, and Experience. This conference concludes with a trip to GKTW, which the ETC is sponsoring and we're going to help guide. We're also going to be going on a cruise the weekend before (which the ETC is also sponsoring), so this month is going to be pretty hectic!

About to go to Florida and meet GKTW

Tomorrow we're heading down to Orlando to meet with Give Kids the World. We've printed out all of our concept art and our treatments, and hopefully they'll give us some good feedback. We're going to put it on poster boards when we get down there. We're pretty excited, but pretty nervous too. We also might be going to Walt Disney World too! Brendan & Anuja have never been there, so hopefully they'll get an opportunity to experience it. Oh well, time to go! Wish us luck!

Also, Anuja's back from Japan! We're a family again!

1/4 Presentations and Walkarounds

We have our 1/4 presentations and walkarounds today. We think it went off pretty well. The faculty and students seemed to understand what we were doing and provided some very good feedback. Something mentioned that we found very important was remembering to concentrate on what this experience means to the child. The pillow means a lot to them and thus the experience needs to be focused on making sure that they believe that they made the pillows themselves.

We wish to thank all of those who gave us feedback and we hope that you continue to do so! We really appreciate it!

For those who couldn't catch the presentation, you can watch the stream at:

http://tinyurl.com/yuv29l

Or, you can download it at:

http://tinyurl.com/2xn89k

Thank you once again and we hope to keep up the good work!

Randy Pausch: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Today we attended a lecture by Randy Pausch entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". Randy was one of the co-creators of the Entertainment Technology Center. Unfortunately, he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only has a few months left to live. This was part of Carnegie Mellon's "last lecture" series, in which a professor is given one last lecture to reflect back on their experiences.

Randy has done a lot in his lifetime. He talked about all of his lifelong dreams and he achieved quite a few of them. He got to go up in the air with NASA, he was an Imagineer with Disney, and he established the ETC with Don Marinelli, among many other things. He has done so many great things with the short time that he has had.

He brought up a very valuable lesson too:

"It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."

Unfortunately none of us were taught by Randy while he was at the ETC, but he has inspired us in so many ways. We are grateful for all the work that he has done for the ETC (and for the world in general), and we will miss him.

1/4 Presentations Coming Soon

We have our 1/4 presentation on Wednesday at 2:30 PM ET. We'll be the 4th group going. Be sure to check it out! The link is at:

mms://broadwave.etc.cmu.edu/live

Anuja is going to miss our presentation because she is going to the Tokyo Game Show in Japan. We hope she has a great time there and we hope she gets back safe and sound!

PGH Children's Museum

Today we took a field trip to the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh. We thought that it would be a good idea to get a feel of what current installations exist that cater to children and how they are designed. It was also a great way of finding out how children react to these exhibits so we know how we should design ours.

There were a lot of neat exhibits there, including a whole area dedicated to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, which was filmed right here in Pittsburgh. They had all the memorable parts from the show including all of his puppets, the trolley, even an area where you could try on his sweaters and shoes!

They also had a display with a weird sort of xylophone. To use it, you place wooden balls on different colored dots. A different color represented a different note, and each row represented a different time. So you could place all of these balls down and then turn a crank and create your own song. It was a nice little interaction that kids had fun with (and we did too!).

They had many other interactive displays too, including pepper's ghost effects, magnetic spinning fields, balancing letters on your shadow, connecting tubes to make water flow through, crazy contraptions that involve pulling a ball up on a pulley system and then watching ti go down different tubes, creating your own paper out of goo, and many more exhibits that are too many to list! They also had an Animateering kiosk that was created by one of the past ETC groups.

In general we had a blast. We're all children at heart, and it was amazing to go and see what kind of fun you can have by just having simple displays that can stimulate your mind. It's also important to note that some of these exhibits did not require a lot of interactivity, and sometimes just doing something simple and seeing its effect can go a long way. For example, balancing words on your shadow is not hard, but it's fun to see the different things that you can do with it.

In the same respect, we also know that we always need to look at this from a child's perspective. For example, they had artwork at a child's height so that they can appreciate it. It's important to know these subtle differences and take them into account for our project.

Concept: Pillow Tree

Theme: A Seuss-style fantasyland

User Experience

In the distance, you see an enormous tree in the corner, surrounded by a beautiful flower garden. There seems to be an aura of happiness around the tree, and the garden is full of colorful flowers, lush foliage, and full of perpetual sunlight. The tree looks different than any tree you have ever seen. There are strange colorful shapes hanging from the branches and there seems to be a magical glow around the tree. As you walk closer, you start to hear music reminiscent of lullabies. It sounds soft and soothing like chimes tinkling in wind.

Around the tree are benches where you can sit and enjoy the sights and sounds of the peaceful garden. Near some of the benches are kiosks surrounded by flowers that tell you stories of the garden. One of the flowers is currently telling the story of Miss Merry and the Garden. There are also fun activities like garden tic tac toe. In the corner is a tool shed full of clothes and garden equipment, where you can dress up and help tend the garden.

When you arrive at the tree, you see that those strange colorful shapes you saw before are actually pillows! It is a pillow tree! The tree physically starts out at the corner, and goes all the way up to the ceiling. The branches stretch outwards, and pillows hang abundantly in between the plush fronds. A small pathway leads up to the opening at the bottom of the tree. The whole tree is made out of different fabric materials. The trunk is a patchwork quilt sewn up in hues of reds and browns, while the leaves are different swatches of cloth in shades of green. Vines wind around the tree like a wiry mesh, and once in a while between those vines, you can see magical creatures pop in and out.

You decide to follow the path into the tree. Suddenly, what seems like an opening turns out to be a screen in the tree. A tiny fairy in the tree tells you, “Welcome to the Pillow Tree. Pillows that come from this tree always bring you good dreams! The first thing you need is some magical thread that was spun using the moonlight. Do you have some?”

You remember that you happened to receive some this morning! You place the magic thread in one of the tree openings, and you see it unraveling in the place where the creature was. Looking a little closer, you see that the thread is unraveling in a tiny fairy world. They are using different objects like thimbles to sit on and the grass is taller than them!

The fairy you then asks for your help in growing the pillow. She says, “You need to first sew up the pillow with the thread you gave me. Use the magic wand to sew up the edges”. You pick up the wand, use it to start drawing on the pillow in a sewing motion.

When your pillow is sewn together, the fairy then tells you, “Next you need use the cloud catcher to gather clouds to fill your pillow.” You use your stylus wand to circle the clouds on the screen like a lasso to fill your pillow. You can see your pillow getting fluffier.

The fairy then says, “You’re almost done! You just have to make your pillow grow by watering it with the droplets of morning dew.” You use the stylus wand to now to search through the grass for these water droplets. The watering can in the corner of the screen fills up with water. When it fills up, you water the plants, and the pillow grows to human size.

When you are done, the fairy tells you, “Great job! You just grew your very own pillow of sweet dreams!” The pillow tumbles out of bottom of the tree trunk. You collect it and walk away happy.

The Story of the Garden

A long time ago, Miss Merry wanted to plant a garden for all the children of Give Kids the World Village to enjoy. For two whole months, Miss Merry worked and worked, but for some reason nothing seemed to grow. Though the garden stayed barren, Miss Merry did not give up. Then one day, the Star Fairy fluttered over. She saw that Miss Merry had been working so hard, so she said, “Miss Merry, you’ve been working so hard all day! Use my magical pillow to take a break for a few minutes. It’s so comfortable.” Miss Merry thought a few minutes couldn’t hurt, so laid her head down on the pillow, and immediately fell asleep. At night, while Miss Merry slept, the Star Fairy and her friends came and sprinkled magical dust all over the garden, bringing all the inanimate objects to life. The pillow Miss Merry was sleeping on sunk into the ground, and sprouted a huge pillow tree. The needle, thread, and bobbin from Miss Merry’s sewing kit danced through the dirt, and out came a patchwork garden. The next morning when Miss Merry work up, the garden was full of vibrant and colorful flowers and behind her was the large pillow tree. Surprised, Miss Merry asked the Star Fairy what had happened. The Star Fairy told her, “You’ve been working so hard on the garden, so we fairies wanted to help! The tree you see here is special. It’s the pillow tree of sweet dreams. It’s watered by the morning dew, is sewn up with the threads from the moonshine, fills its pillows with stuffing from the clouds, and grows with love from you and all of the children here at the village.” Ecstatic, Miss Merry cried out, “Thank you!” Her garden was now complete, and she couldn’t wait for the children at the village to visit her garden. To this day, in the very same spot you are standing now, the pillow tree still stands in the Castle of Miracles, making pillows full of sweet dreams for children everywhere.

Location Treatment

Much of this exhibit is technologically simple. The main attraction of the exhibit is the pillow tree. There are several video screens and one touch screen with stylus (similar to the Nintendo DS but larger) located in between the branches connected to a central processing unit located on the back half of the base of the tree. Inside the tree is also a small pillow vending machine located in the front half of the tree. The pillow is released at the base of the front half of the tree. The CPU or the vending machine to refill the pillows can be accessed from the back of the tree. The game is started when the player inserts the spool of thread into a box inside the tree. The spool has an RFID tag, and the box has an RFID reader connected to the CPU. Both strobe lights and floor lights are used to accent the flowers and the trees. Two small kiosks with a video screen, cpu, and a button are located in the garden. When the button on the kiosk is pressed, a story about the Pillow Tree or the garden is told. Speakers are strategically placed around the garden to create appropriate directional sounds and background garden ambience.

Game Design

The Pillow Tree mini-games are centered around the idea of pollination. The child has to go through three steps – sewing the pillow, filling the pillow, and growing the pillow to receive a pillow of their own. Although these experiences are given the name “games”, every child “wins” a pillow every single time. The main platform of these mini-games is a touch screen with a stylus disguised as a wand. The design of the mini-games are similar to Wario-Ware – extremely short and simple interactions.

Mini-Game 1: Sewing the Pillow

The first interaction of the game is to sew the pillow together. The player must use the stylus to follow lines on the pillow. These lines signify seams, and as the player draws on the line, an animation showing the sewing of the pillow will occur.

Mini-Game 2: Filling the Pillow

The second interaction in the game is to fill the pillow with clouds. The player must collect clouds by circling them with a “lasso”. They must catch three moving clouds to fill the pillow, and then they must drag it back to the pillow. The pillow will get bigger as they fill it. If they are unable to do so after 30 seconds, the computer will subtly help them by allowing the player to simply touch the cloud to fill the pillow and the player will progressively need to collect less clouds to complete the game.

Mini-Game 3: Growing the Pillow

The third interaction is to grow the pillow. This game is similar to a hide and seek game. The player must search for water droplets located on the screen and click on them to fill a watering can placed on the right hand side of the screen. The can will fill after the player has found 5 water droplets, and a small animation will play to show the watering can watering the pillow. Another animation will follow showing the pillow growing to life size. Similar to mini-game 2, the longer the player takes to find the water droplets, the easier it will become to fill the watering can (i.e. the player will only need to find 3 instead of 5 droplets).

Concept: Rusty's Machine

- Themes: Dichotomy of hard and soft; mechanics of dreams

User Experience

As you travel through the Castle of Miracles, every now and then you hear a loud clanging sound. It’s not annoying, and the sound is almost melodic in a way, like a xylophone made out of garbage cans. Curious, you try to find its source.

Rounding a corner, you find yourself at the castle forge. There is a colorful mess of wood, metal, and rope, and it looks as if Rusty has been hard at work in creating tiaras and necklaces for the princesses, and suits of armor for the knights of the castle. In the center of it all, there is an enormous machine that looks like its right out of Leonardo DaVinci’s Notebook. The machine looks like half of it is a big wooden loom, and the other half of it belongs in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory.

Looking to your left, you see a sign that Rusty has made. Rusty explains that he has been trying to build a machine that makes pillows! Rusty also apologizes for all the noise that he’s making, but explains that as a man who spends his days in hard metal, he desperately longs to create soft, comforting things. He’s decided to make pillows, and can use your help. He’s left helpful notes around the machine to let you know what to do at each station.

Intrigued you, walk up the machine, and are greeted with the “Happiness Collector 5000”. It looks like a crystal heart connected to a large series vacuum tubes and lights. Rusty has left you a note reading, “All pillows need a little bit of happiness to make sure your dreams stay happy too”. The “Happiness Collector 5000” also has instructions printed on it that say, “Just grab hold and think of something happy and fun. We’ll do the rest”. You grab hold of the heart. It slowly begins to glow, vibrate and warm up. The tubes connected to it begin to light up and bubble. The liquid inside them changes color too! After a few seconds a bell goes off. You have collected enough happiness.

The now filled liquids empty into a second transport tube. You follow the flow of the happiness to a Flintstone-like conveyer belt you can see through a window in the machine. You see something inside, and hurry over to it. It’s an un-inflated bag attached to a bellow. The sign over the window says that this station is to convert the happiness into pillow fluff. There is a wheel of commands, much like you would find on the bridge of a ship. The arrow on it turns to point to “push”. Looking at the inputs in front of you, you spy a large accordion bellows. As you push in on the bellows, you see the pillow filling up with the happiness you collected. It looks like a cotton candy machine in motion. Now, the ship’s wheel says, “spin”. As you spin the comically large wheel, you see the pillow inflate even further as a hose connects to it, adding in the extra softness.

You now have the basics of a pillow in front of you. The machine asks you to put your tag in the tag into a slot. You go to put in your tag when the machine automatically sucks it up! In the window you can see an arm grab your tag, and place it on top of the pillow. All of a sudden, the pillow begins to glow, and in a flash of light, the tag disappears, but the pillow stays slightly glowing.

The last step is to choose the type of pillow that you will receive. Below the window are three giant buttons that say ‘knight’ ‘princess’ and ‘jester’.

The final commands appear on the wheel. Pull has you pulling a chain; spin has you spin as many knobs as you can; and slide has you adjusting all the levels. As you do this, pipes full of different color start spraying your pillow. They make such a mess that the window of the furnace gets covers up in paint. Eventually the chaos stops, and the window opens up, some steam seeps out, and inside is your pillow!

The chaos stops, and a small wiper cleans away the color, and inside you see your pillow. It is now nicely decorated! It slides out of frame, to a big metal door. You run over to it, and open it up. You now have a pillow. Thanks Rusty!

Location Treatment

Rusty’s Machine is comprised of 2 major components; the “power plant” section, the “Conveyor Belt” section. All of these components of the machine are free standing.

The architecture of the system is based off of 1 computer. This computer acts as system control and manages communication, and the exhibit’s audio and lighting via DMX. The computer handles the input and feedback of the Happiness Intake and all the input devices via a Phidget board. The computer also runs the screen/window on the conveyor belt section of the exhibit.

The window is actually a large monitor / flat TV that is mounted to the wall, and framed to look like a window. It is connected to a computer housed in the base of the machine. This monitor is built into a hinged window system that will open up, to reveal the tangible pillow behind it. The on-screen pillow and environment will be modeled to look exactly like that inside the machine.

The Happiness Intake is a conductive metal surface that is themed. It simply tells the main computer whether or not it is being touched. While it is touched, the computer ramps up lights in and around the input device, along with audio effects, shakers, and heat. The bubble tubes are enclosed containers with air jets inside of them that are activated by the computer.

The Tag Suction component is built just like the Clown Suction outside the Ginger Bread House. There will be a basket at the bottom of the machine to hold the tags for easy retrieval.

The conveyor belt section is a “window”, which is a monitor. The graphics on this monitor are activated by the main system. Each input device operates on a phidget connected to the final computer. The final station, with the multiple inputs, is simply keyed lighting by the final computer. When the final hatch opens up, two water misters create a smoke simulation.

The main computer manages the final exit of a tangible pillow and its retrieval.

The estimated cost to create this treatment can be broken up as followed:

• Estimated cost of computer with video/5.1 audio card and monitor, controls entire show ($700)
• Estimated cost of 5.1 audio speakers for monitor, as well as hidden in branches above ($100)
• Estimated cost of fiber optics ($200)
• Estimated cost of lighting (~$2.5K)
• Estimated cost of voltage (capacitive/resistant) sensor ($20)/shaker ($100)/heater (induction coil) (4 at $15) (DMX) for heart button ($400)
• Estimated cost of back-lit lights for buttons (EL wire) ($15), DC power ($100), can switch with DMX ($400)
• Estimated cost of 3 touch sensors for buttons (knight/princess/jester) ($15 each)
• Estimated cost of crazy input devices (~$200)
• Estimated cost of circuit switch ($10) & voltage sensor for bellows (~$40)
• Estimated cost of phidget I/O board ($100)
• Estimated cost of water mister (~$25)
• Estimated cost of DMX water valve (~$30) + ($400)
• Estimated cost of electric motor (DMX) (~$100) + ($400)
• Estimated cost of 6 dimmer packs (~$150 each)
• Estimated cost of physical input devices ($500)
• Estimated cost of construction materials (~$10K)

Total Estimate: 17,345

Game Design

The goal of Rusty’s machine is present the guests with a fun, yet simple and always winnable game experience. The aim is for everyone to win a pillow while having fun, not necessarily to have a reward-through-challenge experience.

A key function for all of these activities is that they all must complete themselves on their own, after a time delay, if no interaction happens. This will account for worst-case guests that cannot play the games, but will value the experience.

First and foremost, the entire machine must be appealing, and draw guests to it. Its large, whimsical construction will be a focal point of the room. This visual draw, coupled with the “metallic xylophone” sounds that it makes should be enough impetus to draw guests to it.

The second consideration is flow. The experience is comprised of discrete action stations (each taking no longer than 30 seconds to complete). It is important for the entire experience to exude a sense of flow from one end of the other to encourage guests to quickly traverse the experience. Between each station, there will be a thematic flow element such as internal lights or music that leads them on. For example, from the Happiness Intake to the conveyor belt, will be piping in which colored liquid will flow from the user to the next station.

The first interaction is simply a ‘touch the object’ station. When that object is touched for a length of time (5 seconds or so), the guest is presented with a series of visual and audio feedback cues, both in the object, and the environment.

The next series of interactions are very tactile. The user has to use their hands to move various objects to simulate filling the pillow. They will push on the handle of the bellows, turn the handle of the wheel, and pull on various levers made of ropes or ropes. There is also a hole that suctions in objects; in this instance, the tag the child receives when arriving at the village.

Once this is done, they are presented with graphical feedback of their pillow being made. The child will watch their pillow being converted from a white pillow to a colorful pillow, and then they will open up a hatch that will reveal the pillow inside of a box.

Concept: Washing Machine

User Experience:

When you first check into the Give Kids the World Village, you’re given a bar of soap (or scrub brush). You are told that this bar of soap is very important in helping out the Washing Machine. You are told to hold onto it, and help out the Washing Machine in the Castle of Miracles when you have time.

You enter the Castle, and next to the Wishing Well, find a giant Washing Machine! You walk up to the Washing Machine, and the Soap Suds appear through the glass on the inside of the Washing Machine. They greet you and say:

“Hello (child’s name)! We run this Washing Machine and Dryer. We get freshly created pillows which are nice and fluffy. However, they have the capacity to hold both dreams and nightmares in them. We take these pillows and scrub them clean of the nightmares so that everyone can have a pleasant night’s sleep. We’ve been working extra hard.. but we can always use some more help. Can you help us out? We see that you have a bar of soap! If you scrub it up against the pillows, it will help us get rid of the nightmares, and then everyone can have sweet dreams! Please help us!”

“OK”! you answer. The Soap Suds let you know that they are going to start sending pillows into the machine. They ask you to scrub the pillows that float by through the glass window of the Washing Machine. The Soap Suds move out of the way, and pillows begin to float by. Taking your bar of soap, you press it to the glass, and begin to scrub. As you scrub each pillow, its colors become more vibrant and brighter, and the pillows become covered in Soap Suds. Once you scrub each pillow enough, it begins to simmer and glow. When you have cleaned all the pillows in the machine, the Soap Suds appear on the screen again and say:

“Thank you so much! Oh dear, the pillows seem to be filled with bubbles now, and this water is filled with soap. We don’t want people’s heads getting filled with bubbles! We want them filled with dreams! Use the water hoses on the side to help us clean off the pillows with water. We need those pillows rinsed out! Please help us!”

You then pick up one of the water hoses on the side of the Washing Machine. You aim it at the pillows on the screen and fire. You see a stream of water spray into the Washing Machine in front of your hose. As you spray off each pillow, the bubbles around it come off, and the pillow begins to float to the top of the machine. Once all the pillows are at the top of the machines, the Soap Suds appear on the screen again and say:

“Oh thank you so much! But, now the pillows are all wet! We can’t have people sleeping on wet pillows! Their dreams might become too soggy! We’ll place them in the Dryer. Can you please pull the lever to let the sun’s rays in, and then turn the wheel to make sure that our Dryer absorbs the nice warm rays that the sun is shining down?”

Before your eyes, you see all the water drain out of the Washing Machine, and the pillows fall to the bottom of the machine. At the same time, you see the water and the pillows pass through a clear tube into the Dryer. You walk over to the Dryer and you pull the lever. The sun appears up above. You turn the wheel and the Dryer starts to rumble, as the rays shine down onto the Dryer, drying all the pillows. You hear a “ding” and the Dryer stops rumbling. You hear the voices of the Soap Suds one last time as they say:

“Oh thank you so much for helping us out! The pillows are now all clean and filled with nothing but sweet dreams. Because you helped us out, we have a little present for you. Here is one of the pillows you helped us clean, and it will give you nothing but sweet dreams. It is in the Dryer. Please open the door and take it. We hope that you like it!”

You go over to the side of the Dryer and open the door. You look inside and find a clean pillow. You take the pillow out and close the door. You are then free to take the pillow back with you. The soap (or brush) is a gift as well.

Location Treatment:

The location will be themed similar to a laundry room. There will be a “Washing Machine” that is designed to look as if it were from the future, but still a Washing Machine from the outside. Inside will be a computer with speakers and a large touch screen monitor in which only a circular portion of the screen can be seen, while the rest is covered by the Washing Machine’s facade. There will also be two water hoses attached to the front of the Washing Machine for the rinsing game. These water hoses should have emitters that can be detected by the touch screen, as well as accelerometers in order to indicate the direction of the water hose. There will be flashing lights and dials on the Washing Machine as well to indicate that the child is performing these actions correctly.

To the right of the Washing Machine is a Dryer. The front will be a solid chamber with two flashing lights when it is “operating”. There is also a lever and a wheel on the front. On the top there will be four triangular panels that protrude, along with a cylinder to represent the sun ray absorber. These should be able to rise up mechanically based on lever operation. There will be a door to the Dryer on the side that will dispense the pillow when the game is complete. Inside the Dryer is a mechanism for dispensing the pillows so that only one is shown at a time. Once the door closes, another pillow should drop into place. There should also be a “trap door” in order to refill the pillows after each day, without being visible to a guest.

There will also be a round dome above that contains the “sun”. In reality this should only be a color changing light trapped around a refracting dome that will enclose it and make it seem larger than it actually is. There will also be a box around this that will “hide” the sun when someone is not operating the Dryer, as well as keep the light from being seen. The lever makes this box slide apart, as well as turn on the light for the sun. The wheel activates the rumbling portion of the Dryer, which will be blasted out of speakers inside the Dryer, and possibly make use of shakers inside the machine. It should also undo the lock to the door on the side of the Dryer.

The soap will have an RFID tag inside of it. The computer should also have an RFID reader that will make the touch screen activate when the child is close enough.

The entire structure is able to be moved easily, as it essentially three different, separate structures. It can also be moved outside with the dome area removed in order to use the real sun instead of the artificial one.

Game Design:

Part 1: Scrubbing

There is a circular touch screen on the Washing Machine. Displayed on this touch screen there will be pillows floating around. Each of these pillows will be filled with both dreams and nightmares. The objective is to “clean” the pillows of nightmares. To do this, kids will have to use their bar of soap to “scrub” the pillows. The pillows will initially be a rather dirty and drab color with art showing that the pillow is filled with both types. When a child rubs the bar of soap over a pillow, a scrubbing sound should be played as well as suds appearing over the pillow. It is important that the bar of soap is physically against the screen so the touch screen registers. The pillow should become brighter and you should see “nightmares” being released form the pillows into the wash where they moan and disappear. It should take the soap rubbing up against the pillow 3 times in order to make it clean.

Part 2: Rinsing

The pillows will be all covered in suds. Guests must take a water hose and aim it at the pillows. Each time they fire the water at a pillow, there is a splash sound and a water graphic splashes over the pillows and a little bit of the suds will come off. Children will continue to do this until the pillows are completely free of suds.

Part 3: Drying

In the Dryer guests must first pull the lever for the sun dome to open. Once this occurs the sun’s rays will shine. The children must then use the wheels to help guide the rays into the Dryer. Once the rays are aimed at a pillow it will begin drying (rumbling) until it is completely dry.

Each of these games will have a sound and/or visual clue to notify a child when a pillow is done being scrubbed, rinsed, or dried, in order to make the child know when he or she is done and can move onto the next pillow or game. The number of pillows in both the scrubbing and rinsing stages will also be the same. Each game will take around a minute to complete

If a child is unable to complete a part of the game, the “Soap Suds” will finish the task themselves and tell the child that without their help they couldn’t have done the job. In no way will not completing one part of the game prevent a child from receiving a pillow.

Concept: Wizard's Tower

User Experience

You are walking through the castle, when you start to hear some strange incantations and music in the distance. A few seconds later, you hear a thunderous explosion, followed by lots of giggling. Now curious, you walk towards the sounds, and when you turn the corner, you find that you are in a wizard’s lab! There are shelves full of strange bottles and tubes, wardrobes full of magical items, alchemy tables, and manner of strange things. There are some bottles full of brightly colored liquids of all kinds, some bubbling, while other bottles have objects in them, such as toads, cotton candy, marbles, etc. In the center of the room is a large, ornate box. It is decorated as if it were part of a traveling show, and its stacked on top of a series of shipping crates. It must have just arrived. As you make your way to the center of the room, you see a closet full of wizard robes and hats. You decide to put one on before walking the rest of the way to the box.

As you go to look inside, you hear a tiny voice from behind you. You turn around and you see a mouse hole. Out of it comes a small mouse dressed in wizard robes. He tells you, “Hi! I’m Kip, Pip’s cousin! I’m a wizard and I’m trying to make a potion to create a dream pillow, to guarantee everyone who uses it sweet dreams! I can’t do it alone though. Will you help me?”

Intrigued, you say, “Of course!” Kip replies, “Oh, thank you! Let’s get started. First you’ll have to identify yourself. Are you a knight or a princess? If you are a knight, place your hand on the blue sword. If you are a princess, place your hands on the pink tiara.” You (being a girl), answer princess, and touch the lighted tiara next to the box. Kip responds, “Excellent. Lovely to meet you princess!

“The best way to conjure up a sweet dream is to combine Love, Happiness, Hope, Dreams. Around my tower, there are different objects that you can use to capture these feelings. I’ll light up each one I need you to go to…” Kip says. And with that, Kip, runs back into his mouse hole. You turn around and see the wardrobe light up behind you, and you run on over.

Reaching the wardrobe, you see Kip crawl out of another mouse hole on a shelf. He tells you that the largest vial here, shaped like a heart, represents love. Kip tells you to place your hands on it, and think of someone you love. Doing this, the bottle starts to glow and pulse, like heat beat. The heart beat sound fills the room. It fills up, and Kip lets you know that you have added love to the spell, and to follow him as he runs to another part of the room.

You follow him to another station, and repeat the process, adding Happiness, Hope, or Dreams. At each station, you add another element to the mix, and as you do this, the sound from that object adds its own sound component to the musical mix of the room. Once this is done, you are then asked to visit the last part of the room, featuring a giant mirror. Kip asks you to look into it, and think of one final wish you want to add to it, for your self. As you do this, before your eyes you see your image in the mirror start to grow and glow!

“That’s it!” exclaims Kip. “All the elements of the spell have been added. Meet me back at the magic box, and I’ll try to summon your pillow.” You race back to the magic box.

Kip reappears out of his magic hole by the box. The lights dim, the music rises, and Kip begins to cast the spell. The music reaches a climax, and Poof! In a puff of smoke, a pillow appears in the box! Kip cheers, and thanks you for your help making the pillow. He tells you to take it, and to have sweet dreams.

Location Treatment

The location is themed like a wizard’s lab, and all of the props are completely movable and removable from the space. There is a stack of boxes in the middle of the space. The inside of the box is a small stage that performs with light and music. The interior of the box, and stack of crates it rests upon, houses the pillow delivery system, and a dark box to perform a Pepper’s Ghost illusion.

Around the room are furniture items and decorations with different objects that light up. These objects are themed to be relevant to the area of the room they are in (bottle, book, etc). They are filled with water and metallic-colored confetti. Each object, when touched, triggers an on-screen animation of Kip, and the appropriate sound played in the room. All of the touchable objects and the magic box are connected to a centralized computer that also plays the music. Each location also contains a screen in which to display Kip running in and out of his mouse holes around the exhibit.

Game Design

In this multi-sensory experience, the player will be guided through three activities, of a possible 5. The player must go through each of the three activities to receive the pillow. The activities are randomly chosen to create a replay value between families. In each activity, the player will be asked to make a wish about love, happiness, hope, dreams, and themselves – all ingredients to make a pillow of good dreams. In addition to the themes of each activity, they are also designed to evoke strong sensory emotions through touch, sound, and vision. The entire experience should take about 2-3 minutes.

For example purposes, the following descriptions place the 5 touchable objects as bottles, but they can be made into other things, and located around the room further

Part One: Love
Around the cauldron are five pillars with five bottles on it. The first is bottle lights up and glows pink. You see small shiny hearts flying around inside the bottle. This (and all the other bottles) look similar to a snow globe. Pip comes out of his mouse hole and tells you, “The first thing that is in any magical pillow is love. Put your hands on this bottle, close your eyes, and silently make a wish for someone you love. The player closes their eyes, touches the bottle. The bottle feels fuzzy and soft, and music full of love starts to play. It’s a rich violin that slowly and melodically plays. They also hear drums that sound like a heartbeat. When the music starts, and the player has made their wish, they’ll see that there is pink water spewing in the cauldron in the shape of a heart. A few seconds later, the bottle stops glowing and feels cool to the touch, and the second bottle lights up.

Part Two: Happiness
The second bottle is happiness. This bottle glows green and sparkles swirls around inside. The green symbolizes peace, calmness, and comfort. For happiness, Kip tells you, “Good dreams are full of happiness. Put your hands on the bottle, and make a wish about something that makes you happy.” When you place your hands on the bottle, the bottle feels a little bumpy. Then it starts to shake a little, and the tickling sensation makes you laugh. A flute plays cheerful and fast-paced music in the background. Simultaneously in the cauldron, the liquid starts to bubble furiously, and is now green. A few seconds later, the bottle stops moving and glowing, and the third bottle lights up.

Part Three: Dreams
This third bottle is dreams. The bottle glows a dark blue, and silvery streamers blow inside the bottle. The blue is symbolic of the night time, and the silver of the moonlight. Kip lets you know, “This bottle is all about dreams. Put your hands on the bottle, close your eyes, and think about a dream you’d love to have.” A xylophone plays a slow lullaby in the background, and you hear the tinkling of wind chimes. The cauldron is now calm, and it sounds a bit like ocean waves. There liquid in the cauldron swirls in different patterns in tune with the music. The bottle feels smooth and slowly spins in a circular motion.

Part Four: Hope
The forth bottle is hope. This bottle lights up in yellow, because it is like sunlight, and symbolizes warmth and energy. Kip says, “Hope is one of the most important ingredients to good dreams. Make a wish about something you hope will happen in the future.” You place your hands on the bottle, and the bottle feels warm. As you start to make your wish, you notice that the bottle feels like it’s starting to get bigger. Kip tells you, “Wow! Great job! Your pillow has a lot of hope!” The guitar music in the background goes from slow to fast, and makes you feel very excited. The caldron has a fountain inside that seems to be getting higher and more intense as the bottle gets bigger.

Part Five: You!
The last bottle is about the player. This bottle shines purple, a gender neutral color that is a mix of pink and blue. Purple also symbolizes creativity, imagination, and magic, and surveys found almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colors.* When the last bottle starts to glow, Kip tells the player, “This last wish is all about you. Silently make a wish about whatever you want!” You place your hands on the bottle, and it feels squishy, a little like play-doh. The fountain leaps and jumps in different patterns in tune with the joyful and light-hearted piano music.

Why Music

“Quoted in a 2001 article in USA Today, Suzanne Hasner, chairwoman of the music therapy department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, says even those with dementia or head injuries retain musical ability.

The article reported results of an experiment in which researchers from the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, Pa., tracked 111 cancer patients who played drums for 30 minutes a day. They found strengthened immune systems and increased levels of cancer-fighting cells in many of the patients.

"Deep in our long-term memory is this rehearsed music,” Hasner says. “It is processed in the emotional part of the brain, the amygdala. Here’s where you remember the music played at your wedding, the music of your first love, that first dance. Such things can still be remembered even in people with progressive diseases. It can be a window, a way to reach them…"

The American Music Therapy Organization claims music therapy may allow for "emotional intimacy with families and caregivers, relaxation for the entire family, and meaningful time spent together in a positive, creative way".”

[Paragraph copied from: How Does Music Impact Our Emotions, Site: http://www.chordpiano.com/articles-chord-piano/music-emotions-4.htm]

Sources:
*Color Meanings
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-mean

Concept: Castle Library

User Experience

You enter the Castle of Miracles, excited to see the newly-opened Castle Library. There are a series of signs leading towards the newly opened castle library. You follow them to the library where you are immediately immersed in the stacks of books, filled with stories and tales of the castle’s rich history. Exploring the ancient tomes and richly decorated wood décor, you then notice a sign posted: “Welcome to the Castle Library! Feel free to explore and learn about tales from places all over the world!

Our newest addition, the ‘Secret of Sweet Dreams’, is located in the center of the library. However, this book has had a spell cast upon it, and we’ve been unable to unlock it. It has been foretold that only those who have a vast knowledge of the stories in this library can open the book. Only uttering the three magical phrases can unlock this book. When unlocked, this book will reveal to you the secret of sweet dreams. Please take a look around and see if you can locate the magical phrases to open the book. ”

You make your way to “The Secret of Sweet Dreams”, located in the middle of the library on a pyramid-like structure. Reaching the book, you try to open it but it just won’t budge. Looking around, you notice three large open books at the base of the library stacks, with symbols above each one. You walk over to one of the books and look inside. You read the title of the book and turn the page. The next page displays the following: “Welcome to the story of (story name). In order to read this book, you must help (main character complete his or her objective). If you are able to do so, you will be rewarded!” You turn to the next page and begin to read the story. You help the character move and perform certain tasks in the story. (See the ‘Example of an Interactive Story’ section for a possible story.) At the end, it reveals to you a symbol. This symbol could be one of the following:

• An on-screen symbol that represents a word that is told to you in both audio and textual form.
• A small physical object that is given to you in the shape of the symbol representing the story.
• Before the experience the child is given a “Castle Library Card” embedded with an RFID tag. When a story is completed, the system saves their actions to the child’s card.
Excited, you wander over to another book and read its story. At the end you get another symbol. You wander over to the last book and read its story. After finishing, you receive the final symbol. Thinking that you have figured out the magical phrase, you rush back over to”The Secret of Sweet Dreams”. In order to break the spell you do one of the following:
• Shout out the phrase based on the three on-screen symbols that you were shown
• Insert the physical objects into a slot either in the book or in the pyramid structure underneath

• A RFID sensor detects the child’s library card and begins the spell breaking when the child is near the book.

After the spell has been broken, the book starts to rumble. You start to inch closer to it. The rumbling stops and you hear a “click”. You open up the book and inside is a pillow! You take it out and close the book, knowing that you have earned the secret to sweet dreams, and have broken the magical spell.
Example of an Interactive Story

Here’s an example of a possible interactive story: Mayor Clayton Goes to the Dentist “Welcome to the story of Mayor Clayton Goes to the Dentist. In order to finish this story, please help Mayor Clayton get his teeth cleaned.” *The page turns.* “Mayor Clayton was looking in the mirror one day and noticed there was
something on one of his teeth.” *The page shows Mayor Clayton’s reflection in the mirror. If you touch the tooth, Mayor Clayton moves his arm up and rubs a finger up against it. The page turns.* “Mayor Clayton decided to go to the dentist to have it checked out.” *The page shows Mayor Clayton on a road to the dentist’s office. If you drag Mayor Clayton over to the dentist’s office, he goes inside. The page turns.* “The dentist said, ‘Oh my, Mayor Clayton, it looks like you don’t brush your teeth often enough. I’ll clean your teeth for you.’” *The page shows Mayor Clayton’s face with his teeth showing and a toothbrush off to the side, if you move the toothbrush over his teeth, the toothbrush moves up and down and the spot magically disappears. The page turns.* “Mayor Clayton said, ‘Thank you, I’ll remember to brush everyday!’ As a gift, the dentist gave Mayor Clayton a lollipop to remind him of the sweet things in life. The End” *The page shows a lollipop and the word ‘sweet’. If using a physical object, a lollipop prop gets dispensed.*


Location Treatment

There will be signs mounted on the walls of the Castle of Miracles pointing towards the library. Inside the library section will be “stacks” of books, standing out like huge pillars. These pillars should be quite tall and employ perspective tricks to create the illusion of a huge, encompassing library. They should be unevenly stacked and placed around the location. Around the stacks will be three stations, allowing multiple children to play each game at the same time. This allows for greater throughput and a longer experience. Each side contains a sign indicating a certain story and a part of the phrase that the children will need to reveal. Towards the bottom there is a touch screen placed inside the model of a book. There will be speakers embedded in each station. The touch screen and speakers will be connected to one computer which would regulate the display and receive input from the touch screens. At the center of the Library will be the Secret of Sweet Dreams tome. This big book will be on a pyramid-like structure. In actuality this book will be the physical device that dispenses and stores the pillows. The book will be capable of rumbling and emitting sound effects as well. The book will have one of the following:

• Voice sensor so that when a certain phrase is mentioned the book “opens”

• An object detector that can read in the physical symbols deposited, possibly via RFID tags

Underneath the book in the pyramid section, will be the mechanism for pushing pillows up into the book. The pyramid should also have a door for easily refilling the pillows, and should have enough of a capacity such that it should only need to be restocked once per day.
The castle library utilizes a number of off-the shelf technical solutions readily available today. Each book station uses simple touch screens linked into one computer running an animation style game. The touch screens are hidden within a large model book creating an interactive page. Upon the completion of the game, the child receives the symbol representing the story, dispensed in the form of a physical object, a key phrase, or linking a pre-existing object with an RFID tag (such as a “Castle Library Card”) to the completion of the story. Once the child collects all three symbols, the large book in the center can be opened. The symbols may contain RFID tags that will trigger the book’s opening sequence. By placing the symbols into the lock on top of the book, the motors underneath as well as subwoofers activate to create a rumbling effect. The book then uses simple motors to open up and reveal a pillow for the child to take. An additional option would be for a customized certificate to be printed for the wish child shortly before receiving the pillow. The customizing can happen while the child plays the interactive games at the stations.

The charm of the castle library design is in its modular nature. Every part of the design can be updated depending on the needs of the village. The stories on the touch screens can be changed to fit multiple themes throughout the year. Also, the reward mechanics for each game can be updated easily as well. Originally the system can start with a physical prop as a reward, but it can be updated to voice recognition or RFID systems. The central device that dispenses the pillows is fairly robust and shouldn’t require too much work to upgrade. The theming of the library can be easily upgraded and re-themed. The books in the stacks can be interchanged for cosmetic books or even real children’s books and function much like a real library. Simple changes in lighting or additions to the book shelves can make the library adapt to seasonal themes.
With its modular nature as well as the ability to serve multiple children at the same time, the Castle Library can bring sweet dreams to hundreds of children in the village.

Game Design

The basic game design for the each book station is to read stories in order to acquire knowledge and receive a clue at the end. There will be three different stories for each station. The objective is to guide a character through the story and accomplish the task. The pages of the book will contain an animated drawing. There will then be text explaining the story and a narrator to speak these words aloud. The objective is to move these characters along in the story to complete it. This can involve a variety of things, including:

• Dragging a character to a physical place on the screen
• Clicking on or dragging certain objects in order to make them complete certain tasks
• Dragging the environment to change the scene

If you are having a hard time completing the task, the screen will show you what to do using semi-transparent action arrows. If you take too long, or are having a tough time, the game will advance along so that you don’t need to worry about not knowing how to complete a certain task. This also makes sure that children aren’t waiting too long to use a certain station. Once you complete the task mentioned, there will be a small animation showing the story and it will advance onward. The page will then automatically turn to the next couple of pages and you’ll have to perform the next task. Once the game is over, you will be given a symbol which you must then use to break the spell. Each task should take about a minute and will include 3-4 interactions.

First 5 Concepts!

Today we finalized our first five concepts. The Pillow Tree, The Castle Library, Rusty's Machine, The Washing Machine, and The Wizard's Tower. We're going to be going down to Give Kids the World later in the month to present these concepts to them. Hopefully we can get them to pick one, but it'll probably be a mixture of them. We'll describe each of these a little later on today.

Also, Brendan got in earlier this week! We're finally a team!