constructs toolkit: 802.15.4 wireless construction kit
TRANSCRIPT
CONSTRUCTS Toolkit: 802.15.4 Wireless Construction Kit
Pamela L. Jennings National Science Foundation Arlington, VA 22230 USA
David Antonio Martinez Castro Engineering Systems and Computation
University of Los Andes Bogota, Colombia
Abstract CONSTRUCTS Toolkit (fig.1) is a wireless sensor network system for mixed-reality (virtual + physical components) applications. CONSTRUCTS ushers forth a new platform we call WSNEG (Wireless Sensor Net-works for Education and Games) that integrates ad-vanced mesh networking protocols into education, game, and applications for design prototyping.
Introduction CONSTRUCTS is a con-struction toolkit of fourteen tangible blocks - two each of seven unique 2D and 3D pentomino shapes. A pen-tomino is a complex shape made from five cubes of the equal size. Each block is a node on an 802.15.4 mesh wireless network. The tan-gible blocks can be connect-ed on any end using a gen-der-neutral connector sys-tem. Each block contains a tri-axial accelerometer for position and movement tracking. When blocks are
connected wireless messages are transmitted to a com-puter application called CONSTRUCT/VizM. (fig. 3) The result is a 3D render of the physical block construc-tion that can be annotated and augmented on screen by the builder using a handheld device called the IDWand. Each 3D rendered block is an independent agent that can contain unique visual features and embedded ani-mated sprites. Block objects are identified and the con-structions tracked by a two-prong system that includes a cubical grid abstraction with an undirected graph. Technical Overview CONSTRUCTS is a mesh wireless network system based on the 802.15.4 wireless protocol. Devices in the
network are managed using a lightweight message communication protocol eliminating the need of external tracking systems (e.g. computer vision, fiducial markers, refracted light). The hardware and software architecture can support any block shape system that can be represented in a three-dimensional matrix. The embedded hardware is a proprietary microcontroller and wireless radio board we call SquireWire.
Fig. 3. Construct/VizM five block virtual build Toolkit Applications CONSTRUCTS toolkit is a next generation post-console computer game technology for developing applications that explore complex systems in the sciences, arts and humanities; applications for disciplines that incorporate model making as part of the iterative design process, such as architecture, design, and engineering; and collaborative puzzle and maze games. (fig. 2)
Acknowledgements We want to thank everyone who has worked on this version of the CONSTRUCTS project including: Drew Gislason, Tim Gillman, Martin Hernandez Palomares, Paul Cunningham, and Daedalus-Excel, Inc. The CONSTRUCTS project was funded by the U.S. Nation-al Science Foundation CreativeIT program and the Al-berta Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (ICore). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Fig. 1. CONSTRUCTS Toolkit.
Fig. 2. Builders in Action.
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computational Creativity 164