FUN | CREATIVE | ENGINEERING
IN COLLABORATION WITH
SPARK DESIGN CLUB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
SKULE ENGINEERING SOCIETY
The following page illustrates displays and arcade games my multidisciplinary team and I at Spark Design Club were able to build during my undergraduate career. I played an active role in designing, machining, and assembling these displays as well as mentoring club members in design for manufacturing and electro-mechanical integration.
P I P E M A Z E
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The Pipe Maze is a speed based arcade game using 16 tactile blocks to form a connected path from the start (inlet) of the maze to the end (outlet). Each block represents a different orientation and shape of pipe; a press of the block rotates the shape represented by its respective block. However, these blocks do not provide any information about their shapes and orientations to the player. The only way for the player to know is to view the virtual grid displayed on the LED screen.
(Work in Progress)
3 DÂ Â S N A K E
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Inspired by the traditional 2D snake game, the 3D Snake Game is made with a 5x5x8 LED cube for which a ‘snake’, a string of lighted LEDs, travels around to collect the ‘apple’, a single blinking LED. In the 3D LED cube, the snake can move in 6 directions, 4 of which are controlled by a joystick, and the up and down motions are controlled by two buttons. The snake gets longer by 1 LED each time it successfully collects an apple and the game is lost when the snake either hits a wall or runs into itself. In order to construct a perfect cube with just LEDs, a 5x8 grid is laser cut on a piece of wood as a template and provided to the students when soldering the LEDs.
T O W E RÂ Â S T A C K
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Tower Stack was a game adapted from the ‘Stack’ or ‘Tower’ game on mobile platforms in which you earn points by stacking blocks on top of each other. If improperly aligned the next block you use to stack will be consequently smaller. Two 32x32 LED panels were used as the display. The display was built within one workshop session by around 15 students. Students who participated learned to work with drills, miter saws, hole saws, soldering irons, LEDs, Arduinos, and more.
S I M O N
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Inspired by the age-old children's game "Simon Says", Simon is a level based game that increases in difficulty as the game progresses. The game consists of 5 buttons that light up in random order and the player get points by correctly repeating the LED sequence each round. The LED sequence is extended by one each round. A different tone was played for each button and when a wrong button is pressed the game is lost. The display was built collaboratively by over 30 students, over the course of 2 days. Students who participated learned to work with drills, miter saws, hole saws, soldering irons, LEDs, Arduinos, and more.
N O TÂ Â N O TÂ Â G A M E
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The Not-Not Game was a mobile app inspired arcade game. The display featured 4 different colored buttons, with a display board showing the instructions for the players to follow within the time limit. The game is endless and gets progressively harder and faster. The finished display was showcased in the Ontario Science Centre, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, TEDxUofT Conference Centre, YNCN startup career fairs, and featured on the University of Toronto Instagram page. We were approached by the creator of the original mobile game multiple startup companies who showed interest in featuring the display in their company lobby.
G I A N TÂ Â P I A N O
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The Giant Piano was inspired by artist Arden Hofheins, Randall C. Thornton, and Michael L. Dowdle and their viral video of piano stairs in the subway station of Odenham, Stockham. Powered by a toy piano hidden beneath the piano tiles, the Giant Piano was an interactive display built for students to create a fun melody within the halls of the Bahen Centre for Information Technology and the Galbraith Building during exam season as a mental destresser.
L E DÂ Â B A T T L E S H I P
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The LED Battleship is a large electronic version of the classic two player Battleship board game. Here, two players first assign their different size "battleships," represented by different colour tiles, and then take turns guessing where the opponents battleships are. The game board is two-sided, where two players were designed to play on each side. Each side features a 4x4 LED grid (with a backwall full of individually programmable LED strips), a keypad to select the position of the bombs & ships, a microcontroller (Arduino), a wooden/plexiglass enclosure, and a sturdy support frame. The display was built collaboratively by over 20 students, over the course of two weekends.
S T A RÂ Â W A R SÂ Â T H R O W I E S
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Spark hosted the 6th annual Frosh Week (orientation) event, attended by approximately 50 incoming engineering students. In keeping with the ‘Star Wars’ theme of this year’s frosh week, Spark built a ‘Frosh Wars’ display with LED lit Star Wars symbol and LED filled light sabers. The frosh worked together to build all of the LED components for the light sabers.