Task3: An Exercise in Teamwork and Time Management
The development process of Task3 went through several phases, as did every aspect of our design from its physical embodiment to our base code.
Personally, I contributed heavily to the creative and documentary aspects of the project, as well as helping to implement the base code for our project and to develop an event handler independently. Myself and my two partners each had a hand in developing the basic functionality for our menu events, building upon the previous developer's code and making improvements, leading the the clean, object oriented program we have now. For the event handler handleMotionEvents(), I researched the Sifteo SDK and discovered the existence of the TiltShakeRecognizer class within the Asset motion.h file. This wrapper class enabled our cubes to recognize tilting up and down, as well as left to right. After several iterations and testing with the cubes to find the best combination of movements (and their associated functions within the program), I decided to have a tilt left change the cube to an image of its task, a tilt right to display the duration of the task, and a shake to clear the cube back to its status page. Additionally, I researched and discovered how to add new cubes to the system (turns out you just hold it adjacent to the short side of the Sifteo base until the screen turns blue), edited our code to accommodate six total cubes (three new) and incorporated the appropriate buffers and methods to these new cubes.
In addition to the code, I contributed to the media components of the project. I found or created, cropped, and integrated into the code images for each task, as well as their durations. Also, after Polina discovered how the system handled animations (changing its location on a given image), I created the image for the paper crumpling animation by taking progressive photos of a piece of lined paper (crumpling it a bit more each time between shots), and then placing the eight photos on a black background in Powerpoint and saving as a .png file.
For documentation of the final project, I created the presentation we used in class, including assembling most of the photos in it. Additionally, Polina Soshnin and myself created the video displayed both on this blog and in the presentation: we designed and shot it together, and I partner edited it with Polina, who was the driver (affecting the edits on the computer). Also, I created the wordpress site for our project in its entirety.
I also designed and implemented the backboard for mounting the cubes vertically, an idea that originated from Danika. I used Command Velcro strips (so they can be easily removed after this project is over!) attached to both the back of each cube, and created a 3x6 grid. These dimensions were chosen with the six cubes in mind, and in relation to the stacking and connections implemented in the program. The given grid can accommodate any arrangement of the six cubes, while not wasting space as a 6x6 grid would. I also painted and decorated the board, including the logo at the top and the horizontal (or vertical, depending on which way the board is held) stripes, a visual cue to the user as to how to mount the cubes.
Additionally, I took an organizational and logistical role for the team, making sure we stayed on track with regular team meetings, and deadlines. By breaking up the work amongst ourselves, and in small gradual chunks, we were able to complete the project without late nights, or too many irresolvable programming hiccups. Additionally, we were able to use the time we saved to really make our documentation clean, well-edited, and invaluable to the project itself.
