MYO armband (Start of project grasp)

A while ago (about a month give or take) I received this little package

This my friends is the first part to my prosthetic hand project (Yes you heard me, I'm going to attempt to make a prosthetic hand).

It's a MYO motion gesture armband made by Thalmic Labs (link).

Myo motion gesture armband

I'll be using this to read (hopefully) the users muscle contractions and convert that into data which I can hand (hehe..hand, get it?) it over to the prosthetic hand.

Without a further ado, a quick un-boxing:

All nicely snug packing with some bubble wrap.

Once I was able to tear myself away from popping all the bubble-wrap,
I get the first glimpse of the MYO armband in it's very professional packaging.  

Just the back end of the display box/case (yes the orientation is wrong,
 just turn your head 90 degrees....see it as a stretching exercise for your neck)

Whats inside the box?
1x usb dongle, 1x micro usb cable, brace re-sizer (for those with smaller arms)
1x Myo Armband, 1x thank you for purchasing card

The Myo armband (with protective plastic)

Fits nice and snugly (and possibly fashionable as well XD )

Till thus far haven't been able to properly play around and develop with this (Due to varsity gut punching me with tests, assignments, workshops and projects), but from the little I have played with this it seems very promising.

For more details on this product go and check on their website Thalmic Labs (link).

With this I'll be one step closer to beginning the prosthetic hand project (more details and concepts to come)
If you have any question do feel free to ask.

Global Game Jam 2015

Global Game Jam 2015

This past weekend I took part the annual Global Game Jam event.

1. "A game jam is a gathering of game developers for the purpose of planning, designing, and creating one or more games within a short span of time, usually ranging between 24 and 72 hours. Gamedevelopers are generally made up of programmers, game designers, artists, and others in game development-related fields."

This years theme was: "What do we do now".

Diversifiers (Optional conditions):

1. Noise Generator: The mechanic of the game is based on players having to stay in constant communication with each other.
2. Folk: The game uses a folk or indigenous art style of your region.
3. NES: Make the game playable on an old school console, either directly or through an emulator.
4. Wrist Watcher: The game is playable on a smart-watch, or uses wearable technology in some way.
5. Clueless Parents: The game helps kids teach something to their parents or other family members.
6. Batch Job: The game is a batch file from any operating system, using command line tools found in an out of the box installation.
7. Chimera: The game is played partly as a digital and partly as a non-digital (board, card, etc.) game. (we did this Diversifier) 
8. Hyper-Local: The game is set in your town/city and contains elements locals can identify, while still being entertaining for a global audience.
9. Can I Try?: Any spectator of the game automatically becomes a player as well.
10. This is How it Feels: The game raises awareness of how hate speech or unfair accusations feel, and what kind of effect they have on their targets.
11. Stephen Hawking Can Play This: In the game everything (including any menus) can be navigated with one button, without any need for quick / precisely timed presses.
12. Eagle Ear: The game is primarily visual, but is also playable by visually impaired  players, either through audio design, or through a screenreader (VoiceOver, Talkback, JAWS etc).
13. Relatively Speaking: A game based on the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which explained that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, such as light bending around black holes.
14. Public Domain Class of 2015: Make a game based on the works entered to Public Domain on 1st January 2015 - for instance works of Wassily Kandinsky, Edvard Munch, Edith Sitwell, Piet Mondrian, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Felix Nussbaum, Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti, Glenn Miller, Flannery O’Connor, and Ian Fleming (cough, James Bond, cough), depending on your country.
15. Code for Good (Sponsored by Intel): Make a game with the goal of improving literacy, or inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

So when this jam started I was like, "I'm not going too code a single line of code. This year I'll be purely art-ing"....I ended up being the only coder in a team of 5.

Anyhow, it was tons of fun, this is what we made.

Augmented reality card game where players play cards to give their beasts weapons and actions. To start the game, each player chooses their character and takes the associated deck. Shuffle the deck and draw three cards each. Each card has an image, description of impact and the energy cost for the card. You cannot play a card if you do not have enough energy to play it. Decide which player will play first and place both creature cards onto the play mat. Player 1 selects one card from his or her hand and plays the card face up on the player mat card slot. The computer will calculate damage and reduce energy. It will then be Player 2's turn to play a card. The game continues until one beast has been reduced to zero health. Note: If a card indicates that you gain or lose defense percentage - this applies for the attack in the very next play of the opposing player. to use AR, ensure you have a decent webcam connect too the system that can see the cards.

GGJ link

The team

Jacques Botha (back middel) - Augmented Reality & Game coder, Project Manager, 3D modelling + rigging + animation, DJ

Ben Geldenhuys (back left) - 2D Art, Creative Metal Direction

Richard Ramsbottom (back right) - 3D modelling & rigging

Megan Hughes (front right) - Card game design

Adam Linder (front middel) - Music

Game screen shots 

Tech demo vid

Augmented tech: Vuforia

All in all it was fun, stressful, hard work and most importantly very very educational (even if we didn't stick to the theme). We as a team are contemplating on maybe continuing developing this game for a few months and see what the results turn out too be.

Wut? An update?

Yes I know I said no updates till exams are done...but I REALLY need to share this, so I'm gonna keep this short.

So for the past day or so, this has been 'trending' the interwebs.

KickStarter: Hendo Hoverboards


Jip...you guessed it. IT'S A BLOODY HOVERBOARD.

Nerd-gasms aside, I haven't looked into this product much to I'm going to keep my excitement down to the level of holy $%^&*. As always I'm slightly skeptical, but hey this might be just push in the right direction needed.

Anyhow, your thoughts? Leave a comment down below.

Cheers