Echolocation Experience - Jordan Arnesen
~CONCEPT~
This game would hopefully be part of a larger educational exhibit about bats and other animals that have evolved to use echolocation or other non-vision based navigation. My aim is to help create a rough simulation of what it would be like to navigate in total darkness using the sense of hearing to detect objects in the environment. Or “What’s it like to be a(n echolocating) bat?”
While echolocating animals are able to decode many aspects of the world around them from sound alone for the purposes here of making an experience that isn’t too overwhelmingly complicated for us non-echolocating humans I’ve narrowed it down to the two main aspects of distance and position of a target.
~DESCRIPTION~
Goal:
The goal is that the player is a bat who must navigate a virtual sound environment to reach target locations (food).
Gameplay:
Players would put on a blindfold and headphones and stand on a special game mat on the floor. When they first start the game they will follow a short tutorial that explains the game mechanics - or how to “see like a bat.” Players will automatically have a Pulse (some sound) generated for them at regular intervals. A return signal that has bounced off of a target and back to the player are an Echo (some different sound so the player can distinguish them). [Optional: I will start by having auto generated Pulses at set intervals, but I would like to explore possible inputs for them to generate their own Pulses at their own intervals.]
Distance from a target is indicated by the duration between Pulse and Echo. The longer the time between sounds, the farther the target is.
Position of the target relative to the player is indicated by the time difference of hearing the Echo in the left and right ear. A target that is exactly in front of the player will have an Echo that arrives at both ears simultaneously. If the target is a little to the left, the left ear will hear it slightly before the right. And if the target is far to the left there will be a longer delay between hearing it in the left and right ears.
Using these sound cues the player will locate and fly to targets to score a point, and then another target will appear at a new location in the environment. [Optional: progression of gameplay from simple static targets to moving targets and perhaps even moving targets that may try to evade the player.]
The game ends after a set time limit, after which the player can remove the headphones and blindfold and view a score screen that shows how many targets they got. [Optional: Have visualizations of the virtual world and the player/target so that spectators can watch or so that it can be recorded for the player to watch afterwards.]
Inputs:
The player will navigate through the virtual environment through a combination of their body posture and arm movements. Being a bat, the player will hold their arms out like wings and will be able to turn left and right by tilting their arms (ex: left arm down + right arm up = left turn). [Optional: Depending on the sensitivity of the Kinect sensor, hopefully I will be able to control how sharply the player is turning by how steeply angled their arms are. Also, I may add an FSR to the game mat to detect changes in the player’s posture. Players could then control their flight speed by leaning forward to increase speed or backwards to decrease speed.]
Outputs:
When the player successfully reaches their target the floor mat will vibrate to provide tactile feedback. And of course the sounds of the environment will update dynamically according to the player’s position and orientation in the virtual space.
~EQUIPMENT~
1- Kinect sensor
2- sound-canceling headphones
3- DC motor (and weight to create vibration)
4- Computer
5- Blindfold
(Optional)
6- FSR
7- Input for user-generated pulses?
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