Team Status Report for 03/26

This week, our team primarily discussed the ethical consequences of our game and met mid week to double check the parts of our mat and create a plan to move ahead.
Based on the ethical discussions, some of the points we realized were that our mat is not suitable for people with walking disabilities or who cannot perform fast reflexes. Our mat could also cause physical injuries if it is too slippery as the user could slip and hurt themselves by clashing against a furniture piece. Lastly, while playing the game, there might be a lot of loud movements (such as the thuds of the player stepping swiftly on the different buttons of the mat) that are unsuitable for a living space such as an apartment. The noises could disturb the neighbors living beside and under the player’s unit.
On Wednesday, all three of us met at tech spark to look at the parts we received and create a plan of actions we needed to take. To ensure that any partial deliberate step would trigger a response from the buttons, we decided to create a “Z” shape for the first orientation of materials to put under each of the wooden squares for the buttons. This is shown in the diagram below that was drawn by Spandan that gives you an idea of how the wooden part of the button will be constructed:

After mutually agreeing on it’s dimensions, Tushhar began the process of laser-cutting the said Z shape. Meanwhile, Caio and Spandan worked on their respective screens of the game. Caio is almost done and just needs to figure out scaling of the background screen but the screen is functional. Spandan has figured out how to choose songs through the arrow keys and how to navigate to a new screen.

Overall, the team is right on schedule except the actual physical construction of the mat. The revised schedule is as below:

We will all meet early next week to begin the process for the mat which will go along the following steps:

1. Lasercut Z shape and layer
2. Steps after all materials are acquired:
   1. Figure out measurements for squares
      • Each square 12 inches by 12 inches
      • 0.5 inch gaps
   2. Measurements for Z shape for laser cutting (long lines instead of z shape)
      • 7.5 by 8 by 7.5
      • 1 inch side
   3. Figure circuit layout throughout the mat
   4. Length of wires and soldering
   5. Painting on the mat
   6. Attaching layers together