The purpose of this project was to design and construct a prototype for the control of virtual avatars in a virtual space. It was designed with the intent to feature multiple interfaces such that the user would have many options to control a virtual character. The design was to have kinematic interactions (changing the physical pose of the interface), proximal touch (enabled by capacitive sensing), whole body movement (enabled by an internal measurement unit), touch pressure (enabled by QTC film), and fingertip gesture (enabled by a touch screen). The final prototype of “LilGuy” was developed to be as an accessory to a mobile device (in this case, an Android mobile phone). The phone slides into a case that has a figurine attached, which houses a multitude of potentiometers, FSRs, and a custom circuit board to manage and send data to the phone. The phone contains an Android app that communicates with the LilGuy to receive data via Bluetooth and send controls to the virtual character via Wifi. This device was successfully tested with one of the PRG’s virtual characters in a simulated environment.
The full report can be found below.