Category: 0004 Pong

“Pong” is a virtual simulation of table tennis, in which players hit a ball back and forth. “24 Games of Pong” maintains the functional objective of this iconic game, but reimagines how we might interact with it.

Underlying any interaction is the translation, or mapping, of one extent to another. Thus, “24 Games of Pong” proposes new controlling extents — object, body, and environment — new translations — binary and range — and new controlled extents — position, speed, and direction. By coupling different extents through different translations, “24 Games of Pong” asks: what is an interaction, and how do interactions define the “games” that function through them?

Weekend Summary: January 6-7

0004 Pong

This weekend focused on diagramming and annotating each controller imagined for Pong thus far. In writing each one out on an index card, additional questions emerged to support the principle thesis question:

  • What does it mean for the same controller to be used at a different scale of the body?
  • What body does each controller expect? How is this apparent? How can the controller be used differently?

Drawing from Susan Leigh Star’s article, “Power, Technology and the Phenomenology of Conventions”, considering other controllers for the same game asks: How could it have been otherwise? Why are games played with the same controller? Can we play the same game with different controllers?

Using the same controller assumes a leveled playing field — but only for bodies matching the “standard body” for which the controller was designed. Even then, all bodies are different and the body imagined by a technology is always that, imagined. Furthermore, bodies change — throughout a day, over the course of a week, over years.

This led to thinking about technology in sport: clothing such as full body high-performance swim suits in swimming, equipment such as clap skates in speed skating, strategic analysis as demonstrated in “Moneyball”, and modifications to one’s body with performance enhancing drugs. These too are all extensions of the body, yet some are accepted — clap skates — while others are prohibited — the swim suit. While clap skates initially caused uproar, they have now become the dominate technology in the sport. On the other hand, is a full body swim suit all that different than shaving one’s body? Is the judgement of performance within the sport then an evaluation of one’s skin? (Note: leading up to the Athens Olympics in 2004, The Economist published an interesting article debating performance enhancing drugs and whether their prohibition should be reconsidered. Similarly, a new book Rayvon Fouché called “Game Changer” questions the distinction between technical innovation and cheating in sport.)

Next weekend will revive a unfinished historical study of sensors to explore their genesis and how these technologies have shaped bodies over time. How have these sensors and their relationship to our bodies changed? How have they come to shape social relations? Further work will develop relationships between the various imagined controllers through the following classification:

  • Controllers using the same sensor, same action but produce a different outcome;
  • Controllers using different sensors but the same action to produce the same outcome; and
  • Controllers using the same sensor but different action to produce the same outcome.

One Minute Thesis Statement

0004 Pong

Marshall McLuhan asserted that technology is an extension of the body – clothing extends our skin, a white cane extends our touch, subways extend our movement. To revise McLuhan, technology extends a universalized body which, in turn, identifies particular human bodies by their correspondence to this universalization. It is a body of a imagined form, imagined ability, imagined dexterity. Yet it’s just that – imagined. And our imagining of bodies is divorced from their actual material forms.

My thesis will reconsider the game of Pong to explore how technology universalizes bodies. In turn, I will ask:

  • How does technology shape bodies and likewise, how do bodies shape technology?
  • How do we understand our body through technology?
  • And how can technology extend the particularity of many bodies?

More Controllers for Pong

0004 Pong, Homemade Hardware

The lastest controller for Pong uses a cardboard plane attached to a potentiometer to control both speed and direction of the virtual paddle. The rotation of the potentiometer divided in half to control direction, and then within that extent, speed is modulated.

Process

Because the ESP Chip is somewhat expensive (relatively), I invested in protyping my circuit on breadboards and milled boards on to which the chip could plug in temporarily.

Breadboard Prototype
Milled prototype with header pins for the ESP chip

In order to prototype directly with the chip rather than a breakout board, I needed a programming jig for connecting via USB and closing certain routes on particular pins. When programming…

  • GPIO0 needs to be connected to GND. A button was held while uploading code.
  • Reset need to be flashed. A button was pressed initially before programming.
  • Tx and Rx connections between the ESP chip and FTDI cable were accomodated with header pins
Completed board
Schematic

The Board

The ESP chip draws a significant amount of power; however, conflicting advice online made it difficult to size capacitors. Although, I found these tips to be most helpful. While they recommend a very large capacitor (470 uF) across the Vcc to Gnd, the Adafruit breakout only used 10 uF. While I included two 470 uF capacitors, my next iteration would explore smaller size. However, a 0.1 uF decoupling capacitor across the ESP8266 Vcc to Gnd inputs very close to the pins was a critical addition.

Refining the Playability of Pong

0004 Pong, Homemade Hardware, Tangible Interaction Workshop

In my initial version of ‘Many Games of Pong‘, the act of switching between controllers was so frustrating that it deterred players from doing so. This design used a 6-pin usb-to-serial adapter, which the user had to plug in “just right” before they even could play. The diagram below illustrates this initial schematic and systems.

This point of friction detracted from the key idea of players testing different controllers and de-standardizing the tools used to play games. As such, I’ve continued to develop the circuit with a focus on selecting and switching-between controllers.

The new circuit, illustrated above, uses an ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip microcontroller to eliminate wiring for sending data to the between the game and controllers. Additionally, a toggle switch, coupled with an LED, sets the state of whether or not a controller is actually connected to the game (as opposed to the hardwired connection). The server-side code keeps track of which controllers are connected and which player they’re associated with.

There’s a delay between pressing a button and seeing the effect on screen that’s still lingering, as well as the question of power. The video shows a wired connection from each controller to the computer, but that’s simply for power – not data transfer.

Code Updates

This iteration also focused on simplifying the code. My previous code for moving the paddle based on each controller was verbose and repetative. I’ve since rewritten the code to use switch cases which really simplified things.

Next Steps

The next step in the project is to create custom boards rather than use the Huzzah. Adafruit’s ESP8266 breakout board is a good reference for starting the schematic. Since some of the controllers use digital sensors (simple push buttons) while others rely on analog (photocell), the boards will be slightly different for each. Additionally, I’d like to put more time into the tangibility and tactile qualities of the sensors I use and have been hunting down various products.

Future References