Project Runway: Proof of Concept

Project Runway: Turn existing physical behavior into a compelling, interactive experience using a person's clothing or worn accessories (not gadgets). Incorporate a transistor, external IC, motor, speaker or fan to help accomplish the "conversation".

This time around, I've joined a group in the hopes that I can make my project bigger and better! I'm working with Amanda Imperial (http://amandaimperial.wordpress.com/) and Rebecca Vessal (http://arduinohackers.wordpress.com/) to create a wearable laser tag game. We hope to create a glove gun, where the user folds their hand into the shape of a gun, and shoots an IR beam at a target. 
Our initial idea had a second person wearing a shirt with IR sensors sewn in, but for our proof of concept, we're planning on having the sensor stationary on a box-cat.

Box-Cat!

Moving forward with this idea, we decided to get an IR emitter and IR sensor working before we decided to sew anything together. This meant getting an IR LED turning on and off (which should be a cake walk) and getting a sensor to recognize that that is happening. 
After looking around online for some advice, we decided to proceed with a photo transistor as our sensor. We assembled the materials and started building. 

A standard LED (for testing) across from a photo transistor.

After some trial and error, we realized that while moving things around, we had forgotten to put a resistor back in next to the photo transistor. All the power we had been sending through it burned it out, and that was the source of our recent frustrations. We traded it out, and we had a working system.

The sensor is connected to the alligator clips
on the far right, with the speaker connected to
 the breadboard on the far left

In the hopes of making our game more fun (and more complicated!), we decided we wanted to add a speaker to the box-cat that would make noises when it was shot. Having never worked with a speaker before, this posed some issues. We thought we had everything wired and coded right, but the speaker wasn't working. After a lot of trouble shooting, we gave up and decided to wait until we could get help from the professor. 
The next day in class, we hooked up a different speaker. It works!

The laser pointer is being powered by an Arduino.
 I hope to add a speaker to this system too so that when fired,
the glove-gun goes "pew pew!"

We then moved the emitter to a second Arduino and breadboard so that we could test the range on the system. This is where we hit a major roadblock. The photo transistor was sensing the IR LED, but only at a maximum range of about six inches (and that's being generous). We had to go a different route. 
We got some advice from our professor, who suggested using a laser pointer instead. After connecting the pointer, we were able to get a solid reading at any distance!
With a little tweaking, the speaker now makes noise when the photo transistor is tripped by the laser pointer.

This completes our proof of concept. All that remains is getting the laser pointer on a glove for the player to wear, and getting the sensor embedded into the box-cat!

Box-cat!