I don’t know about you, but I enjoy a long shower — there, I said it. Over time, the temperature of the water gets boring, and give it a little nudge towards the “H.” With the gradient shower, one would enter a start/end temperature and duration, and it would gradually adjust the temperature for the ultimate shower experience.

Oh yeah, as you may have guessed, the fire & ice buttons give you a 2 second blast of full hot/cold water, respectively.

Anyways, I was brainstorming ways to make better use of that method, and came up with the ultimate, fully-immersive, first-person shooter platform.

The Setup: Imagine that you’re sitting in a joystick-(or yoke-)driven turret with 360º of rotation on the X axis, and 50-60º of freedom on the Y axis.   In front of you, you see a gun of some sort — a minigun in this example.  The turret would be mounted on the “bed” portion of a military Hummer H1.  The vehicle would be surrounded by a dome of smooth, projector screen-quality material.  When the game is running, there would be absolutely no light in the dome whatsoever, so everything would be pitch black.

Pointing out from the end of your gun would be a powerful projector with a very narrow beam.  This projector would be masquerading as a spotlight on your gun.  Based on the position of your turret (on both axis), the computer would determine what the user should be seeing in the game environment if the user was actually placed in the game and they pointed a powerful spotlight in one direction (think: the flashlight in half-life).  In this manner, it would effectively simulate being in pitch darkness with the ability to illuminate whatever area of the game environment you’re currently pointing at.

There would also be a projector on the front of the Humvee to simulate would would be illuminated in the environment by the truck’s headlights.

Sound would be very important to the gameplay, as it will clue the player into what direction the “enemies” are coming from so the player will move the turret and find them/shoot them.  In addition to surround-sound, speakers could be placed strategically in the Humvee would simulate the voices of a driver and passenger.  They could yell to alert you of events in the game (ie: “THEY’RE ATTACKING FROM THE LEFT! WE’RE GONNA DIEEE!!!)

To further the experience, hydraulics could be added to each wheel of the Humvee.

The actual gameplay possibilities are endless, but I imagine that your Humvee is navigating through a twisty path in the woods in an “rails” fashion (think: those arcade games where you hold a physical gun and it moves you automagically after you clear a section).  You could be defending yourself from an onslaught of zombies, terrorists, food poisoning, etc.

I’ve provided an illustration to better explain the setup:

This would be what you might see when you’re playing:

This sensor would be positioned to have an optimal field of view… a balance between maximum coverage of the site, stability.  This device will typically be implemented at night, so interference from the sun will not be taken into high consideration.

more later…

The sound sample rate is near CD quality, unlike most of the embedded sound playback modules offered today.

Example uses:

Incorporate sounds into a robotics project.

Have hidden module play creepy ‘children laughing’ sounds from your co-worker’s desk once every few hours or so.

Personal drum machine.

This chapstick-sized device would be powered inline with the rest of your Christmas lights, and would fasten to the top of your tree with twisty-ties (like the ones that keep your bread fresh).  A very subtle star pattern would illuminate the ceiling about the tree (see below).

The pattern could likely be changed by swapping out the “cap” on the device.

There you have it.  The Christmas tree topper.