This week we had our soft opening to present our work to all of the faculty to get final feedback before we pass everything off.
One of the biggest pieces of feedback that we received involved the first virtual interaction in the machine with the bird in the cage. We’ve struggled with the issue of occlusion through the entire project, but most of the interactions that we designed following early feedback were done so with the intention of avoiding this problem. However, the issue with this first interaction is that it is our FIRST one, so if it isn’t great, it doesn’t set up the rest of the experience very well.
To address this we’ve redesigned that first moment, by instead placing the ikklebird on top of the birdcage asleep at the start of the interaction. When the cage door snaps open, it will wake up the bird and cause it to hop down and continue the process from there. This change will place the bird outside of the cage for the entire experience, so guests will never experience that jarring moment of seeing the bird in front of an object that it should be inside of.
Another area of concern for us was about how guests might know that the machine is ready to be used again. To manage this we’ve created a virtual sign that will appear on the AprilTag, only when the distance sensor in the cage is blocked and all of the servos are reset. Once the machine starts and is in its finished state, the sign will disappear.
Some of these changes are already in process, and we will continue to build them in through our final week. We’ll also be adding in some final sound effects, adding our signage, and finalizing our documentation.
