Outcome

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Cool ball

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Intention

The NBA Cool Ball is an interaction and ambient appliance which is designed for the basketball fans when they watching a basketball game onsite. It provides several features to give audiences feedback instantly associate with the game processing. Moreover, it creates a gamification way to engage people to focus on the game by betting the scoring and get awards after it.

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Community

Fans supporting the same team form a tightly-knit community. However, they are scattered and hard to identify during everyday life. This all changes when they gather at the stadium on match day. They then form a physical community that is directly addressable as a whole.

Fans go to the stadium to support their home-team and the players. They want to be part of the game and be able to make an impact. They also want to celebrate with other fans and create an atmosphere that they all enjoy.

During games, fans are intensively engaged in the happenings on the court. It is difficult to connect or communicate with their fellow fans through gestures or words. They now perceive excitement, anger and disappointment of fellow friends through their body movement.

This could be augmented with some light that not only shows to fans how their surrounding fellow friends feel about the game, but also demonstrate support that is perceivable from the court by the players.

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Context

The needs of fans have been acknowledged and addressed through some attempts.

Futurist visions of wearables in stadiums have been articulated and discussed from multiple sources, but a real incident has yet to take place. Visionaries include a bracelet that pulses in sync with the heartbeat of a dash, or glasses render numbers showing players’ speed and distance as he scores. Or a giant balloon that inflates as 80,000 fans stomp in rhythm. Fan jerseys could blaze colors as algorithms review the play.
Activities and cheerleaders during recess. There are at least 3 intervals in basketball matches, not mention numerous timeouts. Usually, fans get distracted and even bored while waiting for the game to restart. Currently, hosts entertain fans with questions and souvenirs and cheerleaders keep fans interested in the game.
"Smart Stadiums" focusing on the needs of internet access. Not essentially addressing the same problem, but this builds the infrastructure necessary for Cool Ball to take place. Tottenham Hotspurs' new stadium enables its fans to navigate easily through the stadium and access all facilities including bars and retail outlets through high-performance Wifi connectivity and network infrastructure.
We would like to borrow fan experience precedents from the entertainment industry (concerts) and also amplified the thrill of live bets by integrating it during the match and providing immediate feedback.

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Conceptual Design

The NBA Cool Ball operates while fans cheer for their teams, and creates a connection (if not competition) among fans and their surroundings.

The ball would show the unique color of each team that the audiences support when audiences shaking it during the game. It stimulates the same team's fans to be engaged by each other and give ambient support to players.
The ball provides a bet feature when audiences watching the game and will give them instant feedback when player scoring and they bet successfully.

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Detailed Functions

When the home team scores, Cool Ball will generate a running pattern (complemented with rainbow colors) to notify and celebrate with the crowd.

Users can also bet whether the current attempt turns into a score. If she/he bets it right, the Cool Ball will vibrate (while also showing the running lights).

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Coolball

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While users shake the Cool Ball to cheer for the team they support, Cool Ball senses how violently they shake the ball, and displays the color accordingly. The stronger Cool Ball is shaken, the brighter the light. The color is determined by which team they are cheering for.

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Coolball8

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Storyboard

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Storyboard

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Video

Following is a marketing video for NBA Cool Ball.

For a more detailed version, click here. (Due to size limit, we were not able to upload it here. )

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Process

The process started out with user research. We wanted to improve the experience of a fan community of a sport. After investigating in the physical environment of various sport stadiums and the existing fan activities, we chose basketball as the main scenario.

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Determining the "Shakiness"

We used an accelerometer to measure how violent the ball is shaking. However, the position (tilt) of the acceleromoter cannot be pre-determined, thus the influence of gravity cannot be offset. We decided to record 10 value of acceleration along the 3 axis and compute the variance to determine the "shakiness".

We experimented how "Shakiness", or "violence", can be derived from the variation of acceleration along 3 axis: Maximum variance, Average variance, or Minimum variance. It turned out that Minimum variance was the most effective indicator of shaking.

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Experiment

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Prototype

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Screen shot 2019 12 11 at 5.47.43 pm

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Components

2 x Argon
2 x Breadboard
2 x Fsr
1 x Vibration Motor (diode, transistor)
1 x Neopixel strip
1 x Accelerometer
1 x Plastic Ball
3 x Resistor
1 x Doides
1 x Transistors
Several jump wires

Circuit

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Coolball controller bb

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// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <neopixel.h>

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <SparkFunMMA8452Q.h>
// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <SparkFunMMA8452Q.h>
#include <Wire.h> // Must include Wire library for I2C
#include <math.h>
// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.

MMA8452Q accel;

//https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/lis3dh-hookup-guide?_ga=2.109610374.2021355271.1575496274-1654527264.1575496274
//http://integratedinnovation.xsead.cmu.edu/gallery/projects/cohort-culture-a3573993-f4c3-4cce-9f96-e8e38a545e59
//https://learn.adafruit.com/rgb-led-strips/arduino-code
//https://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/content/how-to-drive-a-vibration-motor-with-arduino-and-genuino/

#define LED_PIN   A2
#define LED_COUNT 30
#define LED_TYPE WS2812B
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(LED_COUNT, LED_PIN, LED_TYPE); //type
uint32_t c = strip.Color(255,0,0);

int fsrPin = A5;
int accelPin = D6;
int vibPin = D5;

int bettime=0;
int scoretime=0;

int fsrRead=0;
int betcorrect=0;

int X[10];
int Y[10];
int Z[10];
int violence = 0;

int n=0;
//monitor
int accx=0;
int accy=0;
int accz=0;
/*
// control publish interval
long lastPublishedAt = 0;
int publishAfter = 1000;//delay
*/

void setup()
{
    pinMode(fsrPin, INPUT);
    pinMode(accelPin, INPUT);
    pinMode(vibPin, OUTPUT);
    
    //accel.init();
    accel.begin(SCALE_2G, ODR_1);

    Particle.subscribe(  "coolball/homescore" , homescore );
    
    //Particle.variable("accx", &accx, INT);
    //Particle.variable("accy", &accy, INT);
    //Particle.variable("accz", &accz, INT);
    Particle.variable("fsrRead", &fsrRead, INT);
    Particle.variable("violence", &violence, INT);
    Particle.variable("betcorrect", &betcorrect, INT);
    Particle.variable("bettime", &bettime, INT);
    
    digitalWrite(vibPin, LOW);
}

void loop()
{
    fsrRead=analogRead(fsrPin);
    if (fsrRead>1200)
    {
        if (millis()-bettime > 3000)
        {
            bettime=millis();//renew bet time
        }
    }

    bright();
    //digitalWrite(vibPin, LOW);
    
}


void bright()
{
    if (accel.available()){
    accel.read(); // Update accelerometer data

    //test range
    accx=accel.x;
    accy=accel.y;
    accz=accel.z;

    X[n%10]=accel.x;
    Y[n%10]=accel.y;
    Z[n%10]=accel.z;
    
    //variation of the acceleration values
    int varX = 0;
    int varY = 0;
    int varZ = 0;
    //first, compute the average
    int avgX = 0;
    int avgY = 0;
    int avgZ = 0;
    for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
    {
        avgX=avgX+X[i];
        avgY=avgY+Y[i];
        avgZ=avgZ+Z[i];
    }
    avgX = avgX/10;
    avgY = avgY/10;
    avgZ = avgZ/10;
    
    //the variation
    for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
    {
        varX=varX+(X[i]-avgX)*(X[i]-avgX);
        varY=varY+(Y[i]-avgY)*(Y[i]-avgY);
        varZ=varZ+(Z[i]-avgZ)*(Z[i]-avgZ);
    }
    /*
    //get the max variance as violence
    if (varX>varY)
    {
        if (varX>varZ) violence=varX;
        else violence=varZ;
    }
    else
    {
        if (varY>varZ) violence=varY;
        else violence=varZ;
    }
    */
    violence = (varX + varY + varZ)/3;
    if (violence> 2800000)  //check the threshold
    {
        int brightness = map(violence, 3000000, 3300000, 60, 255);
        for (int i=0; i<LED_COUNT; i++)
        {
            c = strip.Color(0,0,brightness);
            strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
        }
        strip.show();
        delay(1000);
    }
    else {
        for (int i=0; i<LED_COUNT; i++)
        {
            c = strip.Color(0,0,20);
            strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
        }
        strip.show();
    }
    
    }
}


void homescore(const char *event, const char *data)
{
    scoretime=millis();
    
    // make sure it comes from other device
    String eventName = String( event ); 
    String deviceID = System.deviceID();
    if( eventName.indexOf( deviceID ) != -1 ){
      return;
    }
    else // rainbow color
    {
        rainbow();
    }
    
    //should get event publish time and give to live bet.
    //currently just use the time argon receives the event
    livebet();
}


void livebet ()
{
    //judge if within timeframe
    if (scoretime - bettime < 3000)
    {
        for (int i=0;i<2;i++) //vibrate twice
        {
            digitalWrite(vibPin, HIGH);
            delay(500);
            digitalWrite(vibPin, LOW);
            delay(100);
        }
        betcorrect++;
    }
}

void rainbow()
{
    //start with red
    int r=255;
    int g=0;
    int b=0;
    int i=0;
    //running red
    for (i=0; i<LED_COUNT; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(r,g,b);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
        strip.show();
        delay(10);
    }
    //reset to rainbow
    for (i=0; i<5; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(127,0,0);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
    }
    for (i=5; i<10; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(0,255,0);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
    }
    for (i=10; i<15; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(255,255,0);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
    }
    for (i=15; i<20; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(255,0,255);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
    }
    for (i=20; i<25; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(0,255,0);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
    }
    for (i=25; i<30; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(127,255,127);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
    }
    strip.show();
    delay(100);
    //running red (x2)
    for (i=0; i<LED_COUNT; i++)
    {
        c = strip.Color(r,g,b);
        strip.setPixelColor(i,c);
        strip.show();
        delay(10);
    }
}

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int fsrPin = A5;
int fsrReading = 0;

int last_published = 0;

void setup() {
    
    pinMode(fsrPin, INPUT);

}

void loop() {
    fsrReading = analogRead(fsrPin);
    if (fsrReading > 1500)
    {
        if (millis() - last_published > 1000)
        {
            Particle.publish("coolball/homescore", "homescore");
            last_published = millis();
        }
        
    }
}

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Next Step

Further investigate into the cheering behavior and attention spans of fans in stadiums.
Identify games or activities that fans as a crowd can participate together.
Reach out to fans watching live-streaming and enable them to a more engaging experience similar to the stadium.

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References

LED

Accelerometer

Vibration motor

https://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/content/how-to-drive-a-vibration-motor-with-arduino-and-genuino/

Overall

http://diotfall2019.daraghbyrne.me/

Also, thanks to Benqiao Jiang for her generous time and comments regarding basketball stadiums, match composition, fan behavior, and expectations.

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