Final presentation slides and review

Here are the presentation slides we used for our presentation.
Dropbox link (click me)

All in all we have learned a lot about android- and java programming during this course (ECE150) which we can use for future projects. Especially the OpenGL ES 2.0 content was kind of brief though, yet it is of vital importance to understand the basic mechanics of graphics.
Unlike our first expectations the work on certain problems went off faster and easier as we thought in the first place and boosted our eager to accomplish the project's goals. Homework 1 and 4 were very helpful for this project and we gained plenty of experience in activity management (life cycles), use of resources (images, audio, sensor) and moving/rotating 3D graphics as well as designing models (vertices and texture application).

Software is never finished, thus there are implementations we can think of making our app even more fun.
Animations are something we haven't touched for this project but would make a great improvement regarding user experience. Moreover a third way of controlling the hero via touch-display could adress a wider range of users, those who aren't comfortable with virtual buttons and gyroscope in particular.
Last but not least more different obstacles and multiplayer are features we would like to see for this app before we can consider it as market-ready.

We highly recommend the course ECE150 Mobile Embedded Systems at UCSB for whoever wishes to start with android app programming and has a certain amount of background knowledge in java programming.

Final demonstration video

UPDATE #10: It is done

I proudly announce that the project is done. A demonstration video is following soon.

UPDATE #9: Added Main menu

A main menu was added which comes with its own background music! Here you can choose between starting and exiting the game as well as 'highscore' which has no functionality yet.

UPDATE # 8: Collision Detection, Obstacles, Score and Life

We managed to merge our work together and put some collision detection into the game, so that the user is now able to actually catch falling objects. Randomly placed obstacles were added to make the player's life hard. Score points and life points are now updated on the top left corner of the screen to display game progress. Some more sounds were added and we created our own icon and splash screen.

Further work:

• Menu for start, highscore and options
• Designing own 3D models
• Implementing these models
• Designing and implementing own image targets

Yellow teapot: Hero | Green Teapot: Obstacles | Blue Teapot: Raindrops

UPDATE #7: Music, sound and options

We added functionality to the options window, which was given in the sample apps. In the options menu the user is able to switch on/off background music and sensor control so far. In addition, the reference point for the sensor rotation vector can be set here. Moreover, there's background music played. The looped song is from Okami, all rights to the owner! Furthermore some short sounds were added.

UPDATE #6: Controlling implemented

We are able to move a teapot by pressing virtual buttons now. Moreover, the rotation vector sensor is involved and can be used to control the teapot. By rotating the device more than 10° off the initial angle the teapot is moving to the respective direction.

UPDATE #5: Falling objects at random locations

We were able to create falling objects that are located in all different random coordinates. They falls along the z-axis with different falling speed. Whenever the objects reach the grounds, which is 0 coordinate for z axis, they will be replaced to the new random locations on top again.

UPDATE #4: Work got split

We decided to split the work.
Wilhelm is working on the virtual button control and gyroscope control of a teapot and Yu-Cheol is busy with randomly placed falling objects.

UPDATE #3: Small Teapots visualized

We were able to visualize 4 small teapots on arbitrary positions of the given image target.

UPDATE #2: Investigating Vuforia Sample apps

We successfully investigated the vuforia sample apps and just started experimenting with their functionalities. Trying to render multiple small teapots on different locations on the image target first.

UPDATE #1 : Progress schedule published!

We are looking forward to announce that our progress schedule is published!
Please refer to site 'Progress schedule (milestones)'.

Project description (Concept)

CatchEver is an Augmented Reality game played on an android device. Basically the user has control over a figure projected on top of a target image and must catch falling objects. The target image contains four virtual buttons for additional game features and figure's control.

Game layout. Raindrops are to be catched by a figure holding a bucket.

The amount of catched and uncatched objects will be scored and displayed on the corner of the android device' screen. There's a limit for uncatched objects thus giving the user a challenge.

Gameplay

 1. Certain pictures can be recognized by the app. As soon as an image is recognized, the game's hero as well as some obstacles are projected on the image's surface and the user gets control over the hero.

2. In order to control the hero the user can press the virtual buttons on the image or rotate the device to make the hero go in one certain direction. The virtual buttons can be used to either control the hero or to change the game's environment e.g. changing the raindrops into cash or moving obstacles to different positions.

Different usages of the virtual buttons.

3. As soon as an object hits the figure, it's defined as catched and missed else. Every missed decrements the hero's life resulting in his premature perishing.


Additional (future) features 

We also like to implement background music which changes with proceeding user's activity. Furthermore, it should be possible to use self-made target resources to design own game maps with respective obstacle location.