The Concept

TeraPing is a giant version of the computer game "Pong". The screen is projected down onto the floor, and players move their bats by treading on sensors next to the desired bat position. It's fun, energetic, and serves no useful purpose except perhaps improving foot / eye coordination!

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of Pong, which was the very first video computer game, you might like to visit these sites. The Original Pong Game, Java Pong (play on-line!) and Pong Links

This website is written from the personal perspective of Alastair Disley, one of the five team members who undertook a team project as part of the MSc course in Music Technology at the University of York. Since this website was written, Teraping was very successfully exhibited at the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield for six weeks under the title "Projected Games".

The Task

TeraPing was the end result of a group project to design a multimedia installation. We had very few limits - it could have been an audio-visual installation which allowed passer-bys to interact with it, an audio-visual composition or work of art of some sort, or even an audio visual performance instrument. TeraPing is most like the former, although the interface system we developed for it could also be used for the latter.

Ideas

The concept of TeraPing came out of a group brain-storming session. There were three main ideas that emerged.

• Mark suggested a web camera, focused on the installation space. The space itself would be simple, perhaps even just a wall with a web address on, with visitors to the website controlling the experiences of the real-life visitors.

• Tasos and Alexis suggested a labyrinth, with the maze path not marked out, but discovered by the user as they walked around it. Pressure sensors would trigger audio-visual events to guide the user. One idea was that as the user progressed, a tune would be built up, with wrong notes where the user had strayed from the path.

• I suggested, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, a giant game of computer Pong, where the user controlled their bat with floor sensors. I envisaged it being projected onto a table at waist height, but, that apart, the final project is just what I had in my mind's eye.

Of the three suggestions, I preferred the labyrinth idea - the exploratory nature appealed to me. I felt that the first suggestion offered no interest to the real-life audience, and that my suggestion again offered less to participants than the labyrinth.

Having now built TeraPing, I was wrong! The participants loved it, and people queued to have a go. Although I still like the labyrinth idea, the quantity of sensors necessary would probably have put the budget outside the scope of this project. The strengths of TeraPing, which became apparant in the group discussion and refinement of my idea, are that it encourages multiple users over a wide age and ability range, and it is very easy to engage with and get satisfying results from.

Along with the concept of the simple, easy to use computer game came the idea that the graphics and sounds should be simple, the emphasis being on gameplay and engaging the user rather than fancy graphics or complex esoteric sound structures. Mark suggested that instead of the conventional competitive scoring system, where points are scored by making your opponent miss the ball, we could develop a constructive scoring system, where the number of times the ball is hit before it goes out of play is counted. Both players would then be working together to build up a high score.

This was the finished concept we set about implementing.