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Today we have a very cool tutorial from our e-textiles guru Dia. This tutorial has kinda already made the rounds on the interwebs (such as on Gizmodo), but we wanted to mention it here because, well, it's pretty awesome. Check it out:
What you see above is a Dungeon and Dragons bracer that is equipped with a 7-segment display. When the wearer shakes his/her arm, it will randomly display the numbers 1 and 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, or 100. So, essentially, it could replace all the dice you'd need to play D&D. The project uses a bunch of LilyPad components, namely:
- Conductive Thread
- LilyPad Arduino 328 Main Board
- LilyPad Accelerometer ADXL335
- LilyPad Slide Switches
- 7-Segment Serial Display
- LiPo Charger basic
- Polymer lithium Ion Battery
This is a very cool (and super nerdy) project that we really like. It shows an awesome way to apply e-textile technology to a useful project. Check out Dia's full-tutorial for more information and to learn how to build your own!
FUS RO DAH! (wait, not skyrim)
I'm imagining a great many LARP applications for this one, Hit/Magic Point tracker, sound FX, ext.
Oh, that would be awesome! Give it a bigger display and a bunch of buttons, then design a modified DnD rule set that's implemented on the device. Link them together in a wireless mesh and hypothetically, you could automate nearly the entire system. You'd need a DM who's watching a computer that's running the simulation to call out who has initiative, etc.
Exactly what I was thinking, couple that with some really sweet augmented reality programming and away you go.
You don't even need the augmented reality stuff, LARP has that part of it covered already. You just need to be able to connect the array of Arduino devices on the wrists to a server (perhaps running Linux) so they could communicate to a process running the scenario the players are engaged in. Oh, if only someone would develop an Arduino network to Linux gateway!
That's awesome. Well done, Dia!
Ack ! I really wish I'd ordered Lilypad stuff in my last order. I would order some stuff now, but shipping is $10. I have a homeschool D&D party regularly and have a twentieth level rogue/SD/assasin, so whenever I sneak attack, I have to roll like, 30d6.
That reminds me of a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54VJWHL2K3I
Will it stop me from constantly rolling 1's?
It depends. Do you have any ethics?
Depends on which character I'm playing.
As the inventor of the 30 sided die (`82 patent application eventually refused) kudos! But sad that the ugly duckling of dice wasn't represented.
LOL!!! Nice!
Gotta add the MP3 Trigger to it for ambient noise for the types of rolls...
That's pretty cool! You could probably re purpose the digital watch kit to do something like that, too.
Of course, it might look suspicious when you suddenly start rolling a lot of natural 20s... Heh.