Cata Gata Software brief

Hardware
pentium 2 450mhz
Data projector

Hardware Interface
4 switches connected to the parallel port.

Function

The image will be a data projection probably 1024 x 768

 On screen there are nine image events that happen.
1. the letters c g a and t (and corresponding arrows) are displayed in random order (they may end up being animated).
2. sheep one opens and closes mouth
3. sheep two opens and closes mouth
4. the typed letters scroll across the screen as they are typed by the bouncers.
5. the counter counts
6. the thermometer animation plays
7. the mutation sign appears
8. sheep one mutates into someting strange and semi random (ie we have five options)
9. sheep two mutates into someting strange and semi random (ie we have five options)

And there are twelve sound events.
1. sheep one says c
2.sheep one says g
3.sheep one says a
4.sheep one says t
5.sheep one says something strange and semi random (ie we might have five options)
6. sheep two says c
7.sheep two says g
8.sheep two says a
9.sheep two says t
10.sheep two says something strange and semi random (ie we might have five options)
11. animation one of thermometer.
12. animation two of thermometer.

Description
There are four tractor seats that are labelled c, g, a and t. Users bounce up and down on the seats following the instructions on the screen.

On the screen a letter and arrow appears randomly, either c, g, a or t  and the person on the corresponding seat must bounce once. If they do the counter goes up by 1 and sheep one says the letter that is bounced and the letter that they bounced appears at the start of the sequence of letters scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Another letter and arrow appears randomly and the user must then bounce on that seat, if they do the counter increases by one and sheep two says the letter that is bounced and the letter that they bounced appears at the start of the sequence of letters scrolling across the bottom of the screen. This process is repeated over and over again.

If the wrong letter is bounced on then the word "mutation" appears in place of the letter and arrow, whichever sheep is due to talk next makes a strange noise, the letter that they bounced on is printed in the bottom scrolling section in a different colour (say blue), the counter still increases by one and then the process continues as above.

Every time the counter reaches a number that is a multiple of 100, the letter and arrow are replaced by an animation of a thermometer that shows how far the users have reached so far compared to how far they have to go th describe the dna in the human genome. The scale of this will be such that it will take 10 million bounces to fill the thermometer to the point where it reaches the top of  the view window. The animation will pause on the opening frame for 3 sec then will start its zoom to the top of the thermometer and back again. I will do two animations for this, one of the thermometer filling up over 2000 frames and one of the zoom to the top. I will animate it in such a way as to obscure the filled area in the first frame. Thus it will be a matter of advancing the first animation by one frame every five thousand bounces and then swapping to the second animation. Once the second animation is completed the appropriate frame of the first animation is again displayed for 3 seconds and then the interactive returns to its normal cycle. There will probably also be an audio associated with the first and second animations.

Cata gata description page

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