Lightball

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  The whole system, consisting of OSRAM LEDs, a modified Smartball and a conductive sensor (+ hidden controllers and communication devices)

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  Our Lightball shirt gives you feedback through it's bright and colorful light.

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  The shirt has two LED stripes, a conductive sensor and Bluetoot Low Energy connectivity.

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  Our impact sensor is made of copper tape and emits a signal if it's hit by a prepared ball or even a Nerf dart.

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  Adidas Smartball with copper tape. The copper tape can create a circuit upon impact with a player.

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  Testing process.

When was the last time you played dodgeball? In preliminary school? Don’t worry, same here! But: We came here to make dodgeball cool again (cooler than it already is, of course!) Prepare for the first gamification of a game.

With Lightball, we just added a bit of Tron to dodgeball. It is simple: The main part of our project is the Lightball shirt. The shirt has some LEDs that show your "lives" in the game and sensors which detect when you have been hit by a ball (like a referee). If this happens, the game automatically removes one of your lives and directly shows you your remaining lives on the shirt. Expand your game!

How it works

Lightball is an app that lets you control your Lightball-shirt. Via bluetooth, you can connect yourself and other players and build teams. Once you’re ready, press start. If you get hit by the smartball, it connects with the shirt and you will lose one life. That will be displayed on the smart shirt via LED lights from Osram. Your green lights will be replaced by more and more red lights. Once you lost all of your four lives, you’re out – no cheating!

Challenges we ran into

We ran into a lot of challenges – from features of the smartball we had to deal with and need to enrich in the further process to making the LED lights light up the way we wanted to plus putting all this technology into a shirt that still allows you to move. To improve that, we actually need other tech equipment that exists but wasn’t available at the hackathon.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

That we managed all these challenges nonetheless and created different workarounds.

What’s next for Lightball?

More features from even smarter Smartballs. If we had the speed of ball when it hits a player, we could remove different amounts of live from the player. Nerf guns, of course, and lots of other sports

Built With

• android
• feather
• smartball