Tunnel Vision

Inspiration

My roommate Nina Singh was playing a game called Run where a little alien runs and jumps through a tunnel of platforms. The inspiration came from the fact that the alien could translate to another wall if the current path was impossible to go through. The idea then came to us to develop a toy that could produce this same concept: maneuver 3 Dimensional pieces to allow a "character" to pass.

What it does

There are a set of 3D puzzle pieces that a user can use to place inside Tunnel Vision. They can rotate and secure the pieces through a washer and screw system. The user then must place the mouse on top of the puzzle, place the lid of the box on top, and try to maneuver the mouse from the top to the bottom by translating and rotating puzzle pieces. It is simplistic in design and able to be used as people can be designers of the puzzles or solvers. In addition, the size of Tunnel Vision is travel friendly. Anyone can take it wherever they go. Friends can develop simple to complex maps to challenge other friends to get the mouse from the top of the box to the bottom. This product is targeted towards children and teenagers.

How We built it

We made the puzzle pieces out of layers of foam core, screws, and washers. The Tunnel Vision body was lasercut, acrylic and we assembled it using epoxy, superglue, and K'nex pieces.

What We learned

We took a lot of time in the beginning to plan out our course of action. We compared and contrasted different design types for geometries of puzzles and how we could make it more user friendly. Being able to carefully plan made the execution very smooth. We learned that simplicity in a design is key, which allowed us to finish our project on time.