HotSpot

HotSpot

HotSpot is an ETC project in partnership with robotics company Boston Dynamics. BD would like to change people’s ideas of what robots can do. Our team aims to explore and create an entertaining experience for Spot, a nimble robot designed for various functional purposes. We’re building a compelling game where Spot not only interacts with the physical space but also connects with humans emotionally, leveraging Spot’s mobility and dog-like appearance.

About

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Team

Shelley Xiao

Project Producer Visit Portfolio / LinkedIn 

I am a software engineer who explores the space between art, design, and humans. I am passionate about learning and exploring how to fill this space through interactive technology. Currently, I am a graduate student studying entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. I’ll join Facebook after graduation.

Amelia Xi Li

Experience Designer & Assisstant Producer Visit Portfolio / LinkedIn 

Amelia is an experience designer and engineer for digital-physical environments. With backgrounds in Digital Media Arts and Electronic Engineering, she focuses on interactive technology to design, combining physical devices and MR technology for artistic creation.

Arnav Banerji

3D Artist Visit Portfolio / LinkedIn 

Arnav Banerji is a 3D artist and animator with an interest in working in the feature film industry as a Previz/Layout artist. His goal at the Entertainment Technology Center is to bring together his interests in film-making, cinematography, and 3D world building to explore new possibilities in storytelling.

Yang Lei

Game Designer Visit Portfolio / LinkedIn 

Yang Lei has been a game designer with experience in designing game mechanics and balancing the game.Yang Lei is now graduate student in ETC, CMU. He hopes to deliver a game that is greater than merely being fun.

Tyler Thompson

Programmer Visit Portfolio / LinkedIn 

Tyler Thompson is a game programmer currently working towards a Master of Entertainment Technology at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), Carnegie Mellon University. He is a passionate life-long gamer with a strong interest in gameplay programming and design. It is this passion that drives him to work in the game industry

Yoli Shen

2D Artist Visit Portfolio / LinkedIn 

2D Artist

Instructors

Carl Rosendahl

Carl is a Distinguished Professor of the Practice and the Director of ETC’s Silicon Valley location. Carl joined the ETC in 2008.

Carl graduated with a BSEE from Stanford University in 1979. Seeking a way to combine his passions for filmmaking and technology, he founded Pacific Data Images in 1980. PDI became one of the pioneering and most highly innovative creators of computer animation for film and television. During his 20 years of leading the organization, PDI produced over 700 commercials, worked on visual effects for over 70 feature films and, in partnership with DreamWorks SKG, produced the hit animated film “Antz” and the Academy Award winning “Shrek.” Carl received multiple Emmy Awards and in 1998 was recognized with a Technical Achievement Academy Award for PDI’s contributions to modern filmmaking. In early 2000 he sold PDI to DreamWorks SKG.

Scott Stevens

Scott Stevens is senior systems scientist in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute as well as faculty in the Entertainment Technology Center. His research interest’s lie in the emerging, complex field of multimedia. Most applications fail to take full advantage of the information bandwidth, much less the capabilities of a multimedia, digital video and audio environment. To achieve, in part, a new model of multimedia systems, Scott’s research includes interface designs that consider the complexity of multimedia objects, create high-fidelity environments, and incorporate an understanding of cinema and of digital video’s temporal, spatial, and psychological nature. Scott’s work also aspires to take the captivating power of story and fantasy, and combine it with motivating design, for applications ranging from learning and entertainment to information access and scientific visualization.

Our Client

Boston Dynamics

Changing your idea of what robots can do

Boston Dynamics

Week 16 – Final presentation and post mortem

It's the last week of the semester!! We presented on Wednesday and we hope we delivered it well. Sharing the post-mortem here: Overview of the...
Read More "Week 16 – Final presentation and post mortem"

Week 15 – Live stream and ETC Festival

We are working on the final document that we will deliver to our clients. This Master Doc serves as a manual for the clients to...
Read More "Week 15 – Live stream and ETC Festival"

Week 14 – Soft opening

On Monday, we had our Soft opening presentation. We first introduced the project, the client's needs, and our deliverables to the faculty. Then we explained...
Read More "Week 14 – Soft opening"

Week 13 – Thanksgiving

We went back to the ETC to film the shots we missed last week. We also fixed some of the hardware connection issues. More importantly,...
Read More "Week 13 – Thanksgiving"

Week 12 – The whole game!

This week we were finalizing the level design (the layout of the room) and putting the last code pieces of the color transmitting game! Here...
Read More "Week 12 – The whole game!"

Week 11 – Full speed ahead

This week, we set up our project and playtested with 6 playtesters in our project rooms. Although we are still working on the color transmitting...
Read More "Week 11 – Full speed ahead"

Week 10 – Paper prototype playtest and a new mini-game!

Another mini-game idea is born after we received positive feedback from our clients. The game we thought of is color picking, delivering, and combination. In...
Read More "Week 10 – Paper prototype playtest and a new mini-game!"

Week 9 – Control Spot to achieve a sequence of interactions

Last week, we had a rough draft of our experience background story and our client liked it. We started to create a paper prototype. The...
Read More "Week 9 – Control Spot to achieve a sequence of interactions"

Week 8 – 1/2 Presentation

We practiced with our instructors again on Monday. This time, we removed most words in our slides by pictures.  For example, this slide is about...
Read More "Week 8 – 1/2 Presentation"

Contact

If you are interested in our project or want to playtest, please email us at etc-hotspot@lists.andrew.cmu.edu.

Week 16 – Final presentation and post mortem

It’s the last week of the semester!! We presented on Wednesday and we hope we delivered it well. Sharing the post-mortem here: Overview of the project HotSpot is an ETC project in partnership with robotics company Boston Dynamics. Our team aims to explore and create an entertaining experience for Spot, a nimble robot designed for various functional purposes. We’re …

Week 15 – Live stream and ETC Festival

We are working on the final document that we will deliver to our clients. This Master Doc serves as a manual for the clients to understand the design, game, and playtests. They’ll be able to recreate the experience using the Master Doc along with all the documents listed. Notably, when they replicate the game, they don’t have to have …

Week 14 – Soft opening

On Monday, we had our Soft opening presentation. We first introduced the project, the client’s needs, and our deliverables to the faculty. Then we explained what was our experience and story looks like. Finally, we showed them the map and demo videos of the highlights. In the end, we left 5 minutes for Q&A and live demos. The feedback …

Week 13 – Thanksgiving

We went back to the ETC to film the shots we missed last week. We also fixed some of the hardware connection issues. More importantly, the programmers took Spots home! (The boxes are really huge and heavy XD. The Uber driver seemed to be curious about the boxes) Well, we had to tell you. The next Monday is the …

Week 12 – The whole game!

This week we were finalizing the level design (the layout of the room) and putting the last code pieces of the color transmitting game! Here we’re going to share important information of the game: Game setting  Player: Captain from Earth  Partner: Spot Where: Planet X Mission: To retrieve the energy ball and lighten up the purple crystal flower  Spot’s …

Week 11 – Full speed ahead

This week, we set up our project and playtested with 6 playtesters in our project rooms. Although we are still working on the color transmitting game, the in-person playtest tested different parts of the experience. We mainly tested control and interaction with the environment. To be more specific, we wanted to see whether they could use the Xbox controller …

Week 10 – Paper prototype playtest and a new mini-game!

Another mini-game idea is born after we received positive feedback from our clients. The game we thought of is color picking, delivering, and combination. In the last game, we demonstrated Spot’s ability to catch, carry, and shoot the ball. So instead of carrying physical objects like balls, we thought it would be also great to let Spot carry something …

Week 9 – Control Spot to achieve a sequence of interactions

Last week, we had a rough draft of our experience background story and our client liked it. We started to create a paper prototype. The reason that we need this prototype is that we want to visualize our experience and put all the individual experience into a complete longer experience. After we finish the paper prototype, we’ll also use …

Week 8 – 1/2 Presentation

We practiced with our instructors again on Monday. This time, we removed most words in our slides by pictures.  For example, this slide is about Spot’s constraints and the covid restriction we’re facing. We have pictures of Spot and CMU and an icon here. Then we have the script like this: “At the same time, there are some constraints …

Week 7 – Before 1/2

Since next week is our ½ presentation, we spent some time working on the slides and rehearsal. The presentation will be 15 minutes long followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. Normally, we would have delivered our presentation formally. Now, we’ll deliver the presentation through Zoom. It might be less stressful but we still need to professional. We’ll have one …