How To Play Dodgeball

Game play for Dodgeball is quite simple, but, at least for this version, requires the assistance of a sighted person.

Once installation is complete (instructions given later), to begin playing, start up python and type "import Dodgeball" in the command line. Make sure that your webcam is plugged in.

You will then see two windows pop up. One has two pictures of the image that the camera sees and the other has a set of scroll bars.

The first thing to do is make sure that nothing that will move (i.e. no people) is in view of the webcam and then press the "Take Picture" button in the window with the images. This takes a calibration image so that the player can be tracked. Then, you should press the "Do Differences" button which will allow the player to be tracked. You will notice that the top left picture shows the calibration photo, the top right shows what is currently different from the calibration image, and a new image will pop up that is what the webcam currently sees.

You may also notice that on this new image, there are two cross-hairs. The blue one tracks the center of the person in the picture. Watch how it follows anything that moves in the scene. The red one is where the dodgeball is being thrown.

Now, in the other window are controls for the game. There are a set of scroll bars to customize your gaming experience:

• Flip Speakers: Depending on how your speakers are set up, you may need to press this to fix the orientation.
• Player Height: Since not all players are the same height, you can tailor this setting to the individula player.
• Player Width: Same idea as the height.
• Ball Height: Vertical locatoin of ball.
• Ball Width: Horizontal location of ball.
• Frames per Sec: By increasing this, the camera will take the pictures with a higher frequency.
• FSOUND Distance: This reflects how the pixels on the screen translate into physical distances.
• Match Threshold: Increasing this requires a greater difference in the scene to be detected. If this value is too low, white noise could greatly affect the tracking.
• Collision Threshold: This affects how easy it is for the player to avoid the ball. The lower it is, the more likely a graze will actually hit the player; the higher it is, the more direct the hit has to be.

Once you have the settings properly adjusted to your gaming needs, it's time to play. There are two differnet game modes. At the bottom of the control window, you will see a button to engage in each mode: "Throw Ball" and "Throw Random"

By pressing "Throw Ball," the ball will be thrown to the location specified by the scroll bars. Only one ball will be thrown. To throw another one, you need to press "Throw Ball" again (but be sure to change the ball's location or the player will know it's coming).

By pressing "Throw Random," the game will randomly generate locations to throw the ball to. In this mode, balls will be repeatedly thrown at the player until you press "Stop."

Important Notes on equipment:

• You need to make sure that your webcam is plugged in or the game will not
• The game works best when it is easy to distinguish between the left and the right speakers. So, use headphones, if you have a long enough cord or wireless ones. If you do not, use

Have FUN!!!!

To download the game, click on the following link: Download Game
To go back to the main page, click on the following link: Main Page

---