Serious game can be fun

Skindeep is a collaborative project between Niels Quinten, Danny Leen, Thomas Lammers, Olivier Berger and Tom Luyten.  It was realised at the Media & Design academy in Genk, Belgium.

Skindeep consists of two major elements:  A PDA which runs an interactive, touch controlled flash game and custom Electronics that take care of producing small electrical shocks and produce heat.  These two are brought together in a custom made casing and placed on ones arm for a rich interactive learning experience with physical feedback.

This is what happens when you play the game:

level 1

you are presented with the upper skin layer.  This layer is there to prevent germs and dirt from entering your body.  It is your task to divide cells in the lower region of the skin as fast as possible to build up a nice protective layer.  This is done by tapping your finger on the touchscreen  where the cells are displayed.  If you succeed the germs will bounce off and die.  If you don’t, the built in muscle-stimulator generates a small electrical shock and you lose points.

Level 2

is a little bit further down the skin.  Here the body temperature is controlled by producing sweat, goosebumps,…  Your consists of maintaining the body temperature around 37 degrees Celcius by rubbing the touchscreen to warm up the skin when it gets too cold and blow onto the screen (actually a microphone) too cool it back down.  When you do not succeed and the skin temperature rises above 37 degrees a resistance wire will be activated causing your arm to heat up.  If it sinks below 37° it will cool off again.