Laser dance matrix lets you rock out right on the floor

Dragging dance pad tech out of the PowerPad age, Applied Sciences' Laser Dance Matrix eliminates all the moving parts (except yours). The "pad" features four laser diodes interfaced with the guts of a Logitech Gamepad, triggering a buttonpress when your foot breaks a beam. The designers say that gameplay is similar to any other dancepad, with the notable difference of dancing on directly on the floor, which seems like a huge improvement to us. We just hope they take the next logical step and combine this with one of those LED dance floors that keep popping up -- talk about an instant party. The unit is just a prototype for now, but Applied Sciences is gauging interest to see if they should build them -- hit the read link to demand your laser dance upgrade.

[Via Hack A Day]

[Fred @ May 6th 2007 2:01AM]

Yeah, having that frame to trip over if you make any mistakes is a "huge improvement."

[NovaLand @ May 6th 2007 2:49AM]

So the next step is to make small rugged knobs with the LED's on the floor with all cabling and electronics molded into the concrete floor and we'll have a great time for a few days! :)

[jpxdude @ May 6th 2007 3:13AM]

Certainly looks a little too fragile. Most people on the dance pads never correctly stay within the boundaries of the square, especially when the action gets more frantic. Unless they make a better frame, we can expect a lot of people tripping, bending, or crushing the thing before getting any decent use out of it.

[Matt M @ May 6th 2007 3:45AM]

What's with the cassette adaptor? How does it detect a foot in the center square?

[Andrew @ May 6th 2007 5:58AM]

It isn't supposed to detect feet in the centre square, man.

[Keith @ May 6th 2007 10:18AM]

Hmmm... How does it distinguish between one foot in the top-right square, versus one foot in the right square and one foot in the top square? I suppose you could argue that the dancing games typically only use the top/bottom/left/right squares for dancing, reserving the corner squares for menu control where one foot is used at a time, but it's still an interesting limitation to be aware of.

[Jay @ May 6th 2007 1:16PM]

I just see several fundamental flaws with this.

The big thing is if you step in one of the corners, it will register as 2 arrows. Not so much a problem in DDR, but in ITG, if you're playing a song with alot of mines, that could turn into a real disaster.

Also, I think most players prefer something with tactile feedback

[Mike @ May 6th 2007 10:47PM]

"How does it detect a foot in the center square?"

DDR pads don't use the middle square.

"How does it distinguish between one foot in the top-right square, versus one foot in the right square and one foot in the top square?"

DDR pads don't use the top-right square.

"Also, I think most players prefer something with tactile feedback"

DDR pads don't offer tactile feedback.

...have you guys ever used or at least seen a DDR pad?

[Shinrai @ May 7th 2007 10:15AM]

DDR Solo uses the top right square.

Pump It Up uses ONLY the corners and the center. DDR isn't the only game in the world, yaknow.

And, uhm, all arcade platforms have tactile feedback. The little ridges around the squares? They help you feel where you are on the pad.

//obviously you don't play

[John Laur @ May 7th 2007 11:31AM]

I will repost my hackaday comment here:

I play a fair amount of DDR on my MAME cabinet -- and I play well enough that my cheapo soft pads have become the limiting factor to improvement. I have been wanting to build some good pads for a long time so I read this article with interest.I see tremendous problems with this design, though. Some I believe can be remedied but others are going to be much more difficult. Thee first and most major problem is that the design lacks every single feature that a good DDR player relies on to position themselves -- the edges between buttons can be felt with your feet on any soft or hard pad I've ever played on and it's critical for there to be some kind of tactile indication there. I believe you could fix this problem by building a thin substructure underneath the pad to give the player something they can feel with their feet rather than just relying on some kind of invisible (or tape) grid to tell them where their feet are.The second big problem is that the pads design gives it a very large raised edge.

I can say with some certainty that if I played on this pad I would trip on the edge and fall. I have big feet and go 'outside the lines' a whole lot. Other people might not have this problem.The third problem is that you have to break the beam to register -- so you have to put your foot dead center on the beams axis to get the step to trigger. On a real pad you can register the step by pressing on the very edge of a pad. This is an absolutely critical feature for advanced players.The last major problem I see is that technically the pad is open for cheating since you can trigger two of the standard arrows by stepping into a corner. Although some people (particularly advanced ITG players) are fairly adept at triggering two pads with one foot anyway, taking it down to this level of ease is a little much. I think this problem is solvable too though -- but to keep a design without an interior frame, you would need more beams to make it work.The last (minor) gripe is that you cant play anything other than 4-button songs. Again more lasers or a different beam design could enable this but it's still going to be easier to use mechanical switches.I think that if you really want to build a solid state optical pad the best way would be to use take a cue from the multitouch builders out there and use (fairly thick) polycarbonate steps that are illuminated from the side with IR. When an object is in contact with this from the top it should reflect a lot more IR down underneath than the blank panel would. Using an IR sensitive phototransistor or photoresistor and some nice little PIC code that compares the input of these to a baseline calibration reading of the empty pad you should be able to build a quite sensitive and responsive solid state pad.

[quiwiz @ May 7th 2007 1:46PM]

Just to add a couple of things:
You could always improve the resolution of the design by increasing the number of diodes (9x9) for increased step sensitivity, or at least include a center beam to prevent corner step "cheating".

There would also have to be very precise alignment of the diodes to place them /very/ close to the ground. Even then, if there was any difference between the time when foot touches the ground (tactile feedback) and when it registers the step (slightly above ground) it could be the difference between a AAA and AA.

As for another solid state design, there was someone who built a capacitance based pad a while back. Interesting in concept XD
http://www.spritesmods.com/?art=ddrmat