When the explorers touch the sarcophagus wall, the hieroglyphics near their hands light up. When they take their hands away, the lights fade. Three of the cartouches light up in blue, and the others light up in white.
Mechanism
The lighting mechanism consists of white and blue LEDs, infrared proximity sensors, and microcontrollers. The sensors detect when the explorers are nearby, prompting the LEDs near those sensors to turn on. The interaction can be enhanced by programming the LEDs to brighten or dim depending on the explorers' distance from the sensors.
Interactive LEDs Samples
Hieroglyphics
User Experience
The explorers notice that three of the cartouches light up in blue while the others light up in white. They also find cartouches on the statues around the crypt.
Mechanism
The different colored lights provide the explorers with a clue that the cartouches lit in blue are key to the puzzle. To make the puzzle more interesting, the cartouches on the statues are mirror images of those on the sarcophagus, since the Ancient Egyptians wrote hieroglyphics both from left to right and from right to left. The direction in which the hieroglyphic figures face and the ending vertical line in the hieroglyphics are clues to the writing's direction. To increase the difficulty, we can (1) write the hieroglyphics in a mix of directions on the sarcophagus, as well as on the statues; and (2) introduce red herrings with LEDs in other colors.
