Hatshepsut Returns: Sarcophagus Opening
Wei Xun He
Design 1
When designing the Sarcophagus Opening, I originally focussed on HOW it was going to open, especially thinking about space constraint and safety. Since I knew this could be quite complicated, I decided to scale down my project and use a shoebox to represent a coffin so I can focus on the mechanism. Then I also thought about the overall experience during the opening. What should this feel like?
First, I explored several mechanisms and compared them, including one-sided hinge, two-sided hinge, and sliding.The hinge idea worked well with the small floorplan because it just rotates in place, and it can open really slowly to not surprise anyone. And since it's just rotation, I can accomplish this action with a simple high torque motor. On the other hand, the sliding idea seemed more elegant. I really liked the sliding motion which seemed more natural. But this wasn't kind to the little space we have because it displaces horizontally.
Now that the lid can open, what else can I do to make the experience more realistic? I explored different ways that the opening of the lid can engage with the senses of the players. Watching the lid open already engages with the eyes, what if the player can hear wood creaking and also feel wind too? That would convey that the coffin is really old and that an actual spirit may be floating around! With this vision in mind, now it's time to build!
After deciding on the hinge idea, it was time to brainstorm how to make it. I sourced motors ranging from tiny servo motors to commercial window lift motor and came up with different opening mechanisms. As the designer, I approximated that the lid of the coffin, which was the main moving part, could be as light as blue foam. I rationalized this with a storyline that told the players to respect the Sarcophagus and fail them on contact with the Sarcophagus. With the design contraint in mind, I decided to scale down the project to a shoebox and focus on making that open. Then, I sourced all of the material, including an Arduino, PC fan, speaker, high torque servo, and last but not least, a shoebox.
Build 1
Then I googled tutorials for how to connect an arduino with each individual component. Then I integrated the code to work with all three outputs.
I took a piece of purple foam and cut out grooves for the motor to stay in place mechanically. It also allowed me to control the height of the electronics relative to the height of the shoebox.
Test 1
I experimented with different settings for all three outputs, as well as the order of the experiences, by testing with college students. When opening the lid, since it needed to be safe, I set a lower limit for the opening time at five seconds. Then I experimented with even longer time, how would the feeling of suspense change if the lid took longer to open? For the fan, I tried running it at multiple speeds, ranging from 500 to 2500 rpm. I also tried placing it inside the shoebox coffin and outside of it. For the speaker, I used a really simple speaker that can produce beats and notes.
After testing with several college students, most people preferred the experience when the lid took around 10 seconds to open with the fan running at max rpm outside. However, they also noted that it was hard to imagine the actual experience because I showed them a shoebox. This made me realize that scaling down the build scales down the experience exponentially. Since I am testing an experience, a lifesize model is very important. Time to go back to the drawing board.
Design 2
After making the shoebox model, I took a step back and asked, what is the coffin experience? I realized that I wanted to create an experience as immersive as possible, so it was crucial that I create a lifesize model. The lifesize model would be similar to the shoebox model in terms of concept, but the experience would be magnified. The coffin should be the size of a real person, almost 6 foot long, 5 feet across and tall. I upgraded the output devices to a real box fan and bluetooth speaker.
Build 2
First, I needed to make the box. I used a piece of paper to design a 2D cutout that would fold into the hexagonal shape of a traditional coffin. Once I settled on the dimensions, I created it in Illustrator and scaled it up to fit a 4 by 8 feet sheet of paper. Then I printed it out using a plotter, pasted it on a 4 by 8 feet sheet of cardboard, and cut it out to make the frame of the coffin.
Second, I needed to make the lid. The lid needed to be of substantial volume in order to seem realistic, and able to pivot around a hinge. I found a piece 3 by 6 feet purple foam in PDL, and traced a slightly larger hexagonal shape out. Then I cut a groove along the edge so that the lid can fit inside the coffin and sit flat on top.Then I cut along the long straight edge to let the lid pivot and screwed on two metal hinges. Since purple foam is really soft, the screw was not very secured, so I reinforced the hinge with painter tape.
After making the lid functional, I needed to make it look realistic. I used brown fabric to blend with the light brown of the cardboard. Then I plotted the top view of a lifesize Sarcaphagus and put it on top.
Once I made the coffin and finished the lid, it's time to integrate. In order to secure the non-pivoting side of the lid to the coffin, I made three internal supports out of foamcore and attached the internal groove to the cardboard using double sided tape.
