Project Details
[Return to Previous Page]Stackable 3D Tic Tac Toe, a winner of a game and a helpful, healing therapy board!
Company: Carlton "Rich" McCracken Jr.
Major(s):
Primary: CMPEN
Secondary: BME
Optional: CMPSC
Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO
Intellectual Property: NO
Overview/Objectives: This is the second Penn State Capstone Design project for the 2025 spring semester featuring “Stackable 3D Tic Tac Toe”, S3DTTT. As one reviews and examines “Stackable 3D Tic Tac Toe” it is seen that it has a twofold purpose, it is both a game and a therapy board. I really feel that there is so much help, healing and fun that can come from S3DTTT! This second project concerns the "Techie Side" of S3DTTT in adding computer, interface, code, and sensors to bring S3DTTT to a vibrant, digital screen life that can have data captured and recorded for review, reference, and play. This will allow S3DTTT to be used in multiple channels of communication to the users as patients, those supervising the therapy, and for those that are playing the game. The data and the game can hopefully be shared in the future over the internet. Overall, the project involves the creation of an app to allow the unit to connect to a computer or tablet to capture and collect a therapy patient’s data in completing various therapy exercises/tasks for later review and reference by therapists, nurses, and doctors. Many therapists have multiple patients at one time working on exercises/tasks and need a data collection system for each patient and each exercise. By comparing such informative patient data, the therapist can see if the patient is progressing, staying the same, or declining. The therapist can then gain a better understanding of how to treat their many patients. This project could advance therapeutic patient care to a much higher level and be more economical in the long run as well. In addition, since S3DTTT can be played for recreational purposes as well, the app should have the capability to track other activities such as the winner or loser or complex level or move. Deliverables: 1. The startup and advancement of computer interface and programing to capture and collect a therapy patient’s data and also creating and establishing an index for the therapy patient. By collecting answers to survey questions and data from therapy exercises/tasks, the computer will analyze the generated data and give an index number which will tell the therapist the patient’s baseline, (where the patient is located in the established index). Once this index number/baseline of the patient has been generated, the established index table information will specify what exercises and how many repetitions are needed at present and a future exercise plan. 2. The startup and advancement of computer interface and programing to capture, collect, and monitor the game activities and give game alerts as to who won and who lost. This will be a real challenge as well! The winning and losing alerts could possibly be audio alerts or lighting alerts or both together. The most complex and difficult alert will be the loss for the player who has knocked over a tower of game pieces. Also, maybe even more difficult, alerting a player they have won when using one of the house rules, the diagonal rule of 75 degrees. This is my “Hail Mary Pass” rookie suggestion for a thought in how to possibly program code to accomplish these “win and lose” alerts. Each of the nine bolts will be projected on some type of background receptor screen and then monitored as a separate X and Y graph. With an X and Y axis, if there is a positive or negative slope greater than an angle that assures that the tower has fallen, a loss alert will be sounded or seen. For the diagonal rule, when three game pieces, (in the patent, called “Tubes), of the same color align with the slope of 75 degrees, a winner alert is implemented.
