In mid-October of 2011 the Kennedy Library at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California invited Scott Hutchinson and me to participate in one of their upcoming Science Cafe events. Four months and well over three hundred hours later, we turned their giant, 72-step stairwell into a large-scale, physical computing video game.
On Friday, February 10th, with over 1200 feet of wire, 48 internet connected tin cans, 96 tennis balls and an enormous helium tank, participants helped setup our game board. After breaking into two teams, they competed by hurling tennis balls down five flights of stairs in an attempt to score points by knocking over cans. Our digital scoring system pushed live data through the internet to giant scoreboard displays positioned around the library and to participants’ mobile devices. Kennedy Library staff recorded the action on multiple video cameras and set up a live viewing center for overflow.