Test Your Fate: Adding Sound

Based on tutor feedback I've looked at how best to incorporate sound within the pinball machine. Childrens toys where looked at initially as many contain circuit boards that are touch activated such as those found within sound machines. However once the machine was deconstructed it was discovered that each pressure point was contained within one flat circuit which couldn't be adapted easily for use across the whole pinball machine (see figure 1). Therefore I started to research how best to create a soundboard, that was touch activated from scratch. Arduino is an open source hardware and software company that manufacture single-board microcontrollers and kits that allow you to build digital devices and interactive object.

Arduino Systems:
To understand Ardunio systems I first researched into what it is and it's capabilities to see if this was a system that could be used to incorporate touch-activated sound within the machine. I discovered a detailed tutorial (see figure 2) that explains Ardunio systems simply, as an Ardunio system can be used to create sound, power simple LEDs or make miniature robots as you can upload different coding to the Ardunio itself which allows the system to do different things. Initially I didn't think this method would be appropriate because of my limited coding knowledge however Ardunio feature multiple codes on their website which you can copy and paste and upload to your Ardunio making the process very simple. However its difficult to identify the exact code I would need and the right systems and parts as there are multiple ways to achieve touch activate sound. Soe tutorials such as the paper piano have been discovered however I'm unsure as to how well this would work within the pinball machine (see figure 3-6). Conductive ink could be used however I'm unsure if this would wear away quite easily with a ball repeatedly hitting the wooden blocks. However the implementation of this tutorial would be easier than others I've discovered as it lists all the components you need and the code (see figures 3-6). Using an Ardunio system is a possibility however further research is needed to identify other possible ways that sound could be implemented more easily.

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