Weekly Progress and Highlights

Coding Process

For the blood typing code this week, I worked on enabling long presses for all Petri dish circles to account for the potential long triggers caused by the liquid sitting on the connections when players drop the liquids into the Petri dish. I also modified the reset button to respond to a swiping gesture instead of a simple press, aligning it with the interaction where players open and flip the top clear acrylic panel to clear off the liquids. Lastly, I adjusted the button sizes and positions based on the updated CAD models to ensure everything fits seamlessly.

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/sketches/ClVpwSyfk

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/sketches/OPuH_cgP6

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/sketches/woTDoDRtY

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/full/ClVpwSyfk

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/full/OPuH_cgP6

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/full/woTDoDRtY

Things we should consider

• Context: what's the context of the experience you are designing? Who are the ideal users? Why does it fit this context and how will it engage the users?

  • maybe at the waiting area of children hospitals? (eg. blood testing department)

• Embodiment: how is the experience packaged? How is it presented to prospective users?

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  Looking at existing science games in the market for inspiration on the possible setups to work with.

  Science Games

  Stem Weather Station Water Table - Outdoor Garden Toy, Safe & Portable Kids Table - Sensory Toy For Garden Games, Encourages Creative Play, For Ages 24 Months+

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• Experience/interactions: what is the overall experience journey of prospective user(s). What is the before, during, and after experience journey? What are the interactions that people will engage with? How are these interactions afforded?

  • We need to consider what is the depth of knowledge we want to tap into, especially considering that our target users are children. How can we make these knowledge relatable and easy to understand?

Thoughts and Ideation on how to integrate the two concepts better

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With the first concept on blood typing being well received, I thought we could continue along that line of thought and draw further inspiration from actual science experiments related to blood inheritance to develop the concept for that and better integrate both concepts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA3WvxtFKho

From there, I came across the finger prick blood tests used for DNA extraction and thought it could be a suitable experiment to connect with the concept of blood inheritance. It also ties in nicely with the blood typing concept, creating a cohesive "laboratory, play doctor" experience for our project.

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With that in mind, I started researching actual experiments related to finger prick blood tests that involve physical apparatus or items. The idea was to leverage these items to mimic the real experiment through tangible interaction. The dry blood spot tests for newborns particularly stood out as a great example to draw inspiration from.

Dried Blood Spots - Preparing and Processing for Use in Immunoassays and in Molecular Techniques (Artigo) | JoVE

Current and future use of “dried blood spot” analyses in clinical chemistry

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A conversation with ChatGPT on what exactly dried blood spot testing involves and what interaction within the testing we can leverage to turn that into a tangible interaction:

Dried Blood Spot (DBS) testing involves several steps, from sample collection to analysis. The key purpose of DBS testing is to analyze blood samples collected on filter paper, which makes it easier to store and transport samples for laboratory analysis. Here are the detailed steps in the DBS testing process, with a focus on the shaking step of the test tubes containing dried blood cutouts and liquid.

1. Sample Collection

• A small prick is made in the subject’s finger or heel (for infants), and drops of blood are placed onto a special absorbent filter paper card (usually Guthrie cards).
• The blood is allowed to air-dry completely at room temperature for a few hours (usually 3–4 hours).

2. Drying and Storage

• Once the blood spots are fully dried, the DBS cards are typically stored in a protective envelope and kept in a dry, cool place, often with desiccant packs to prevent moisture. They can then be transported to a laboratory for analysis.

3. Sample Preparation in the Laboratory

• Once in the laboratory, the dried blood spots are processed for testing. A small portion of the dried blood spot (usually a circular punch) is cut out of the filter paper card using a special punching tool.
• The size of the punch is typically standardized to ensure that a consistent amount of blood is used in testing.

4. Placing the Dried Blood Spot Punch in a Test Tube

• The punched-out circle of dried blood is placed in a test tube or a microplate well.
• A specific volume of an extraction solution (typically a buffer, sometimes with detergents or stabilizing agents) is added to the tube or well.

5. Shaking/Agitating the Test Tubes with Dried Blood Spot and Liquid

• Step Explanation: Once the dried blood spot punch is in the test tube with the extraction solution, the test tube needs to be shaken or agitated to facilitate the extraction of analytes (such as DNA, proteins, or metabolites) from the dried blood.
• Why Shaking is Important:
  • Shaking helps ensure that the extraction solution thoroughly permeates the dried blood spot and dissolves or extracts the target analytes into the liquid phase.
  • It breaks up any clumped blood cells and promotes the release of the blood components into the liquid.
• How Shaking is Done:
  • Shaking is typically done using a mechanical shaker or rotary shaker. These devices gently rock, rotate, or vibrate the test tubes or microplates to keep the liquid moving and interacting with the dried blood spots.
  • The agitation usually lasts for a set time period, often between 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on the analyte being extracted and the protocol in use.
  • Some protocols may use a gentle vortex mixer if the shaking needs to be more vigorous.
• The shaking process ensures that the dried blood fully interacts with the liquid buffer, enhancing the efficiency of the analyte extraction.

6. Incubation (Optional)

• After shaking, the tubes may be incubated at a specific temperature (typically 37°C) to further facilitate the extraction process. This is especially important for enzymatic or chemical reactions, depending on the type of analysis (e.g., DNA extraction, protein analysis).

7. Centrifugation

• Once the shaking or incubation period is over, the test tubes are centrifuged to separate the filter paper and any solid debris from the liquid containing the extracted analytes.
• The supernatant (the liquid portion) is then carefully transferred to a new test tube or microplate for analysis.

8. Analyte Measurement/Detection

• The extracted blood components in the supernatant are then analyzed. This could involve a variety of tests, such as:
  • PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) for genetic analysis.
  • Mass spectrometry or ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) for metabolic or protein analysis.
  • HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) for specific biomarkers or drug levels.

9. Results Interpretation

• The data from the tests are analyzed and interpreted. Depending on the target analyte, the laboratory may quantify levels of specific proteins, hormones, metabolites, DNA sequences, or other biomarkers present in the blood sample.

Summary of Shaking Step:

The shaking step in DBS testing is crucial for efficient extraction. After the dried blood cutouts are placed in the test tubes with a liquid buffer, they are gently shaken using a mechanical or rotary shaker. This step ensures thorough interaction between the dried blood and the liquid, which helps release the desired analytes into the solution. The process may last from 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on the protocol, and helps to improve the reliability and efficiency of the subsequent tests.

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Here, I thought the dried blood spot testing was particularly relevant to our concept on blood inheritance, especially in terms of its actual application. It addressed the initial issue of the lack of connection between our two concepts (the blood typing test and the blood inheritance "Gachapon" machine). Additionally, it aligned better with the blood typing interaction in terms of how it is also fundamentally inspired by an actual science experiment related to our focus on blood inheritance. This made the overall experience feel more cohesive, like a complete game set that draws inspiration from real scientific experiments.

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Some quick & random sketches of how I imagine the interaction would work with the dried blood spot test concept for the blood inheritance, while also troubleshooting the technical aspects of this series of interactions with Bobby to refine the setup.

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The interaction will essentially involve six dried blood spots representing different unknown parent blood types, each in a unique geometrical shape. Players will need to place one or two shapes into the Petri dish and shake it to reveal the genotypes of the individual or paired blood types. From the generated child genotypes, players will then deduce and guess the unknown parent blood types.

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Drawing inspiration on the Dried Blood Test

Code on Blood Inheritance inspired by Dried blood spot tests:

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One problem we initially faced with this interaction was the technical challenge of detecting the specific shapes and identifying them as particular blood types. To address this, we came up with the idea of having six distinct buttons in the form of rings within the Petri dish, each having a specific radius. By designing a central contact point for all six shapes, each shape would then only make contact with the button corresponding to its unique ring radius, enabling us to detect the specific blood type accurately.

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https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/sketches/3wMYtAD-N

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/sketches/rp6eQjOeM

https://editor.p5js.org/xxin913/sketches/wKhgGVusf

Prototyping progress