Reaction Game

I was inspired by an installation at a local science museum that tested peoples’ reaction speed based on both visual and audio cues. I designed a miniature version where users press the start button on the left, and after a randomized amount of time passes, a buzzer turns on along with a stopwatch displaying the elapsed time. Users then rush to press the stop button on the right as fast as possible to see their reaction speed in milliseconds. The toggle switch changes the game mode so that an additional LED also turns on along with the buzzer and stopwatch.

This was a quick three day project where I experimented with ChatGPT to assist with programming, which worked best when I provided specific libraries to use and some baseline code. I also used ChatGPT for troubleshooting and debugging, which led me to add a debounce function for the arcade buttons and resisters to tune the display.

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Photography by Anna Bodney