I think you just struck the nail on the head there. Recycling has been a big theme lately, especially for FIRST, the insight about it resembling last year’s empty cell was a nice touch too! I think the game will be related to a variety of shapes that need to be exchanged with bigger points for different shapes collected, recycled, and played. Perhaps we’ll need to use camera code to sort out the game pieces by color or shape.
Robots will have to sort recycling! Put Aluminum in the aluminum box, paper in he paper box, or shoot plastic over a goal for bonus points!
You will have to find ways to detect these objects.
1 Aluminum Magnets.
2 Lasers to catch the paper on fire.
3 Advanced particle analysis.
4 Light sensors
5 Cameras AKA fancy Light sensors
Well, I have a few ideas about where quite a few rookie teams will be spending Dean’s donation.
You know though, if they really want to push a recycling theme what if they made a game with two ways to score. One way would be very easy to pull off, but would only provide lower point scores (sort of like just throwing stuff out). The other way would be slightly more time consuming, but would yield greater rewards (along the same lines as recycling). If you factor in varying point values for different shaped game pieces…
That sounds awfully similar to what happens in FLL…you put in the extra effort, and get more points for it.
i still think the theme is going GREEN
WALL-E style robots anyone? Lol
Due to last years 3D animation being that you had to use something from the environment and all of the items being recyclable, I would have to agree the robots are going to have to sort things, maybe not small things like cans but maybe a larger item such as large plastic barrels or maybe since when you flip a Haagen Dazs carton over it looks like a cone we might have to do something with traffic cones?
Maybe we are just building vending machines:yikes:
Dang it!
I was honestly just watching someone repair one earlier today.
So much for getting a head start ^_-
Hmmm MIT made can crushing robots in their FIRST-like class…
I’ve been thinking about this, and it seems to me like this will be a sorting game with two pieces, such as sorting the caramel corn and peanuts from a crackerjack box. The two game pieces, the “popcorn” and “peanuts” could possibly be a frustum and a cylinder.
Remember the loose connections between last years clues to the real game?
i won’t be surprised if this happens again this time…
what about the date of the kick-off?
what about the connection of those snacks to american history?
what about the connection between the snack and the places they were born (Coca-Cola & Atlanta, for example…)
at this point it can be anything ><
Coca-Cola deadquareters in Atlanta.
Cracker Jacks first sold at Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 (this is also the same world’s fair that Nikola Tesla lit with Alternating Curren light and brough AC into the mainstream versus Edison’s DC)
Haagen-Dazs created by Polish immigrants in Bronx, New York, in 1961.
Good thinking
Here are some wiki results with the same year as the release of Cracker Jacks(1893)
Along with some wiki results for1961
Any thoughts?
I just looked over the list, and didn’t really see much (of course, if it’s some kind of connection between the two years, I’ll let someone else cross-reference the pages, but that might be looking TOO deep). I think that if it had anything to do with the dates, it would be glaringly obvious (dates can’t hide much), so researching any of the events in those years would probably be digging TOO much.
I’m sticking with my recycling/going green theory
1961 is notably the most recent upside-down year (years written identically when inverted). There won’t be another until 6009. Perhaps the game deals with inversions, turns something on its head, etc.
Like Dave Lavery’s head…
I’ve been trying to stay out of this, but…
In Bill’s last blog, he again noted Haagen-Dazs, but this time in conjunction with tacos. Now, this may simply mean that Dave and his mysterious never-ending stomach (or Dean) suddenly have a taste for ice cream, but I’m thinking a little more crazy.
The above are the food mentions on the blog so far. Note what repeats. Why isn’t it Ben and Jerry’s or some other ice cream company? So it can’t just be ice cream, it has to be Haagen-Dazs. (I disregard the Diet Coke comment, because I was surprised he actually drinks it instead of adding Mentos…)
Now, the known members of the GDC:
Dean Kamen (founder), Woodie Flowers (national advisor), Dave Lavery (animator, team member), Bill Miller (FRC director), Aidan Browne (head ref), the KOP engineer, Paul Lazarus (White Dwarf Productions), and Calum Pearson (Cirque du Soleil). Some of these may have a connection…
As noted, H-D was founded in 1961, the last upside-down year. Upside down sounds like it’s right up one of the GDC’s alley…
Now, H-D in general: is there anything that stands out?
Let’s see, it’s kept colder than most ice cream, name isn’t actually a word set, shrinking carton sizes this year, lots of chocolate.
Cold, and misleading name: It’s not a hint at all, and a whole thread discusses it as a hint. Ouch. (Personally, I think this is the right answer. But, in case it isn’t…)
Shrinking: the field (or maybe robot) size will shrink this year. Might also be game objects shrinking. (Note: if that’s the case, I know what the game objects are…)
Cold, as contrasted with tacos and the usual hangout of Crackerjacks: melting? Are we getting a “green” themed game?
So, we have something shrinking, with a green theme, hanging upside-down. This is getting interesting.
Ok, I agree that it could be a flipping game.
Like said before 1961 flipped is 1961…
in addition to this, when the H-D logo is flipped upside down it is the same (ignoring the words)
http://haagendazs.com/img/home_hdlogo.jpg
Hmmm, any other ideas?
thumbs-up
Also, notice the “case” of Crackerjacks. Most people use the term ‘box’…case implies large amounts of something to me. I think that massive amounts of game pieces are in order (more like the quantity of Lunacy game pieces as opposed to the four trackballs from Overdrive)
Shrinking…the opposite of shrinking is expanding…Crackerjacks are just popcorn covered in caramel (right? I don’t eat them, so I don’t really know). A package of popcorn ‘expands’ when you put it in the microwave…
I don’t know exactly what these are called, but a quick google search of “expand shrink ball” got me this:
http://video.filestube.com/video,2d9737e19467514903e9.html
One of those toys we all used to play with as little kids (fine, my generation played with them…). Wal-mart, look out…
Orrrrrr, this is all just a huge school of red herrings. You never know. I can’t wait until game hint season 
well… i like the idea its all food… and all have unique shapes… but i seriously think they got bored and were messin around with the snacks they were eating and wanted to skrew with us by puttin it up here