Chromatic Kalimba
I started learning to play the Kalimba, which is also known as a thumb piano or Mbira. I think it's a really neat instrument.
PROS:
-Incredibly small and portable. I can just put it in my backpack to play around with it when I have time.
-Sounds nice (like a music box)
-Very cheap
CONS:
-Not a lot of resources online compared to other instruments
-Strange key formation (notes spread outward from the middle rather than just from left to right)
-It is non-chromatic, so you can only play simple songs. (In other words, it only has the white keys on the piano, but not the black ones).
This project addresses that last con. There are chromatic kalimbas you can purchase online that mount the missing keys on the back of the instrument. However, they tend to be far more expensive (~$150). In order to construct my own chromatic kalimba, I bought a cheap kalimba ($20) along with some extra keys ($10), for a total of $30, which is far less than the $150. Putting them together and tuning it is fairly simple.
PROS:
-Incredibly small and portable. I can just put it in my backpack to play around with it when I have time.
-Sounds nice (like a music box)
-Very cheap
CONS:
-Not a lot of resources online compared to other instruments
-Strange key formation (notes spread outward from the middle rather than just from left to right)
-It is non-chromatic, so you can only play simple songs. (In other words, it only has the white keys on the piano, but not the black ones).
This project addresses that last con. There are chromatic kalimbas you can purchase online that mount the missing keys on the back of the instrument. However, they tend to be far more expensive (~$150). In order to construct my own chromatic kalimba, I bought a cheap kalimba ($20) along with some extra keys ($10), for a total of $30, which is far less than the $150. Putting them together and tuning it is fairly simple.
Game Design Decal
In my last semester at Berkeley, I took a game design course and designed and programmed a couple games. I uploaded a couple of the games so they can be played in browser online.
This one is from a short two-day gamejam (hackathon for games): https://chrislu.itch.io/star-jumper
This one was a longer project: https://chrislu.itch.io/how-they-got-away-with-murder
This one is from a short two-day gamejam (hackathon for games): https://chrislu.itch.io/star-jumper
This one was a longer project: https://chrislu.itch.io/how-they-got-away-with-murder
Mini Retro Gaming Project
This is a fun project in which I emulated a large number of retro games on a raspberry pi using the RetroPie framework. I then combined this with a very small projector and mini bluetooth controllers to create a highly portable and small gaming device that can be projected onto a large surface. I also included a laser-projected keyboard and a standard desktop mode so that one can watch movies or Netflix on it as well. (Will upload a video or pictures shortly).
Catan Reinforcement Learning
I usually don't like to post class projects since the ones I do are generally mandatory and uncreative. However, for EE126 (Probability and Random Processes) at UC Berkeley we had a project at the end of the semester to apply what we learned to a simplified version of the board game Catan. While the optimal approach seemed to be to apply a combination of heuristics of the game and what we learned in class, I decided to try to use deep reinforcement learning instead. While the approach didn't win, it was an incredibly fun experience for us. The final report is attached below.
Minecraft Inventions
I really enjoy understanding game mechanics and exploiting them for fun. Minecraft is a game that has deep mechanics with a turing-complete "electronics" system using a system called redstone. Below I show a novel device that can change the way that the game is played and reduce the amount of time spent "grinding," or mindlessly performing actions without actually playing. (This was invented before the discovery of zero-tick cactus farms).
I also created another device that combined a number of obscure, seemingly-useless techniques to be able to fundamentally change the way the game is played by allowing for arbitrary teleportation using the physics in the game.
Here is a design for a practical machine that can fly in Minecraft using its block-pushing mechanics to propel itself.
Shrek Super Slam Exploits
I also like seeing how I can break competitive games by exploring different mechanics. Below is an infinite combo I discovered in a game called Shrek Super Slam. Although the technique got banned early on in the competitive history of the game, it got unbanned in 2016. If you watch tournaments of this game, you can see the technique being used a lot. As a result, many of the top players use this character.
Pokemon Showdown AI
In high school, I started a a competitive Pokemon AI project with my good friend Vasu Vikram. Originally, it would play competitively online with an extremely simple strategy. However, Vasu took it above and beyond and created a general framework that one could apply new algorithms with. Very little of the original code I wrote with him is still there. The github repository can be found here: github.com/vasumv/pokemon_ai
