Abstract

The purpose of the technical description is to essentially describe a technological item. In my technical description, I described the Nintendo Ring-Con, a video game accessory. I describe how this accessory is used to help the player exercise and progress through the game Ring Fit Adventure.

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Nintendo Ring-Con

The Nintendo Ring-Con is an accessory that is bundled with the game Ring Fit Adventure, an exercising action role-playing game, for the Nintendo Switch game console. This accessory is needed for players to progress in the game by engaging them in several exercises. This item works in tandem with a leg strap and the Joy-Con controllers that come included with the Nintendo Switch in order to track movement. The item is essentially a Pilates ring with an additional component at the top where one of the Joy-Cons slide into in order to track arm movement and measure your heart rate. When playing Ring Fit Adventure, you hold the Ring-Con and you perform various exercises by either pushing or pulling on the Ring-Con or stretching your body. Performing these exercises helps the player defeat monsters and progress through each level.

The Ring-Con is a flexible rubber Pilates ring that is approximately 12.25 inches in diameter. It has two fabric grips on opposite sides and a top component to slide the right Joy-Con into. Fiber-glass reinforced plastic in the springs is used to maintain the Ring-Con’s durability. A strength sensor built into the Ring-Con is used to measure how much force is being applied by pushing or pulling the Ring-Con. The Joy-Con’s infrared camera is used to measure the heart rate, and its accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are used to track movements. The accelerometer sensor tracks speed and the gyroscope sensor tracks the direction the Joy-Cons are moving. The left Joy-Con is put into the pouch of the leg strap and tracks leg movement.

When playing Ring Fit Adventure, the player must progress through the level by fighting monsters and going through certain obstacles. You jog in place through a level, where the leg strap comes into use. You slide the left Joy-Con into the leg strap and put the strap around your left leg. The accelerometer and gyroscope sensors track leg movement. The game also provides an option called Silent Mode where the player squats to move through a level instead of jogging in place in order to stay quiet and not bother anyone. When progressing through a level, you hold the Ring-Con with your hands on each grip and push into it to destroy any obstacles and pull it to absorb any items to collect. You can move your body in certain positions and face certain directions with the Ring-Con to aim and destroy or collect objects that are not directly in front of you.

When fighting monsters, a select list of exercises will utilize the Ring-Con and leg strap, and several repetitions would be needed to dish out damage on the enemies. Some exercises may utilize the strength sensor and would require the user to push or pull the Ring-Con several times to deal damage. The strength sensor measures the force applied by pushing or pulling the Ring-Con and converts that force to damage via certain algorithms within the game. The more force applied; the more damage dealt. In battle, you hold the Ring-Con in the same way as you would when moving through a level unless an exercise requires you to face the Ring-Con in a specific direction. The exercises would take advantage of the right Joy-Con’s gyroscope and accelerometer sensors by tracking each movement and determining if a certain movement is considered a repetition in order to deal damage. These exercises focus on your arms, legs, and stomach, and also include yoga poses. At the end of each level, the player has the option to use the Joy-Con’s infrared camera to measure their heart rate.

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Self-Reflection

For my technical description, I picked the Ring-Con accessory for Ring Fit Adventure. I picked this for my topic because I recently bought the game and was surprised by how effective it was at keeping my physically active. Since I put a lot of time in the game, doing the description was not too difficult. The only difficult aspect to it was finding the exact information about the Ring-Con, like the material used to make it. The aspect of purpose influenced by decision when writing the technical description because I became extremely focused on making sure the reader gets a full understanding of what to expect when they use the Ring-Con/play Ring Fit Adventure. I did enjoy writing this assignment because I had the opportunity to write about something that I enjoy playing. From this assignment I learned that avoiding gray areas in your description that don’t seem like gray areas to you specifically may make the described object very confusing for people who are unfamiliar with that object.