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naterudolph
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naterudolph
Rasberry Pi
Anyone else on this site would probably also find this really, really interesting. It’s like a miniature computer, or a super powerful Arduino. For 25 bucks! It runs on Linux from what I’ve seen, but I don’t think you can buy one just yet. Looks like the kind of thing we’ll all be using in a couple years though:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs
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naterudolph
Fish Freedom: Car Test
It moves!
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naterudolph
FishFreedom Thesis Draft
A few thesis statement drafts:
FishFreedom is a device that gives pet fish mobility.FishFreedom is a device that gives pet fish the ability to move their own environment.FishFreedom is a response to the shackled nature of a traditional aquarium, giving pet fish the ability to control the movements of their environment.FishFreedom is a device modeled after the “Hampster Ball” that gives fish the ability to traverse across a room.REVISION:
FishFreedom is a mobile platform that allows a pet fish to control his movements across a room.———
Using a webcam with color tracking software to provide navigation, two servo motors drive a vehicle that houses the fish tank and power supply. The webcam provides a constant feed of where the fish is located in the tank and drives the fish in the appropriate direction, giving the fish the ability to decide the direction and speed of the vehicle’s movements.———
Big finding 1: Capturing the exact angle and movements of the fish’s position in the tank really isn’t as important as having smooth motion. Just seeing it move back and forward was such a magical kind of movement, enough that I didn’t even remember that I had wanted it to be precisely accurate.
Big finding 2: Getting the servo motors to work synchronously was much more difficult than I had assumed it would be. Through a series of several rebuilds of the car I’ve tried to realign the wheels and secure them with hot glue, but I still have had trouble getting them to match each others momentum. As far as I can tell it must be a mechanical issue, because I feed both motors the exact same code and yet one wheel always seems to be dominate and cause a turn when I try to do a straight line. Lately I’ve been trying to correct this via the code, and I think I’ve finally found a sweet spot that gives me a moderately straight line over the span of a few feet.———
AirSwimmers: (Similar in that I’m trying to mimic the movements of fish. Different because I’m using an actual fish.) For a future iteration I’d like to build in a system that could actually emulate the swaying motion of fish’s fins.
HamsterBall: The main precedent because I went into the project wanting to make essentially the same thing only with a fish.
Project413: A hamster ball with a hacked motor system that allows wireless control of a mobile sphere.
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naterudolph
Fish Freedom – Prototype Video
Just posted a couple videos on the car I got per Yury’s suggestion.
Those who have noticed my penchant for adding inappropriately epic music to silly videos won’t be disappointed:
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naterudolph
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Yury Gitman
http://www.solarbotics.com/product/60312/
Check this out. It’s is similar to what you drew. Look around on Solarbotics website. Cool stuff there.
For example, Roomba’s can be controlled by this item they sell. This could make the ultimate “chariot” for say a “Koi fish to move along a hardwood floor”.Also see:
Google “arduino robot cart”Also check out:
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naterudolph
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naterudolph
The easiest part of this exercise was curating the ideas. Almost all of the ideas were in some form in a sketchbook or my Evernote account, but it was a little challenging trying to boil down the abstract concepts to a slide’s worth of information. The hardest part was grouping the domain maps. Looking at them now, I’d like to go back and try to collect them into one diagram and see the differences and connections between each of those domains. Right now I don’t think they’re as insightful as they might be if I were to condense them.
My 2 favorite concepts are the Electromyographic interface and the Play Code idea. The former, because I’m excited to explore the idea of a physical connection manifesting itself on a digital interface, and the latter because I’m interested in teaching younger generations coding principles with games and seeing how that can effect the absorption of knowledge for further skill sets.
My 2 least favorite concepts are the Cappi-chuino and the Grown-Up Piggy bank. The former because arduino shields already exist, and though I think this would be fun, it’s not necessarily that original, I mostly just like the way Cappi-chuino sounds when you say it. The Grown-Up Piggy bank doesn’t necessarily interest me because I’ve already attempted working with it and APIs for banking information aren’t very accessible.
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naterudolph
Tightrope Trainer Prototype
The “Tightrope Trainer” is a toy designed to help novices exercise the muscles involved in balancing, and learn techniques to keep their heart rate low. To play, the user must balance according to a sequence shown by the LEDs. Each step in the sequence must be held for a count of 4 heart beats. This is to help users learn how to keep their heart rate low with breathing techniques while still exerting energy keeping their balance. Once the sequence is finished, it can be repeated, or the user can press the button to start a new level.
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naterudolph
Midterm Project
I choose to originally to do some sort of exercise ball that you would have to orient to various LEDs to the beat of your heart. That didn’t really seem to fit with the Pulse Sensor very well so I changed it, but kept the same components.
I’ve always been awful at anything requiring balance, so I thought I would make some that could help a beginner exercise the muscles involved in balancing. This prototype just shows the LEDs marking your angle relative to the ground. A few of the practices you can do are walking backwards and forwards while trying to keep only one LED lit, or walking backwards and forwards while trying to smoothly go through all of the LEDs. Tightrope walking also needs to have a level of relaxation, so the pulse sensor will be included once I get another board, to help you slow down and practice calmly moving through the exercise.
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naterudolph
Here’s the video to that orchestra Adam mentioned in class today:
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naterudolph
Nate Rudolph's Midterm Journal Entry 1
I set out to create some sort of exercise tool with the pulse sensor. I’m still waiting on an accelerometer to begin piecing the project together, but I’ve begun the code and wiring diagrams to start sketching out how it will work.
These components will be fit inside a ball with the LEDs in a line following one axis. The goal of the object is for the user to orient the ball according to a set LED by tilting to make that LED face upward. The rate at which the LEDs change will be determined by the pulse sensor that it attached to the side of the ball.
My original concept was to implement this into a large weighted medicine ball, but as I sketched out a storyboard, I thought it would allow for a longer and more interesting interaction by having two hand held balls that interact with each other as the user progresses through the exercise.
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naterudolph
SparkFun Beat Box
I’ll talk about it in class so there’s no need to cover everything here, but for anyone that’s super bored here’s a blog entry about some of the process for this.
Here’s what I have so far for the project:
The connections on the tiles need to be made more stable so you don’t have to hold it down to ensure it’s connected. Right now the top left washers cycle through the speed of the beat, and get reset to zero. Eventually I’d like to made it so the speed fluctuates up and down, but for now it’s still an easy way to lock into a speed you want to use.
The bottom two sets of washers have some older code on them right now that’s pretty boring sounding and I’ve just been using to test things out. Eventually they will allow you to set certain parameters over the beat being made.
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naterudolph
2 buttons, 2 LEDs
I tried to upload the Fritzing diagram with the Arduino code, but the Fritzing site is down at the moment.
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naterudolph
White LED Box
I wrote up a blog entry with much great detail and pics but didn’t want to include all of that here as it would be reruns for most of the people in class.
Here’s my first iteration of the LED enclosure assignment.
And here is the second iteration, now incorporating sound.
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naterudolph
I was out of town til Wednesday this week, so when I found out we had an assignment for Thursday’s class my main concern was just getting something presentable. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to get a working prototype with some cardboard and the wire wrap tool. Thankfully everything was laid out neatly with the header pins so I was able to test the code and ensure there weren’t any short circuits.
The code was actually the portion that took longer than I assumed it might. Making the whole series of LEDs do something was simple enough with a for loop, but trying to do any sort of pattern proved a little more counter intuitive. Using the fade code from Monday’s class I was able to add some variety to that simple sequence of LEDs turning on into something different for the “waking up” function of the box.
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naterudolph
I studied Film and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I freelanced for a year after graduating, including working on the pilot for the ABC show “Revenge.”
I’m in this class because I’ve been interested in developing my knowledge of physical computing and programming and looking forward to workshopping ideas with other classmates.
My favorite childhood toy was Legos
naterudolph is discussing. 
You might also find this interesting.
http://www.samratamin.com/Ardumote.html