Midterm (it was supposed to be a tissue box with a little guy popping up and down)

Video of it dancing -> https://vimeo.com/66965838

Below are the process photos. I used white presentation paper and colored it with markers afterwards.

My midterm was a cactus that dances with the concept behind it being that it would tweet when my mom was at her desk and then dance when me or any of my siblings tweeted back to it.

This was the second assignment where we had to embed the servo motor into our project and have the servo react to the range finder. For this I made a robot that rolls around until it comes across an obstacle and then it stops before it runs into it.

This was the first assignment of creating a paper automata and controlling the speed of the servo with the serial port. I chose to change the value of the servo speed by using a processing sketch I made with a normal dog and an angry dog button that when clicked changed the speed the cat ran.

Making this was really fun, I found this awesome software Pepakura Designer (http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) that lets you take a 3D model and flatten it so you can print it, cut it and assemble it. It’s fairly easy to use, only problem is that is PC only!!!

The idea of the train was that it would work with the MTA live data, but right now they’re still in beta and the documentation is incomplete so I wasn’t able to actually use it.

Got everything working separately but when I assembled the mechanism with everything else, it didn’t work it was fun making it!

Lion Dance:

I built this model several times using different weights of paper. At the end I had to tape the parts where it touches and trigger the gears, and then add a piece of foam to make the surface larger.

Code:

Using the SimpleControl for MAC code, I used a bluetooth shield to talk to my MAC so it could control the Servo and LED  wirelessly.

Youmna and I developed an interactive art installation that transports you into the life of a dreamy copywriter named Lola. She lives in a world where dreams and reality blend into each other.

She is an inventor, in order to deal with her everyday drab, black and white, life she experiments everyday at her cubicle, she invents fantastical artifacts for transporting her into magical worlds.

One of these fantastical artifacts that she has created is the Twirly. A device that looks like a gigantic camera, all made out of scraps she has found lying around her office (paper, cardboard, felt, pins) that when used transports you into a whimsical environment.

Lola uses it to record her dreams. The camera may sort of look like a “normal” one but it doesn’t function like one. The contrary. It takes the pictures and videos from the person who’s holding it and viewing through the lenses. Meaning that it works the opposite way. When one sees someone holding the camera as a regular one pointing to any direction, he/she is actually taking pictures of her/himself. It takes them from inside.

Later Lola realized that in order to watch her dreams that she recorded in the camera she needed another device. She invented the Eye – TV. An artifact that feeds wirelessly from the camera and plays all the pictures as a movie. The screen is very particular. It shoes a roll with all the pictures collaged. The experience of the narrative is surreal and non-linear.

For both objects we used materials such as: cardboard, felt, paper, tape, glue gun, pins, led’s, servo motors, foam board, elastic bands, acetate paper and arduino.

For this final I wanted to create a simple movement and play with the shape of the object itself. In the end, the construction of the object prove to be more work than I imagined leaving me with not enough time to explore that interest. However, the pig was succesfully controlled via bluetooth and through the Iphone I could control the direction ans speed of the flight of the pig.

I was not able to get my blue tooth to work. I am going to keep pushing forward with it though because I want to be able to control my dresses.

In this version of “Power the Bike,” I wanted to expand on my midterm. I made a new, more sturdy version of the bike out of wood and paper. Second I adapted the app for the simple controls given to my specific contraption. The bluetooth technology allows the user to control the speed and direction of the turning bike wheel and turn on and off the light. I originally wanted to incorporate a sensor or code that allowed the light to turn on and stay on after a certain amount of spins that the wheel makes, but I was unable to get the working. Instead, I kept the manual control of the light and speed of the wheel to the user.

From the midterm to now, I also came across news coverage of inmates in Brazil generating power for street lights by pedaling stationary bikes in jail. Maybe this “toy” idea I had can become a reality in everyone’s home. Real current events like this, showing that with the right creativity and innovation, anything can happen.

I created an LED Matrix that is controlled by my iPhone via the serial port and a Bluetooth Shield on my Arduino. The initial idea was to make it so that the user was able to draw whatever they liked on their iphone and it would show up on the pixels of the LED matrix, and they could make frame by frames to make an animation. I was unable to get to that goal and it is instead is able to decipher and display text. This is could be something useful in various situations, like communicating across offices, or at a restaurant with the staff and other customers, or in a vehicle to other vehicles.

Video: https://vimeo.com/66755009

To see the bot help our intrepid hero survive in the apocalypse, watch the short promo video posted earlier!

More information can be found at the official Toys of the Apocalypse website.

first prototype / study model

• Credit : taking by Samir

MID-TERM

Before Mid-term

Actually there is a pressure sensor in disguise

Below are some pics about the process: