Final Prototypes – Liz Taylor

First, here is my venn diagram of domain interest. My domains are: Interaction through motion, Contemporary Art, Behavior of Litters, and Communication through Audio

Here are my examples of prior art:

Suwappu

Introducing Suwappu! from mcgarrybowen london on Vimeo.

Tweenbot

Tweenbots from kacie kinzer on Vimeo.

Cardboard Radio

Ohm lo-fi cardboard sampler

And here are my prototypes:

Look and Feel:

1. Cardboard Bunny:


2. Clay Geodesic

3. Clay Cat/Bunny Head

Role:

With the following prototypes, I tried to flush out what actual interaction I wanted people to have with the objects.  I think I’ve decided on Scenario 3.

4. Interaction Scenario 1:

The objects (bunnies, as they’ll hence forth be known) are making morse code sounds.  The gallery viewers are asked to either tweet or text to a certain web address.  The computer is then pulling down these texts and sending them to the different bunnies.  The bunnies then relay these tweets in morse code.  Kind of an audio visualization of what the internet is doing. They move around all the time (just for fun).  And light up when they are receiving or relaying a tweet.

5. Interaction Scenario 2:

The objects move around and try to find each other.  They find each other by triggering switches on each other when they run into each other.  If they find each other they stop moving.

6. Interaction Scenario 3:

In this scenario, the bunnies are like little pets that want attention.  They cry (make arduino generated noise) until someone touches them (they’ll have capacitance sensors).  If you put them down right away, they’ll resume crying.  If you hold them long enough they’ll go to sleep, and then can be put down.  However,  if lots of the others are crying, they can get woken up.  This is where the wireless network comes into play.  They’ll be talking to the computer, and the computer will no how many are being touched, crying, or asleep, and will be sending them the messages of what to do next.

7. Physical Layout:

I wanted to try to play with the number and size of bunnies that I would like to have if possible. This is my mock gallery space and mock viewer, haha.

Implementation

8. Seeing if the pancake vibration motors will generate any kind of movement:


Based on this test, if I keep the structures light enough, this may be a possibility.  Or attaching them to wheels of some sort.

9. Seeing how it sounds to make the arduino speak morse code.  Here it is saying Hello:


Based on this test, I think it sounded pretty interesting.  Now I’m imagining a room full of them, speaking at different pitches.  This makes me want to do idea 1.

10. Playing with sounds to make the bunnies seem like they were talking or crying:



It’s interesting trying to think of the kind of emotion the 8 bit sounds can produce.  I think it could be quite interesting to have a whole room full of the bunnies making different versions of these noises.