Updates from April, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • minho 7:19 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Penguin prototypes 

    In the South Pole, father penguins are the ones who take care of their unhatched eggs instead of the female penguins (female penguins travels away to hunt for their family during this time). Sometimes there are accidents of father penguins drop or lose their eggs. Because of the low temperature of the South Pole, if the father doesn’t rearrange the egg in his stomach the egg will freeze.

    In this case, the father penguin is blind so he needs help to find his lost egg.

     

    The egg is naive and curious.Because it is almost hatch season, the egg wants to move around. He doesn’t realize he is risking his life and doesn’t know that his father is looking for him.

     

    We, the audience, are the helpers. However we cannot interfere with nature, so instead of taking physical actions, we can use our voice to communicate with penguin through the device.

     

     

    another penguin papercraft penguin_e_a4

     

     

     

     

    • mkmkmkmk 7:19 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      1) The papercaft penguin I use is cute. STT works!
      2) For the penguin casing, I found some papercraft pdfs, but most are needed password to open in photoshop or illustrator. And cutting paper takes time.
      And the STT needs perfect pronunciation.
      3) I already played with serial communication, I could use the previous code as base.

  • kasiawitek 7:18 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Thinking further. Objects that communicate through disrupting. 

    Did any surprises come from this round of prototyping?

    • The domain exercise was a crucial component for me in the next stop of prototype making. Through mapping domains I came to conclusion that I am very interested in ideas of disruption and conceptualizing that disruption in an unpredictable way. Disruption is still communication. I now want some of my objects to disrupt its owner’s way of going about their business.

    The hardest thing.

    -Thinking of an usual yet provoking enclosure for the devices. Since i am moving slightly away from functionality and towards conceptual art, I am thinking of odd designs for objects that can disrupt one’s life that one can still carry with herself or utilize in some way in her/his surroundings.

     

    The easiest thing.

    -Brainstorming scenarios of the objects disrupting and communicating to its user. For example, if the device in user’s pocket receives a message, let’s say it will start screaming. The user can be on a crowded train or elevator. This disruptive object then blurs the boundaries of private and public. Becomes a public disruption.

     

  • Joe Volpe 7:08 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Wireless toys: implementations 

    Trick Tracker for BMX:

    Phone Compass app:

    Using a compass and maybe GPS, I will be able to map out rotation.

    I have the range finder working. This will give me distance from the ground

    So far as I have been able to establish, my android phone doesn’t track height from the ground. The closest application involves using gps and the built in camera to triangulate the height of a distant object.

    http://androgeoid.com/2010/09/measure-distances-heights-and-direction-with-your-android-phone-using-smart-measure/

     

  • theliztaylor 6:37 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    More Prototypes for Final – Liz Taylor 

    I’m a little behind this week, so for starters I did some detailed diagrams of what I’ll be doing.  Actual physical prototypes to come!

     

     

     

     

  • Yury Gitman 6:31 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Making Toys Final Project Schedule 

    4/10- Present Prior Art, Prototypes, User-Feedback
    4/17- Iterate 3-6 Prototypes, Document & Present
    4/24-  Iterate 3-6 Prototypes for User-Feedback, Document
    5/1-  Present User-Feedback to prototypes, Iteration 2
    5/8 –  Present Integrated Prototypes and User Feedback Documentation
    5/15 – NO CLASS documentation video due.
     

  • Caitlin Morris 6:17 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Liza + Caitlin : Hula Hoop iteration 

    Role: “Clock” device keeps track of position, acts as holder for LED hula hoop. When a certain amount of time has ticked away, the clock hand position no longer allows the hula hoop to be held up, and it falls glowing to the ground.

    CLOCK HAND PROTOTYPE: Servomotor outputting information about angle of rotation to LED strip receiver in hula hoop

    HULA HOOP PROTOTYPE

    LED STRIP TESTING

     

    • Caitlin Morris 7:17 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Did any surprises come from this round of prototyping?
      One main (pleasant) surprise was learning that the material of the rubber hoop itself has a significant impact on the way light is dispersed out of the hoop. We found a clear rubber with a braided pattern, which diffracts the light into an interesting crystallized pattern.

      One less pleasant surprise was the discovery that because the RGB LED strips require 12V to run, we will have to power it with a different source besides the Arduino which acts as the controller. This will prove to be challenging because we are working with a very small space inside the hula hoop tube.

      What was the hardest thing to make from this round of prototypes?
      The hardest thing was getting the look and feel of the tube itself right. Because we’re using different materials than the standard hula hoop tube in order to allow the light to shine through, it’s a challenge coming up with a combination of materials which still give the rigidity and ease of use of a traditional hoop. We’re going to test with having a harder clear plastic tube inside the larger braided tube, forming a channel in-between for the LED strip.

      What was the easiest thing from this round of prototypes for you?
      The easiest thing was getting the clock mechanism or servomotor running, because servomotors by default are aware of the angle that they’re positioned at. This makes it fairly simple to get the information about clock hand angle and pass it to the lighting.

    • liza 7:19 pm on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      One of the big surprises that we had from this round of prototypes emerged from our materials. Word to the wise, always check the datasheet! We realized that the RGB LED strip requires 12 volts and therefore a separate power source from the Arduino. (We did get it to run off of a 9V, so this could be another solution for now.)

      The other big surprise came from the tubing we are using. Generally, DIY hula hoops use 1″ irrigation poly tubing, which is usually black and opaque. Since the goal is to find tubing that diffuses the light, we went with another type of tubing (reinforced vinyl tubing 1″ at 125 PSI) that has cross-hatched reinforcements on the inside and diffuses the light beautifully. However, upon testing, we found that it is not rigid enough. Next step is to reinforce with clear plastic tubing.

  • Catalina 2:07 am on April 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Idea for Final Project 

    My idea is to do a cloth-book for babies-kids that comes together with stuff animals.

    The animals will interact with the book, for example a butterfly that will light and a bird that will sing.

    The book will have on a double-page a bird nest with eggs, so when the kid presses the eggs the bird – an independent stuffed animal – will sing…. or a caterpillar on a tree that when the kid pressed caterpillar the butterfly lights up…

    10 prototypes:

    Prior Art: A cloth book, a stuff animal and a sound puzzle….

    Look and Feel:

    The butterfly on its two states, and the book…

    Role: as a book, and also as a toy

    Implementation: The butterfly lights when the caterpillar (in the book) is pressed.

     

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