Updates from March, 2013 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Siri 8:16 pm on March 21, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    04/01 Midterm: Free Writing 

    My midterm project is now called Bowman. He will bow down at anyone in front of him. He has no face and is completely naked in white. This reason is that people can draw on him and create their own versions of Bowman. Who do you want to make them bow to?

    1. One thing you found surprising about making your project.
    It is easier than I originally thought to design, but quite hard to produce by hand. I probably have to improve my craft skills.

    2. One thing you really like about your project.
    It is engaging and interactive–bowing down at anyone in front of it.

    3. One thing you think is unique or important about your project.
    Instead of just looking at it moving, the user actually becomes a part of the action.

     

  • sarahewever 8:28 pm on March 14, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    Midterm Automa Sketches 

    2013-03-14_15-45-45_295

    I. Twitter Bird

    For this concept instead of a sensor I would want to get data from Twitter. It would ideally hang from the ceiling above your desk and anytime someone tweets to you it bobs up and down and flaps it’s wings.

    2013-03-14_15-45-50_426

    II. Scared Hedgehog

    This is inspired from my hedgehog Dexter who is scared of everything. It would be built like the robot and whenever it sensed anyone around it would put up spikes and try to run away.

    2013-03-14_15-45-58_416

    III. Weather Forecast

    This would be like the duck pond automa and connect to some form of a weather API and rotate to a regular servo that rotates to the correct weather symbol for the day.

    2013-03-14_15-46-02_643

    IV. Brain Waves

    I did a lot of work with the Mind Flex last semester and wanted to maybe use it again. I have no idea honestly how this one would be constructed but I would want it to look like one of the orbs you see at science museums and the waves from the center move while you’re concentrating.

    2013-03-14_15-46-13_952

    V. Instagram

    This would be similar to the twitter one and whenever someone likes one of your Instagrams a little desk hipster puts on glasses. It would work similar to the peek-a-boo bear.

    2013-03-14_15-46-29_458

    VI. Morning Glory

    When trying to think of a natural object that is different during the day than it is during the night I thought of the morning glory that blooms only during the day and closes at night. This would sit by a window and use a photosensor.

     

  • Siri 3:26 am on March 6, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    02/00 Servo+RF Bear 

    IMG_0994 IMG_0996

     

  • Siri 3:48 am on March 1, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    01/00 Servo Penguin 

    3 4

     

  • Siri 11:19 pm on February 28, 2013 Permalink | Reply  

    00/00 Short Bio 

    What is your academic and professional background?
    I got an undergrad degree in architecture, but pursued a career in advertising as an art director.

    What motivated you to take this class?
    During the time I worked in advertising, I found digital advertising to be the field I’m mostly interested in. It deals with pretty much everything being taught in DT–web, physical computing and code. Many advertising campaigns of this kind use robots and arduino-powered mechanisms as the center of their contents. Smartphones also play a major role. I wish to learn the technical aspects of these tools and become accustomed to them in order to create better works when I return to the ad industry.

    What is your favorite childhood toy?
    Lego.

    What is your favorite thing to play with these days?
    Everything around me.

     

  • kristenkersh 6:34 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Simon Says : Design, iterations, testing and code 

     

    —————First Sketches—————-

    Idea 1: 

    Here is the first idea. I know there are only 3 cylinders and their needs to be four. Each tube would be filled with water. Below the tube in a dry area is a LED light that illuminates the enclosed water. These tubes are situated within a clear box. Half way down the box is slightly froster. Here will be 4 buttons associated with the color and sound. In this area in the box the lights, speakers, and other hardware is all hidden.

    Idea 2:

    Pcomp Notes (3)

    Idea 3:

    A large clear box with original size light bulbs as seen below.

    Shopping at the container store:

    Container store

     

    ——————–Iteration # 1————————

    Construction:

    User tester 1 “it’s too fast!”

    User tester 2 “its too hard!”

     

    ———————————Iteration #2———————————

    Changes Made / Final iteration:

    • made a start sound
    • slowed down the pattern and the sound
    • less levels

     

    Code: 

    first Simon simon code Startsoundcode

     

  • theliztaylor 9:20 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Jellyfish 

    Here are some images of my jellyfish.

    Here are some pictures of the shell of the first iteration:

    For the second iteration, I pulled out the electronics of the first and just added a new outer structure.  I also added sound.  Here are images of that version:

    It was a fun process, and I liked using sound, which I haven’t done a whole lot of before.  I also like the idea of trying to convey different emotional states with just led lights.  That was much harder with the 8bit sound though, at least for me.  Maybe for future iterations of this kind of project I would buy a wave shield, or connect the project to a computer so that I could use Max/msp to control the sounds.

    Here is a video of the final piece:

     

     

  • theliztaylor 9:10 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Heart Box 

    My heart box is a play on the old game operation, except with this twist: you’re operating on yourself (or a friend).  First, you place the heart rate sensor on your ear.  Then you pick your instrument, and try to pull your heart out of the box.  If you’re successful, the heart continues to beat pink.  However, if you hit the side of the box, the heart turns blue and a small pancake motor (attached to the back of the heart) buzzes.  I liked working on this project a lot.  It would be fun to make a large box version with more than one body part and multiple kinds of sensors.

    Here are some images of my heart box:

    And heres a video of it blinking:

     

     

  • theliztaylor 8:58 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Wireless Toys Final / Thesis work 

    I ended up deciding to combine my wireless toys final with my thesis, and to explore more of the production aspects of my lamps.  This project is called Prisms, and its a series of small foldable lamps, that change color depending on how they are folded.

    My video is here:

    While the lamps worked well for a gallery installation, I still feel they’re too fragile and time consuming to be mass produced.  So I decided to start looking at other ways I could create them that would be faster and more reliable.  The first thing I investigated was getting pieces of Acrylic laser cut with where the circuit needed to go, so that I could either paint or embed the circuitry into the engraved areas of the acrylic.

    I also worked on designing a different PCB from the one I’m currently using.  Here is the current PCB:

    and here is the new triangular pcb and flexible joint that I designed:

    I also requested quotes for getting a batch order of PCBs (with the triangle being rigid and the joint being flexible) to be printed and populated from the following 6 places:

    but I only got two responses and only one quote.  Heres the quote I got:

    It was interesting exploring the production side of this project, I’m still not sure if PCBs if the direction I’d like to go, but I’m glad I explored it.  Also, here is a link to the presentation I made in class.

     

  • Catalina 4:27 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Day and Night – An interactive tapestry by Catalina Cortazar 

    Day & Night is a tapestry that comes together with a plush butterfly. It allows kids from 2 to 4 years old interact with a moon / sun and a the wireless butterfly. When the children puts the sun in the sky, the flower and butterfly lights up because the butterfly is awake during the day. When he/she puts the moon, the starts light up and the butterfly turns off.

    In future iterations I would like to create a book with different backgrounds and animals, for example an owl that is awake (lights) during the night, so when the moon is in the sky the starts and owl lights up.
    In this iteration I used conductive tape and it doesn’t work very good. For the next iteration I would use conductive Velcro so it’s easier for the children to put the sun and the moon in the sky.

    PRIOR ART

    WIRELESS BUTTERFLY

    TAPESTRY

     

  • Catalina 4:12 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Mood Light by Catalina Cortazar 

    Mood Light is a lamp that has 3 states.

    The first state is alarming: the lights are red and makes an alarming sound.
    The second state is relaxing: the lights change from blue to light blue / pink without sound allowing the user to relax.
    The third is a thinking mood, where the lights are blue and makes a “thinking” sound.


     

  • kasiawitek 4:16 pm on May 15, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    FEELING PRESENCE. Final Project documentation. 

    PERSONAL MESSAGES CAN EXIST OUTSIDE TEXTS AND E-MAILS.

    Personal messages can and should be communicated through an exponential with meaning. The way we perceive time, structure our time and react to time is a powerful communication tool and helps set the stage for communication. I wanted to make a wireless communication situation that would exist in a monochronic time. This means that things are done one at a time and time is segmented into precise, small units.

    In Feeling Presence, I wanted to promote positive thinking amongst little girls. It is a communication system for a young girl, age 4 to 8 and her mom. The users I had in mind is a child who just recently started pre-school and misses her mom and a young working mom.Feeling presence consists of a belt and purse for mom and a soft toy-like purse for the little girl. The buttons on the girl’s purse, proud, happy and kind send messages to mom’s belt. The light on the receiving end corresponds to the message sent. Blue for proud, yellow for kind and red for happy.

    Previous Art:

    Light On Project    http://alexandertwang.com/archives/390

    Kissnger   http://inspir3d.net/2012/02/03/kissnger-a-kiss-transfer-robot/

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    My Documentation Video:

     

  • Joe Volpe 4:19 pm on April 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Making wireless toys Final:Coolest precedence ever!! 

    Thanks to Nate!

    This is the coolest thing ever.

    http://cogoo.jp/turntablerider/

     

    • Adam 6:21 pm on April 17, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      holy yury! thats so cool .

  • 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!

     

     

     

     

  • 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.

     

  • kasiawitek 11:42 pm on April 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    DOMAINS for “feeling presence” – communication of little things 

     

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