This is the pics of our midterm project. Crazy Flowers. We planned to get all nine to work but because we didn’t forsee how much power we would have needed we only managed to get two. So yes, we did get two flowers to turn with the input wind sensor and servo motors and at a certain point the selenoid would start up.
After a long discussion, Wendy, Nana, Demetri and I decided to shoot our video about a book. The idea actually came about when Demetri said he always wanted to shoot in a library, and from there Wendy told us about a paticular book her roommate has been reading. So after talking a few more minutes on how the story should go, we all drew some quick storyboards. Below are the results of our discussion.
Since I was in charged of materials I decided the box would be built with plexiglass, and since it would be easier to have it cut using the laser cutter I had some appointments to make. Anyways below is the template for the top of the plexiglass. As for the bendable sticks I decided the easiest and most practical thing to use was the parts of the umbrella. Sam and I had spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday trying to figure out which parts would work as the selonoid that Sam had ordered was the smallest and the one that was the least powerful. We had to make sure that the parts we used for the project was light enough that the selenoid would be able to pull it down.
Observation Project 2
Due to time constraints and the complexity of working on a device with large dimensions that requires a lot of mechanical force to move, our team decided on slightly altering the project. We simplified things by scaling our project down to a more manageable, much smaller size. Instead of one large umbrella, we are going to build a table-top installation utilizing the same concepts found in the original umbrella project. This installation will contain a matrix of 6x3 “miniature umbrellas” mimicing the proposed movement of our larger umbrella idea. These individual “miniature umbrellas” will collapse via solenoids and rotate 360 degrees with the help of a 1.5-3v AC motor. So, by this time you’re asking where’s the interactivity? Where’s the input? Glad you asked. This matrix of “mini umbrellas” will receive continous analog input from weather sensors (wind direction, wind speed & air temperature) placed outside a window or on the roof of the ITP building. A windvane will rotate a 360 degree pot, which will give us wind velocity (speed & direction). This information will be relayed to our Microcontroller which will be programmed to move our matrix of “mini umbrellas” against the direction of the wind. Solenoids will react with a tilting motion and motors will spin each umbrella causing our matrix to sway like tall grass on a gusty day. An optional thermistor will also capture temperature readings and control multi-color LED’s attached to these “mini umbrellas” and change color according to outside temperature. The code on the PIC Microcontroller will also include a small degree of randomness to give each unit in our matrix a slightly unique, more natural motion.
Here is a new diagram illustrating the windvane and the bio-mechanical matrix of mini umbrellas:
Windvane connected to Potentiometer. Scissor-type joint pushed up and down by solenoid. Experimental wind sensor design (not going to be implemented).
Well we also divided what each person in the group would be in charge of.
This was probably one of the hardest lab assignments I had to do. But definitely the most interesting. I was thrilled when I finally got to move the little square with my potentiameter!
I used Dan ’s processing code:
// Example by Dan O’Sullivan apologies to Tom Igoe
import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort; // The serial port
int slide;
int light;
int button;
String accumulation = “”;
void setup() {
// List all the available serial ports:
println(Serial.list());
size(255,255);
// I know that the first port in the serial list on my mac
// is always my Keyspan adaptor, so I open Serial.list()[0].
// Open whatever port is the one you’re using.
myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0], 9600);
//prime the pump in case your microcontroller is stuck in serin
myPort.write(65);
}
void draw() {
background(0);
fill(0,light,0);
if (button == 1){
ellipse(slide,100,10,10);
}
else{
rect(slide,100,10,10);
}
}
void serialEvent(Serial p) {
int input = myPort.read();
// if the last thing in was a carriage return, it means that a whole
reading is ready
if (input== 13) {
String[] asText = accumulation.split(”,”); //separate out the
reading based on the comma (44)
int[] asNumbers = int(asText); //turn the text reading in to
numbers, beware if there is a 13 still attached at the end
println(”accumulation ” + accumulation );
if (asNumbers.length >=3){
light = asNumbers[0]/3; //scale it a bit based on the empirical
readings of this sensor
slide = asNumbers[1]/4; //easy scaling because it is a
potentiometer which delivers solid 0-1020
button = asNumbers[2];
println(”light ” + light + ” slide” + slide + ” button” + button);
}
//now that you go a whole reading, clear your accumulation
accumulation = “”;
//now send something to satisfy the serin
//in this case I actualy am sending information back but even if you
are not just send anything back
//my servo wants numbers 65- 250 and the mouse gives me numbers
between 0 and width
int servoRange = 250-65;
float percentageAcross = mouseX/float(width);
int servoOut = int(servoRange*percentageAcross) + 65;
myPort.write(servoOut);
}
else{
accumulation= accumulation + char(input); //if you did not hear
13, accumulate
}
}
Which basically has a green square on a black background. And by programming the PIC chip with this code:
DEFINE OSC 4
INCLUDE “modedefs.bas”
DEFINE ADC_BITS 10
DEFINE ADC_CLOCK 3
DEFINE ADC_SAMPLEUS 10
TRISA = %11111111
adcon1 = %10000010
adcVar0 VAR WORD ‘ ir Create variable to store result
adcVar1 VAR WORD ‘ ir Create variable to store result
switchVar var byte
inputVar Var BYTE
pause 500
main:
ADCIN 0, adcVar0
ADCIN 1, adcVar1
serout2 portc.6, 16468, [DEC adcVar1,44,DEC adcVar0,44,DEC PORTB.6,13]
serIN2 portc.7, 16468, [inputVar]
debug inputVar
PULSOUT portd.0 ,inputVar
PAUSE 10
GoTo main
I managed to get the little green square to go back and forth. I was trying to get the colors to fade in and out with a photcell but just couldn’t figure it out. I will be trying to work on this exercise more after the midterms.
DJ Dangermouse
I don’t think what DJ Dangermouse did was really that wrong. He was just trying to express his creativity. If the record labels could just see it as an amazing art work rather than another way to financial gain I’m sure there would have been no problem. I’m not such a fan of hip hop, but I do like the Beatles and although I couldn’t really here much of John Lennon or any of the other Beatles in the Grey Album’s remixes I think it’s sorta interesting that someone was brave enough to remix/combine the Beatles with the world of hip hop music. In my opinion as long as the person who mashes the copyrighted music doesn’t try to make money of it, it’s fine.
I think DJ Dangermouse said it best in his RollingStones interview:
“If somebody like Ringo or Paul McCartney heard it, I think they would dig it,” says Danger Mouse. “If Jay-Z heard it and said, ‘This sucks, dude,’ then I’d be like, ‘OK, everyone please send me back their copies.”
I mean, if the artist themselves don’t have problem with it…why should the big shot corporate people who have nothing to do with the creative process make such a big deal of it?
Podcasting is something relatively new to me. Ipods in Malaysia aren’t as widely used as they are here in the States, mainly because not everyone in Malaysia can afford one. I guess you can say it’s one of those luxury items with prices ranging in a couple of thousand Ringgit. Anyways it was interesting to come here and see that almost everyone had an Ipod.
Well back to my response to Podcasting, I for one truly would say that podcasting is one of the most exciting innovations to come along in quite awhile. I mean, it opens up an endlessly varied universe of audio content to anyone who wants it at any time. We live in a time where we are always so busy that we might not have time to catch our favorite shows or what not and having something convenient that notifies us when new content is available through some sort of aggregator and automatically download that content and have it put in a place where it can be put on a portable player for us to listen to at our convenience is amazing.
Definition of Podcasting from Wikipedia:
Podcasting is a means of distributing audio and video programs via the Internet that lets users subscribe to a number of files, also known as “feeds”, and then hear or view the material at the time that they choose. A feed is usually in the MP3 audio format.
Podcasting became popular in late 2004 with the spread of free software that enabled automatic downloading of audio MP3 files onto computers and mobile MP3 players.
“Podcasting” is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, rather than one-time delivery. A series of files are delivered because subscribers want to get the information regularly.
Subscriptions use a “feed” (such as RSS or Atom) to deliver the enclosed files. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated “radio shows,” and gives broadcast radio or television programs a new distribution method. Listeners may subscribe to feeds using “podcatching” software (a type of aggregator), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically.
The word “Podcast” is often incorrectly used to describe any Web link to a media-player-compatible audio file. Some radio personalities post MP3 versions of their shows and call them podcasts even though they offer no subscription feed.
Most podcatching software facilitates copying podcasts to portable music players. Any digital audio player or computer with audio-playing software can play podcasts. From the earliest RSS-enclosure tests in 2000-2001, feeds have been used to deliver video files as well as audio. By 2005 some aggregators and mobile devices could receive and play video, but the “podcast” name remained most associated with audio.
“Podcasting” is a portmanteau that combines the words “broadcasting” and “iPod.” The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable player, and no broadcasting is involved.
Aware of that misleading association from the beginning, some writers have suggested alternative names or reinterpretations of the letters “p-o-d”, without winning much of a following.[1] One little-used alternative is “blogcasting”, which implies content based on, or similar in format to, blogs. Another is “audioblogging.”
Observation Project 2
The Weatherproof Umbrella
We had some problems, getting everyone in the group to meet up the other week, so we all decided after class that we had to get our act together and come up with something. It was a reaally horrible morning the day we met. It was pouring and even with an umbrella I got soaked! It used to rain in Malaysia all the time but I never remember getting to soaked! I guess the main difference between the rain here and rain in Malaysia is the wind. When it rains in Malaysia it pours, but the wind was never as bad as it was in NEW YORK! So as long as we had an umbrella in Malaysia we were fine…not in New York though!!
So naturally, Sam came up with this brilliant number right before we met up at ITP. Sam along with the rest of us didn’t like it when a gust of wind inverted our umbrella and exposed us to a vicious raindrop attack and we all agreed that the problem is and has always been the umbrella’s classic design. Yes, the design is good at shielding your body from rain, but because of its non-aerodynamic, parachute shape, it is constantly begging to fly away with a mighty wind. If you hold on tight and don’t let it fly away, it will bend out of shape, rip, expose eye-gouging spokes and ultimately become so warped it ceases to function as a portable rain barrier device. So on Sam’s long subway ride he came up with this solution:
Pressure sensors attached to each spoke ending of the umbrella will detect changing air pressure (wind) and trigger a mechanism that will shift the top towards the direction of the current wind. The umbrella shaft will have an adjustable joint of some sort (maybe a ball & socket) that will give it a maximum range of motion to compete with naturally changing wind directions. As of yet, we do not exactly know what mechanism we will use to accomplish this movement, but we do have a few options we would like to experiment with. Muscle wire or Nitinol (a nickle - titanium alloy) is great because it requires a very low voltage, is super-light and easy to manipulate. Muscle wire shortens in length when electrically stimulated and can lift thousands of times its own weight. Another possible candidate is the solenoid, which is an electro-mechanical device that when triggered can use a magnetic field to open/close metal levers. For powering purposes we can have a replaceable 9-volt inside the handle or a rechargeable battery that can be hooked up to a DC charger. We will experiment next week and see what works best. Of course, the entire unit must be water-proofed, especially whatever is not under the umbrella, like the exposed air pressure sensors.
Last week’s assignment where we had to create a whole different image with 5 other images was pretty fun. Juliana and I weren’t really sure what we wanted to create at first. When Juliana and I first sat down to work on it we thought it would be nice to create a Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Beach Paradise, but we couldn’t find any images that we could use to create it.
Anyways, Juliana was pretty busy with Red’s class so I finally decided to use New York City as an inspiration. Plus I found the t-rex pictures and the rest of the images on google. Juliana added the lightning which I thought was really cool, it definitely in my opinion completes the image.
This week were had to wrok with servo motors. I didn’t get to do much with my servo motors. I wished I’d had done something creative with it as I realized that I could have added a few things to the servos to make it more interesting.
This is the code I used:
DEFINE OSC 4
start:
pulseWidth var byte
‘thes values can be vary with different motors
minPulse CON 75
maxPulse CON 250
refreshPeriod CON 20
main:
pulseWidth = 75
gosub pulseMotor
pause 500
pulseWidth = 200
gosub pulseMotor
pause 500
pulseWidth = 100
gosub pulseMotor
pause 500
pulseWidth = 80
gosub pulseMotor
pause 500GOTO main
pulseMotor:
low PORTD.2
PulsOut PORTD.2, pulseWidth
pause refreshPeriod
return
Anyways, I did have some problems at first, it was stupid really. My servo wasn’t getting enough power to turn and I was wondering what was wrong…and finally realized I had forgotten to put a resistor to the pic chip!
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