Final Project - update

Because we started our Final Project during sketch 2, this will just be a quick update. We have some schematics here to better understand how our Shimmering Lights will work.

We talked with Jinsil and Greg about how our setup will be. We booked the Green Screen Space for next week for a quick demonstration, as well as the week after for our final presentation. We discussed how we can solve our servo motor noise problem, and we will further work things out. After the lab today, we went to the Green Screen room and did some quick testing. We tested out how high above ground we would want to hang the lights, as well as how far apart we want to put them. We will start on making the pressure sensor soon.

Shimmering Light - Sketch 2 Presentation

From the last update, we started making the prototypes of Shimmering Lights. We gathered all the materials, starting one thing at a time. For this week, we decided to make 4 of the 8 Shimmering Lights for the final installation. We chose to use acrylic tubing, and laser cut the caps.

Inside each Shimmering Light contains 3 LEDs which are soldered onto resistors. 

After all the physical aspects were accomplished, we went on with the technical part. We connected 2 Arduino boards with 4 touch senors controlling 4 servo motors. 

It took us a long time to do coding as it is not our forte. However, with modified code and GSR sensor, we created a Shimmering Light prototype that gets the message across for now.

As users walk through the installation, the Shimmering Lights will evolve around the users. The closer the user gets to the lights, the brighter the lights will get. We also incorporated a mood changing effect on the Shimmering Lights, changing colors depending on users mood. 

We ran into a couple of technical difficulties. After everything worked, we uploaded our code onto an Arduino board. However, we were getting random results and were not as accurate as before. It took us a very long time to isolate the problem by removing and changing out parts one at a time. In the end, we found out that we had purchased a faulty Arduino board. With the time we spent figuring out the problem, we would have built a frame where the lights would hang from, to show the Shimmering Light effect as well as how it would look from above. However, this was not completed due to time constraints. We also realize that our servo motor is really loud, and we will be addressing our issues to make the final project perfect.

Shimmering Light Research and Prototype

Research:

Speed of Light

Speed of Light is a series of installations that invoke in the viewer a sense of the astonishment involved in fibre optic communication. A series of light work flows through the labyrinthine of the four-storey industrial space. The installations emphasized the experience of using fibre-optic communication, re-imagining it as an immersive environment.

http://design-london.blogspot.com/2010/03/virgin-media-speed-of-light.html

Nemore

Nemore is a garden consists of 36 bendable graphite poles. Each pole has a behavior and reacts to its neighbouring poles and to the visitor who is seen as the "alien neighbour". The sound from each pole builds up a chord, fluctuating in resonance with the movement of the poles. The project questions how the visitors and observers would perceive the state of being of these artificial objects based on their behaviors.

http://www.creativeapplications.net/vvvv/nemore-vvvv/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+creativeapplicationsnet+(CreativeApplications.Net)

Prototype
Over the weekend, we made a prototype of our Shimmering Light. Through rapid prototyping, we tried using different materials. From thin plastic, to thick plastic, plastic bottles, and containers, we found that acrylic had the best shimmering results we were looking for.

We would expect this in our installation. We want to use proximity sensors to detect how close people are to each of the shimmering lights. If users are within range of a shimmering light, the light will vibrate to create a shimmering effect. We are still finding out ways on how to incorporate the vibrator to have the effect we want. We also made a rapid prototype of a mood changing light, which we may incorporate. The light will change colors depending on the user.

Shimmering Light

After lecture on Friday, we decided that we wanted to make a 'Shimmering Light' installation. We are inspired on how the natural sunlight shines through the refraction lines of the ocean water, and onto the seabed.

Research shows that by seeing and hearing the ocean waves, it can calm people down, as well as lower their blood pressure.

Thumb War

We played around with the temperature sensor and realized it was too hard to work with. It needs constant temperatures in order to show values. We decided to scratch that idea. We decided to work with gloves, and incorporate fun with it. We are now doing Thumb Wars, the childhood game. Everybody knows how to play Thumb Wars. With ours, we want to have an LED light up when the winner holds the opponents thumb down. Each glove will have it's separate color LED, allowing both users to see the winner. Also, when users are starting the game, there will be a ready light.

Soft Circuits

In the previous lab, we learned about soft circuits. We need to create a wearable product for next week. We are thinking of making a gas mask and using temperature sensors. As users breathe through the gas mask, the hot air they breathe out will trigger the temperature sensor to light up the LED. We will be applying what we learned in lab to the next assignment.