Category: Dancing Paradise

Over the days, we have made a kit that can fit the gyro sensor in. The kit would be attached to the dancer so that it could sense and control the LED strip lighting on the dancer. For the next step, we are going to work on the different design of LED lightings and how each movement corresponds to different LED lighting.

We are testing a gyro/accel sensor (mpu5060) on our currently MQTT based system. It works relatively well and latency doesn’t seem to be an issue, though we can not be sure until we have prepared better peripherals to test the system. While latency doesn’t seem to be an issue, there is an issue with the lighting when we rapidly send consecutive signals over the current setup. While my first instinct was to blame the MQTT protocol, the actual problem could be the code and how we process incoming signals. Though it may cause an incredibly small amount of latency, we probably want to store all incoming signals temporarily to avoid losing signals. We hope to have a sleeve that holds a gyro sensor and wirelessly controls an led strip by next week. We have the bare minimum technical work to make the prototype done, sewing and other handiwork are about to be a bottleneck.

Also, I was thinking about adding detachable physical connectors between sensors and outputs so that there is an option to connect the two wirelessly or remotely. However, this may just add needless complexity so this is just a thought.

During the summer, we created a generic library for asynchronously controlling the LED strips with sensors.

https://github.com/dutchhagelslag/twinkleToes

While the library is incompatible with our revised vision of a wireless system of sensors and outputs for dancers, the ideas and large parts of the code can be copied and revised as the core operations haven’t changed. We’ll just need to incorporate a wireless protocol.

For no particular reason, we have decided to start with testing the MQTT protocol. The current test setup look like this: LED Strip D1Mini my router RPI MQTTool (iPhone). While the subscriber publisher model is good for scalability and uniform deployment, the current setup has some latency which is probably no good for dancing. We will try setting up a shorter network cutting out the router by making the RPI the wireless access point like so: LED Strip D1Mini RPI MQTTool (iPhone). Depending on how much this reduces latency, we will consider moving to a UDP based system which might introduce packet loss idk, but TCP is probably fine. We’ll be working on it.

We have finally decided to break the code into smaller more manageable pieces. The all in one go thing wasn’t really working. So the first piece we tackled involved controlling asynchronous LED movement with a button de-bouncer and a global storage array to store the index of the LED’s current location. There were problems with the number of moving lights, random LEDs triggering, and the last few LEDs of a motion getting choppy. The biggest issue (or at-least most identifiable) was the number as we expected 10 simultaneous LEDs, not 7. Thanks to Professor Kayla, we found that the issue was due to the de-bounce interval being too short. The random LED’s triggering and choppy end motion was not very consistent and hard to reproduce. We’ll be trying to identify the problem. Along with troubleshooting, the next objective will be to have LED’s reactive to analog signals.

Because everyone is now remote, it limits us from building thing things together. But given what we have, we can still learn and develop skills that will contribute to the project. This is the list of things we would like to learn or master before we get back.

Physical
|| Learning how to sow ||
– Youtube/Pinterest tutorial/inspiration
– Talking to mother
– Embroidery/ Buttons

Software
||Github||
– branching, merging
-more classes

||Addressable LEDs||
– Adafriut Library for community/accessibility

We’re learning how to use LED strips and sensors properly.
Tested Controlling Colors, Independent Lights, and Sensor Sensitivity.
Everything seems to be in order.
Learning first, can’t put the cart before the horse.

PROTOTYPE DAY #1
November 5

Flex sensors: red tape

– Forearms: front/back
– Neck
– Shoulders
– arms/wrists
– Thighs
– Knees; front and back? Or just front?
– Ankles
– Underarms

Stretch sensors: yellow tape

– Forearms: behind
– Behind the neck/ front of neck
– Knees
– Around thighs/hips

BLUE TAPE: LED strip lights

– Fingers
– Headband
– Wrists
– Entire legs
– Around neck
– Down torso/side of body left and right

Feedback:
Have flex and stretch sensors to see how they both work/feel. What about accelerometer?
Split into different tasks: tilt sequence one; flex and LED one; up and down one.
Hour-long prototype; pictures.

Interview Questions
When and what got you into dance?
Since childhood – always loved dancing
What role does dance play in your life
How often, when, where why
Favorite thing to do – whenever sad, afraid, I go to a studio or practice what I already know.
What is your creative process when dancing
Is there one?
Hesitant/confused at first
I just listen to music actually first and go from there. Usually, listen to songs and try to dance how i would to that in my mind and then when i get to be alone, I try to dance it out.
What are the challenges you face when dancing?
I guess i can’t express what the feeling is to the audience while i’m dancing. Some people look at me like I’m crazy (even during performances feel that theres a lack of expression or feeling in just my dnace moves – as opposed to facial expressions)
What has been your best dance performance?
Ask why
When i was in high school, i performed for entire school. They all loved it cause most of them hadn’t seen a performance in their entire high school years. It was during senior year.
Then why its the best, what it means
I felt validated like all the hard work wasn’t useless. It not only made me happy that day but also people who watched me. I felt that i successfully made them feel like i was feeling.

Dancer Responses:
Sleeve idea is cool.
Feels like fur
Dancer’s have control over movements which controls color
They like colors and graphics that can make their dance more expressive (stuff that’s bright and can grab attention)
Want less to do; more to show
To be able to make the audience feel what they feel through their music without doing too much to do that.
So less movement, more show through color “somehow”.

September 16th-20th:
Research phase: what dancers really need
Asking Individual dancers for how they would use technology to help make their dances easier/better for them.

September 23-29th:

Conversations with more dancers/interview questions!
Create a couple key questions to ask them for research:
– Get more info on what could be helpful (in any way) to them during their dances.
– Ask what they want to feel by using any sort of technology
– Ask what the most important thing about their dances are to them
Insight: what dancers think is most important and how to help them make whatever it is easier/stronger

Sep 30- Oct 5th:

Setting up prototypes/just to have something for dancers to see and work with
– Colors track movement of the dancer
– Gives the dancer the things they want: control, expressive form, “less to do, more to show”

October 7-13:

– Show dancers prototype #1
– a prototype (doesn’t have to be working) for making dancers do their own thing with

October 14 – 20:

– Think of what possible equipment would be needed; the most efficient way to create a prototype.

– Ask dancers to talk about what they want out of a physical prototype: 

– control

– “less movement, more show”

October 21-27th:

• Equipment:
  LEDs
  Sensors
  Gyroscope sensor would track movement
  – Patrick will associate each x/y/z movement to a color
  Fiber optic filaments
  Insert onto LED strip lights that would be wrapped around sleeve; velcro? Or spandex?

October 28 – Nov 10th: [2 weeks]

– Prototype testing; with paper/tape/cardboard/wire prototype; letting dancers play around with these materials and study how they use it.
– Show/present prototype