Ken Wu

This week, the recitation’s focus was on creating animation on processing in which it should be incorporated to the text and interactive with the keyboard or mouse. From this prompt, I created an animation that was based on random circle designs that could be incorporated via the coded keys of up, down, left, right, and an “eraser” with the mouse. 

From this I think it was very interesting to incorporate both the mouse and keyboard into an interactive processing code. The code itself allowed for it. Moreover, I think that the colors itself allowed for interesting compositions where the random colors could be edited to create more harmonic pieces. I, however, like adding neutral colors to the red and blue dots I could input. I think that the frameRate function was particularly interesting in this piece as it allowed for me to control the rate at which ellipses were added where the standard frame rate was too high, but my edited frameRate was perfect.

I will now input videos of using this and the code. 

 

 

float y=10;
float x=10;
float z=255;
void setup() {
  size (1000, 1000);
  background(125);
  noStroke();
  frameRate(8);
}
void draw () {
  frameRate(8);
  for (int i=0; i<25; i++) {
    println(i);
    if (keyPressed && key==CODED) {
      if (keyCode==DOWN) {
        fill (y, y*0.3, y*0.1);
        y++;
        ellipse (random(0, 1000), random(0, 1000), random (25, 50), random(25, 50));
      }
    }
    if (keyPressed && key==CODED) {
      if (keyCode==UP) {
        fill (x*0.1, x*0.3, x);
        x++;
        ellipse (random(0, 1000), random(0, 1000), random (25, 50), random(25, 50));
      }
    }
    if (keyPressed && key==CODED) {
      if (keyCode==LEFT) {
        fill (x, x, x);
        x++;
        ellipse (random(0, 1000), random(0, 1000), random (25, 50), random(25, 50));
      }
    }
    if (keyPressed && key==CODED) {
      if (keyCode==RIGHT) {
        fill (z, z, z);
        z--;
        ellipse (random(0, 1000), random(0, 1000), random (25, 50), random(25, 50));
      }
    }
    if (mousePressed ==true) {
      fill (125);
      frameRate(60);
      circle (mouseX, mouseY, 75);
    }
  }
}

As for the circle homework, I made it so that I could move it with the up, down, left, and right. 

I will include the code and video of the processing below. 

 

int x = 50;
//x refers to radius
int s = 2;
// increments for shrinking and expanding
int w = 0;
//int for width
int h = 0;
//int for height
void setup() {
  size(600, 600);
  background(360);
  colorMode(HSB);
}
void draw() {
  background(255);
  stroke(x-50, 360, 360);
  strokeWeight(15);
  circle(w+width/2, h+height/2, x);
  if (x > 200 || x < 50) {
    s = -s;
  }
  x = x + s;
  if (keyPressed&&key==CODED) {
    if (keyCode == UP) {
      h--;
    } 
    if (keyCode == DOWN) {
      h++;
    }
    if (keyCode == LEFT) {
      w--;
    }
    if (keyCode == RIGHT) {
      w++;
    }
  }
}

Having read the Ernest Edmonds’ Art, Interaction, and Engagement which discussed the different categories of interaction for devices and aspect of interaction, I researched two interactive projects I found interesting being the Monopoly Ultimate Banking Board Game and the Nintendo Game Boy which are from different time periods.

I selected Monopoly Ultimate Banking Board Game as it is a rendition of the old Monopoly Board Game which was a successful board game that appealed to a large audience. This particular rendition has a device that users use throughout the game to keep track of the money of each player, owner of each building, level of the buildings, fines that each player is to take, and bonuses that players receive. It can fulfill the functions of switching property or increasing the level of properties through using a card on the device. Because it has such functions, it makes the experience easier for players as they can focus on the board rather than having to consistently keep track of the levels of the building. I think that because this rendition makes user experience easier, it is successful as their isn’t much that the user has to memorize or think about when playing. I think that this example of a project will inform my work through the criteria of making the experience simpler for the user to deal with. My project will aim to limit the user having to personally keep track of past interaction and moves if that is not my intention. Moreover, this may also inform my project if I decide to create an interactive board game where my digital device should make the board game easier to play not harder. Furthermore, this will also inform my project’s layout if I do a board game where it should have a beginning and end with rules that should make sense for users to interact with. 

I also selected the Nintendo Game Boy which is a old device used for handheld games. I chose this because the technology at this time was limited but still reached out to the audience at the time. This sort of marketability is something I found interesting and wanted to investigate. This is somewhat similar to what I could create for my final project which may be limited for proper presentation as a professional project. Another reason why I chose this project was because I was interested in using a digital interface and controls as my main interaction object in my final project where the Game Boy could inform decisions that I make regarding the design of the project. This is because people are used to such control systems where any difference may misinform their intuition on using a device. I think that this device is successful in that it can import different games to be played and is not restricted to one. This success is what also informs me to create dynamic nature for my product so that it is not limited to one form. For example, the Legend of Zelda can be played on this but so can Pong. Difference of user experience in one device is something that I want to also apply to my interactive device where different experiences can be felt. For example, if I were to create a board game, I may provide two different game boards or two variations of cards that can provide a different experience when playing. 

From my previous definition of interaction, it is where an action leads to a reaction that leads to another action from the source. This should be reciprocal where both sources should contribute in the interactive manner. This is also similar to my interaction featured in my midterm exam where the action of a doorbell leads to the reaction of the user and the interaction of the two from the reaction of the user. I think that a successful interaction should also provide a sense of freshness and uniqueness to the experience that should be simplified but interactive which is based from the research I just completed on the two projects. I think that there should be interaction like the dynamic-passive interaction or dynamic-interactive interaction stated by Edmonds which I think is the best form of interactivity. This is because there’s constant changes that occur that are predictable yet still provides a sense of freshness and uniqueness. 

Works Cited

“Monopoly.” Amazon, www.amazon.com/Monopoly-Ultimate-Banking-Board-Game/dp/B01ALHAMTK.

“Nintendo Game Boy.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy#/media/File:Game-Boy-FL.jpg.

 

Doorbell for the Deaf by Ken Wu and Cherie Tan, Instructor: Eric Parren

When working on this midterm project, I was influenced by my group project in three ways being user-friendliness, practicality, and purpose. For my group project, it was a helmet that transferred memories and data of an individual to a robot where they could continue to live through the body of a robot. This group project’s purpose was to warn about the implications of cryogenics and the longing for preservation of one’s life for the future as it was performative in nature. When the prompt changed to creating something functional, I considered the impracticality of the memory helmet and wanted to create something that could be used in the real world via the function. Due to this, the purpose of my product was constructed to be something that could be used by people everyday in their life. Our product for the helmet also lacked in being user-friendly as it required more components that weren’t intuitive. From this experience, I wanted to create something that was usable and intuitive to people where it should build upon existing products that are intuitive with a special purpose. 

As our group project was a one time interaction, it lacked economic practicality in the sense that it could not be used more times. Due to this, my understanding and aim of creating interaction is that it must be continuous rather than a one-and-done feature. From this, I think that my definition of interaction has evolved to include the property where input and output should be continuous and not be limited to single usage. Moreover, there should also be an action that is caused as a result of the input and output of a product.

In our project, we created a doorbell for deaf people. My initial inspiration for the specific audience of deaf people is my great-grandmother who has difficulty hearing where one of my childhood memories is being locked out of the house and being unable to contact her and let her open the door. Knowing that deaf people or hearing-impaired individuals lack the ability to hear, we wanted to create signals to them that would let them be alerted from a doorbell. In the market, there are already existing products such as lights to create signals to deaf people. We thought that it would be more practical if the product had to do with the sensation of “touch” or “feel”. We then thought of the notification system to be an input of a doorbell to the output of a vibration that could be felt on the user. This would solve the purpose of notifying the individuals and it built upon preexisting products of watches and doorbells which made the product easier to understand and more user-friendly. As doorbells only have one switch, it becomes intuition to press on it to alert another individual hence the interaction is already systematically engrained in ourselves. Watches or bracelets are also common objects in human life where wearing such a product would not require humans to learn how to use such a product. Using these two existing products, we combined them to create a product for a specialized purpose which is to alert deaf people of visitors. This is mutually beneficial as the individual seeking to approach the deaf person can alert them to let them know that there is someone at the door while it is also beneficial for the deaf person to know when guests arrive.

For the designing of the project, I was in charge of creating it where I wanted it to be minimalistic, clean, and easily understood without users being confused. This meant simplicity for the designing of the doorbell and simplicity in the bracelet. Knowing that Arduino circuits take up space due to the Arduino, battery, breadboard and etc, I tried to hide the inessential objects that would confuse the user so I enclosed it in a box. When designing the box, I measured out every single component within the box so that it represented the height, width, and depth clearly and avoided the box from being too small or too big. This was then 3-d modeled to provide a basic idea of how it would look like. Below are photos of the 3d modeling process.

Firstly, I began with creating a model for the Arduino, power, and breadboard. This was created in different layers and colors that represented the product which allowed me to render later to decide materials. 

 

This was further developed by moving the components and creating a box with a button to represent the doorbell. The individual pieces for cutting would again be created using Rhino and Adobe Illustrator for Laser cutting. 

When creating the bracelet, I wanted to make it wearable where it should be flexible enough for different users to be able to wear it. The design isn’t closed to allow for users to easily wear it. After creating the bracelet, I put it side by side to the boxes that supplied the power for important components to know the size that this product would be (other than the prototypes made with cardboard which will be described later).

When deciding the material that the box should be I experimented with rendering to test out certain colors of the box and whether or not I wanted it to be opaque or transparent. I enjoyed the transparent look of the box which looked more authentic and beautiful as compared to an opaque color masking everything else so I decided to use clear acrylic for the boxes. As for the wristband, I wanted the material to be more flexible to allow for users to wear it the way they like. Being fully designed, I imagined the products to look something like the renderings below. 

For the production section, it was actually complementary to the designing and conception process. When we thought of our product, we already thought of the object of output hence our product revolved around two commonly seen objects. During the user testing session, Cherie was in a recitation before me so she would user test first. I had no class during that time so I also attended. At the time of the session, our product didn’t have a prototype bracelet made yet which confused individuals as to what the product would look like. I received some of this feedback in her session and made the changes during lunch time by creating a prototype that simulated what it would look like in the future. When this was shown, it started to make more sense to the individuals user testing where they would know that they should wear it to receive the output. As our bracelet was huge during user testing, we made changes to the size for the design of the 3d-printed object. 

Honestly, the adaptations made were adjusted when we were cutting the parts of the box and printing the bracelet. There weren’t many design flaws due to 3d modeling before printing and cutting, but the only issue was the size of the bracelet and it not being the result that we wanted. At first the printed bracelet was oversized and hard which was the opposite of what we wanted so I talked to Andy about printing in plastic that could be more flexible for our purposes. I changed the dimensions of the circumference of the wristband as well. Below are the bracelets where the before is seen on the left and after is on the right. 

Our project aligns with the definition of interaction proposed as our input and output aren’t limited to single usage and it creates an action to be taken from the user as a result of the output vibration. While it causes an action to be taken, the action is more so limited which might not allow for interaction to occur on a higher degree, but I think that this is the most practical solution that could be taken and applied. The audience interacted with it according to our planned input output system as the design of the product is simple in nature. We removed anything that could mislead users such as having more buttons, lights, and etc. There were some issues with the transmission process from the transmitter most likely due to the direction that antennas were in, but it overall performed the intended function for the intended purpose. While the range and functionality weren’t the best or showed the product’s potential to the highest degree, it was still a product that showed the applicability to the real world. 

I would improve this product’s transmitter and receiver by buying better products so that it is more stable. The current version of our product lacks the potential that could actually be used in the world right now. The components aren’t made small enough. In the ideal situation, the vibrator, battery, and receiver of the watch should all fit within the square component of the bracelet in a lightweight manner, but due to lack of skill and technology, that isn’t possible at this stage. I think that from this experience of creating a product, I became more aware of the design capabilities with an Arduino in terms of form and more aware of the process of refining a product to be exactly what is wanted. Moreover, I developed more skills in conceptualizing the product and imagining the looks beforehand. 

To conclude, the design process is a long struggle where issues are brought about by lack of skill, consideration, or technology. To fully develop a product to the maximum potential, there must be careful planning beforehand for what IS to be created and what CAN be created. If the planning of IS and CAN is not synonymous, the product fails to achieve the maximum potential which may not be well if presenting to investors of the product. Moreover, for the product, there should be a clear purpose so that one can truly contribute something meaningful to society. In my conversations with Andy during the brainstorming and conceptualizing process, he continually asked me what is the concept and why am I creating this product. He challenged me to think of the design concept beforehand and research products like the one I imagined. Having rejected a couple of my design ideas, I became more aware of the importance of concept in design and the originality of concept where design is not for the sake of creating a project. It is the creation of a concept. 

Below will be a video of how the product works, poster to the audience, and the code.

 

//Transmitter

#include <VirtualWire.h>

//Grove - 315(433) RF link kit Demo v1.0
//by :http://www.seeedstudio.com/
//connect the sent module to D2 to use
#include <VirtualWire.h>

int RF_TX_PIN = 2;
const int buttonPin = 3;
int buttonState = 0;


void setup()
{
  vw_set_tx_pin(RF_TX_PIN); // Setup transmit pin
  vw_setup(2000); // Transmission speed in bits per second.

  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);

}

void loop()
{

  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

  if (buttonState) {


    const char *msg = "hello";
    vw_send((uint8_t *)msg, strlen(msg));  // Send 'hello' every 400ms.
    delay(400);
  }


}




//Receiver

//Grove - 315(433) RF link kit Demo v1.0
//by :http://www.seeedstudio.com/
//connect the receive module to D2 to use ..
#include <VirtualWire.h>

int RF_RX_PIN = 2;
int v=9;


void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("setup");
  pinMode(9 ,OUTPUT );
  vw_set_rx_pin(RF_RX_PIN);  // Setup receive pin.
  vw_setup(2000); // Transmission speed in bits per second.
  vw_rx_start(); // Start the PLL receiver.
}

void loop()
{
  uint8_t buf[VW_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN];
  uint8_t buflen = VW_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN;
  if (vw_get_message(buf, &buflen)) // non-blocking I/O
  {
    int i;
    // Message with a good checksum received, dump HEX
    Serial.print("Got: ");
    for (i = 0; i < buflen; ++i)
    {
      Serial.print(buf[i], HEX);
      Serial.print(" ");
      //Serial.print(buf[i]);
    }
    Serial.println("");
  }

  vibrate();
}

    //vibrate
    void vibrate(){
       digitalWrite(v, HIGH);
        delay(2000);
        //turn transistor ON
        digitalWrite(v, LOW);
        delay(500);
        digitalWrite(v, HIGH);
        delay(1000);
        //turn transistor ON
        digitalWrite(v, LOW);
        delay(500);
        //turn transistor OFF
        digitalWrite(v, HIGH);
        delay(1000);
        //turn transistor ON
        digitalWrite(v, LOW);
        delay(500);
      }

What would Kandinsky’s Several Circles look like with Processing? That was the question I explored in this recitation (and hours after it) when recreating his Several Circles through coding in Processing. Firstly, I chose Several Circles because I enjoy Kandinsky’s avant garde artistic compositions where this piece was one of my favorite pieces due to the minimalistic yet aesthetic design. I think that this piece is beautiful due to how Kandinsky overlapped shapes and placed it in different positions, hence I wanted to replicate this piece using processing to understand the complexity of such a design. 

When using Processing, I was aware that it was based on the x-y coordinate system therefore to replicate Kandinsky’s piece to a higher degree, I used Rhinoceros to measure the exact distance of the origin and the diameter of the ellipse. This helped me when I wrote the integers for the ellipse functions that stated the origin of each ellipse and the width and height where a photo will be placed below to show the process.

After measuring the distinct coordinates of the ellipses, I would use Photoshop to extract the color to correctly represent Kandinsky’s color usage. As the human eye cannot detect color as clearly as a computer, this would create more accuracy in the representation. In addition, there are also more limits to a male’s eyes genetically where less values can be seen as compared to females hence this would be more reason to use Photoshop rather than natural instinct. 

While I tried to make the most accurate representation I could of Several Circles through Processing, there were still many limitations that I experienced which may be due to lack of knowledge of functions. For example, the original painting has many dry textures that represent an evaporated state as well as random gradations of white representing fog like textures around the navy blue large ellipse in the center. When using processing, I found that it was extremely difficult to manipulate this texture if it was not geometric based on the functions that I used. I could make the composition similar in position of ellipses and color, but I couldn’t manipulate the human texture. Below is a photo of the comparing the two works while writing the code. 

I think that Processing is not good for realizing the preciseness of Kandinsky’s design in an efficient manner as it could be done in Rhinoceros and Adobe Illustrator in 20 minutes as compared to the ten hours of programming I spent with Rhinoceros, Photoshop, and Processing. I think that Processing provides flexibility with creating change in a fast manner for animations while if I were to use Illustrator I would have to create frames by myself. For this particular design, as it is static, Processing is bad for realizing this but it my drawing became a continuous animation, Processing would be a wonderful resource to use. 

Below is the snapshot of my drawing.

Works Cited

“Several Circles by Vasily Kandinsky.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/1992.

Here is my code

size (600, 600);
background(25, 26, 21);
pixelDensity (2);
noStroke();
fill (lerpColor (#a4b0ac, #cabfb9, 0.01), 225);
ellipse (260, 230, 290, 290);
//White ellipse
fill (lerpColor(120, 150, 10), 20);
ellipse (113, 409, 55, 55);
//background gradiation
fill(lerpColor(120, 150, 10), 20);
ellipse (172, 385, 55, 55);
//orange maroon ellipse
fill (lerpColor(120, 150, 10), 20);
ellipse (138, 415, 55, 55);
//red ellipse
fill (lerpColor(120, 150, 10), 20);
ellipse (160, 415, 55, 55);
//brown ellipse
fill (#111e53, 255);
ellipse (260, 230, 280, 280);
//Navy blue ellipse
fill (25, 26, 21);
stroke (255);
strokeWeight(0.3);
ellipseMode(CORNERS);
ellipse (135, 105, 310, 280);
//Black ellipse
fill(#855c7a, 125);
noStroke ();
ellipseMode(CENTER);
ellipse (310, 120, 70, 70);
fill(#855c7a, 255);
arc (310, 120, 70, 70, HALF_PI+2.5, TWO_PI, CHORD);
//Purple ellipse
fill (#bb9c4a);
stroke (lerpColor(#ceb67a, #bb9c4a, 0.8));
strokeWeight (3);
ellipse (450, 100, 40, 40);
//yellow ellipse
noStroke ();
fill (#648067, 190);
ellipse (310, 240, 60, 60);
//green ellipse
fill (#527d9f, 150);
ellipse (270, 260, 20, 20);
//blue ellipse
fill (#6d5a18, 150);
ellipse (290, 300, 50, 50);
//yellow-brown ellipse
fill (#bb9c4a);
stroke (lerpColor(#ceb67a, #bb9c4a, 0.8));
strokeWeight (2);
ellipse (60, 60, 20, 20);
//yellow ellipse
noStroke ();
fill (#b76c71);
ellipse (75, 130, 50, 50);
//pink ellipse
fill (255, 25);
ellipse (75, 130, 40, 40);
//pink ellipse highlight
fill (#b76c71, 200);
ellipse (75, 130, 30, 30);
//pink ellipse normal
fill (#2f597f);
ellipse (345, 384, 70, 70);
//navy blue ellipse
fill (#9b6b05, 125);
ellipse (345, 304, 100, 100);
//orange-brown ellipse
stroke (#284d60, 100);
strokeWeight(2);
fill (#203e3c, 225);
ellipse (435, 190, 90, 90);
//emerald green ellipse
fill (#375064);
arc (435, 190, 90, 90, PI-QUARTER_PI+0.10, PI+0.25, CHORD);
noStroke ();
fill (#284d60, 225);
ellipse (435, 190, 30, 30);
//navy blue small ellipse
fill (0);
stroke (255);
strokeWeight(0.15);
ellipse (435, 190, 20, 20);
// black ellipse small
stroke (255);
strokeWeight (0.5);
fill(#c37206);
ellipse (500, 135, 20, 20);
//orange small ellipse
noStroke ();
fill (#9e2f24);
ellipse (530, 80, 20, 20);
//red small ellipse
fill (#b8524d, 255);
ellipse (375, 332, 30, 30);
//red ellipse
fill (#d3a3b9, 255);
arc (375, 332, 30, 30, HALF_PI+0.2, TWO_PI-0.2, CHORD);
//pink arc
fill (#2d1c14);
ellipse (362, 340, 8, 8);
//black ellipse
fill (#4f6676);
ellipse (255, 375, 55, 55);
//gray blue ellipse
fill (#736a7f);
arc (255, 375, 55, 55, -0.2, PI+0.3, CHORD);
//lavender arc
fill (0);
ellipse (240, 405, 8, 8);
//black small ellipse by lavender arc
fill (#9b6b7b);
ellipse (207, 353, 8, 8);
//small lavender ellipse
fill (#82382b);
stroke (0);
strokeWeight (1.5);
ellipse(180, 356, 10, 10);
//small maroon ellipse
stroke (0);
strokeWeight(0.5);
fill (#9c7822);
ellipse (150, 360, 45, 45);
//yellow ellipse
fill(#8b4a20, 200);
ellipse (172, 385, 45, 45);
//orange maroon ellipse
fill (#862014);
ellipse (138, 415, 45, 45);
//red ellipse
noStroke();
fill (#633f1f, 150);
ellipse (160, 415, 45, 45);
//brown ellipse
fill (#d2b239, 200);
ellipse (113, 409, 45, 45);
//yellow ellipse
noStroke ();
fill (#ccae1a);
ellipse (139, 301, 13, 13);
//yellow background ellipse
fill (#1b152d);
ellipse (139, 301, 9, 9);
//black ellipse
fill (#958494, 150);
stroke(#7fa8be);
strokeWeight(2);
ellipse (80, 350, 62, 62);
//lavender ellipse
fill (#76707c, 150);
stroke (0);
strokeWeight(3);
ellipse (80, 350, 60, 60);
//gray ellipse half-transparent
noStroke ();
fill(#9a878b, 125);
ellipse (89, 338, 23, 23);
//pink background for black ellipse
fill(0);
ellipse (89, 338, 20, 20);
//black ellipse on lavender ellipse
stroke(#c18c64);
strokeWeight (0.5);
fill (#b36f7a);
ellipse(86, 475, 15, 15);
//pink small ellipse with yellowish surrounding
stroke (#285e82);
fill(#20537e, 150);
ellipse (118, 500, 30, 30);
//blue small ellipse with skyblue surrounding
fill (0);
stroke (#696b20);
strokeWeight (1.3);
ellipse (78, 518, 13, 13);
//black ellipse with khaki surrounding
fill (#ad720a);
strokeWeight(0.5);
stroke (#a5903d);
ellipse(290, 465, 25, 25);
//yellow-orange ellipse lower mid
noStroke();
fill (#8f8494, 200);
ellipse (500, 430, 120, 120);
//lavender ellipse lower right
fill(#826a46);
ellipse (433, 403, 30, 30);
//tan ellipse lower right
fill(#375560);
arc (433, 403, 30, 30, 0-0.2, 1, CHORD);
//navy blue arc lower right
noStroke ();
fill(#a78f6b, 120);
ellipse (465, 415, 40, 40);
//yellow background for blue ellipse
fill (#6087a4, 225);
stroke (0);
strokeWeight (0.125);
ellipse (465, 415, 27, 27);
//sky blue ellipse lower right
fill (#a18e0b, 225);
noStroke ();
ellipse (470, 500, 15, 15);
//yellow lowest right ellipse
fill (#862820, 225);
ellipse (453, 532, 22, 22);
//red lower right ellipse
fill (#1c415c, 200);
ellipse (520, 545, 18, 18);
//lowest navy blue ellipse
fill (#826a24, 200);
ellipse (565, 430, 15, 15);
//farthest right small yellow ellipse
fill (#3d301f);
arc(565, 430, 15, 15, PI-QUARTER_PI, PI+QUARTER_PI, CHORD);
//brown arc intersection between lavender and yellow
fill (225, 100);
ellipse (545, 305, 25, 25);
//background of blue ellipse
fill (#7e9696, 220);
ellipse (545, 305, 23, 23);
//background of blue ellipse
fill (#172c63);
ellipse (545, 305, 20, 20);
//mid right blue ellipse
fill (#8f221d, 200);
stroke (0);
strokeWeight (0.25);
ellipse (504, 380, 12, 12);
//red ellipse in lavender
fill (0);
stroke (255, 50);
strokeWeight (1);
ellipse (518, 381.5, 8, 8);
//black ellipse by red

During the fourth recitation, our objective was to complete a drawing machine that could fully function according to the circuit and diagrams provided. Following the steps, I began with connecting the circuit to allow for the stepper motor to rotate accordingly. This can be seen in the video below:

Following this, I created added a potentiometer to control the direction seen in the video below.

 

Lastly, with a partner, we assembled our pieces together to create a drawing machine where we could control the rate of revolutions per second and the revolution direction. This will be again seen in the video. Reflecting upon this experience of creating a writing machine, I think that I’ve become more adept with handling circuits as well as more confident in my ability to follow the instructions to create the intended outcome.

Now reflecting on the two questions presented in the recitation. Firstly to answer question 1, I’m interested in creating machines that could help “disabled” people of society. For example, I’m very much interested in creating technology that could allow for deaf people, blind people, handicapped people, and etc. to live better life. This can be seen in my midterm project where I plan to complete a doorbell and notification necklace for deaf people as their need for being notified is much different as compared to blind people. Due to their inability to hear, they must be notified through physical means or through visual means. I thought that the notification necklace would be more effective if it was physical through vibrations. 

For such projects, of course there are components that must be added. Actuators are one example that allow for components to move. I think that such a component would be useful in possible machines to move alongside blind people when they walk. It could assist them to know their surroundings. As for digital manipulation of art, I think that it’s a valuable need for the product design industry when creating machines. For example, photoshop editing and renderings can convey certain concepts to the population that may appear new and fascinating. Furthermore, photoshop allows for ideas to be sketched out easily which is important for the creative process. When I refer to the creative process, I personally think that it’s a series of brainstorming, prototyping, and reflecting that goes on forever until one is satisfied with their work. For prototyping there must be sketches or visualization of ones idea which can be done through digital manipulation of art. Many times, the creative process requires a product to be created. This product would need components such as the actuators to make it function like the final product.

Now referring to the second question, I looked at Daniel Jiménez’s Wave which uses motors to create oscillations in a set speed to simulate a wave in person. This creates a physical simulation of a wave that creates visual and auditory sensations of this concept. This is similar to the drawing machine in the sense that movement or kinetics is involved in creating the product which revolves around oscillation rates, but differentiates in the sense that the product’s visuals and auditory features where the drawing machine doesn’t create any illusion or sound like a certain noise for a purpose. I think that the artist chose his actuators based on his intended purpose that he wanted to convey. There’s a famous saying by Frank Wright “form follows function”. In this case, his function is also based on his form, therefore his actuator usage with oscillations was to create noise like the form.