Archives for October 2022

During this recitation, I learned how to work with stepper motors. The first task was to learn how to make the circuit. The circuit incorporated an H-bridge and a stepper motor. I followed the given diagram below.

With the Stepper attached

Without the stepper motor

I then cut out the cardboard that was given to me. The cardboard already had the shapes and measurements so all I had to do was trace the lines. Then I took too push pins and I placed them into the cut-out circles to connect the stepper motor to the linear arm and the linear arm to the rotating link.

After that, I made sure that everything worked like how the example did.Then it was time to add some customization. I added a personal touch by attaching a “Hello” sign to the top of the linear arm. I also slowed myStepper.setSpeed() in the code to make the sign look like it was waving and added random() to give the sign some quirky personality.

Stepper motor

Additional Questions

Question 1: Choose an art installation mentioned in the reading ART + Science NOW, Stephen Wilson (Kinetics chapter). Post your thoughts about it and make a comparison with the work you did during this recitation. How do you think that the artist selected those specific actuators for his project?

I think that “waves” (2002) by Daniel Palacios Jimenez is a very simplistic but beautiful design. I really like how he took very simple things like a motor and string and made them into a creative piece of art.  I admire that though the design is simple it still looks very intricate because of how fast the string spins and the noise it emits. I think that the artist probably used a DC motor to make the oscillations of the rope visible because they spin in one direction well. I think that this project is somewhat similar to what we did in recitation as they both use motors and a simple mechanism to create an aesthetically pleasing project. While he used motors and a string, I used cardboard and a motor.

Question 2: What kind of mechanism would you be interested in building for your midterm project? Explain your idea using a sketch (conceptual or technical) with a list of materials that you plan to use. Include details about the ways that you expect the user to embrace in physical interaction with your project. In particular, explain how would your motor (or motors) with a mechanism will be different than using an animation on a digital screen.

I am very interested in creating an installation that consisted of motion sensors. I want the motion sensor to react to the presence of a person and then do something. I think I would like to have pinwheels on a wall and when someone walks by the wheels start spinning but only in-the-spot movement was detected. My vision is that when someone walks by the installation reacts like a wave. Only the part of the wall where the person is sensed starts to move. This would mean that I would have to use servos and motion sensors to complete this project. I hope that this installation would encourage people to move and interact with the installation itself. I find many adults try to suppress their silly side and I hope that this installation will bring out their silly side.

 

Code: 
/*
Stepper Motor Control – one revolution

This program drives a unipolar or bipolar stepper motor.
The motor is attached to digital pins 8 – 11 of the Arduino.

The motor should revolve one revolution in one direction, then
one revolution in the other direction.

Created 11 Mar. 2007
Modified 30 Nov. 2009
by Tom Igoe

*/

#include

const int stepsPerRevolution = 200; // change this to fit the number of steps per revolution
// for your motor

// initialize the stepper library on pins 8 through 11:
Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, 8, 9, 10, 11);

void setup() {
// set the speed at 60 rpm:
myStepper.setSpeed(40);
// initialize the serial port:
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
// step one revolution in one direction:
Serial.println(“clockwise”);
myStepper.step(random(50,150));
delay(500);

// step one revolution in the other direction:
Serial.println(“counterclockwise”);
myStepper.step(-stepsPerRevolution);
delay(500);
}

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

1. Musical Dance Floor – Luciana Emerson – Rudi Cossovich 
2. SKETCHES AND/OR DIAGRAMS

1. PROJECT EXPLANATION

Successful projects focus on a significant topic or issue intended for a specific audience. Discuss the insight you found, references of projects that are inspiring your idea, and how they influence your design choices. Define the challenge you seek to address, its relevance to a specific audience, and its intended impact. Explain clearly the interaction of the user with your project. Remember to include links, images or videos of your references. Limit to a maximum of three sentences.

 

I want to create a dance floor that is comprised of velostats and copper so when there is pressure sensed, the floor will make music. As a dancer, I always thought it would be fun to create music on my own but the only way to do that as of now is with tap shoes. This project is similar to the Piano Stairs created by FunTheory but instead of stairs to encourage people to walk, I want to create a dance floor that will in courage people to let loose and dance.

 

Explain precisely how what your group invented derives from, responds to, or relates, in some significant manner, to the established form of interaction you identified in your research of the two projects in the RESEARCH phase of the project. 

For the first part of the project, we were required to read three short stories. From those three stories, we were asked to come up with an interactive artifact for each of the three universes. We then split into groups to create a performance using one of the artifacts we created. My group all met and decided that we liked the idea of crime-detecting glasses inspired by The Veldt. In the story, the parent’s inability to observe their kid’s illegal behavior is what got them killed. Our group decided that crime-detecting glasses that also recorded behavior would be helpful in this universe so the parents could get their children the help that they needed and also survive. If the parents had these glasses, they would detect the blood in the nursery when they first walked in, and then it would prompt them to do a more thorough investigation of the children’s activities. The glasses are inconspicuous so even if someone was looking around for a camera, they would not be able to find one. Once the glasses sense that a crime is being committed, the footage gets sent straight to the authorities and an alarm on the glasses goes off. The authorities can then look at the footage and have proof when prosecuting. The crime detection feature is similar to Amazon’s Alexa crime detection but instead of only sensing noise, for example, glass breaking, it can also sense through body language and visuals. 

I previously defined interaction as communication and reaction and I believe that these glasses match my definition perfectly. The glasses interact with the criminal by reacting when they commit the crime and it communicates to the user by alerting them of the crime committed. Additionally, I went on to say that through interaction one must be left with new feelings whether it is emotions or thoughts. I believe that these glasses possess that ability as they leave the wearer with a sense of accomplishment for preventing crime.

Please clarify exactly what contributions and roles you personally made to the process and project along the way, and describe the process your group used to work together.

Reflecting on the artifact I think some things need to be improved. For example, I think for the glasses to be fully inconspicuous we need to make the alarm silent. Maybe instead of turning red and beeping the glasses vibrate on the sides so the wearer knows that there has been a crime but the criminal thinks they are safe. I also think that if we were asked to design these glasses we would have to figure out how the glasses would detect crime. We were thinking that maybe it would use facial recognition and base the crime detection on their facial expressions but since we didn’t have to design the object, we didn’t think that far. However, if these glasses were successfully made, I believe that they would be very useful in big cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, or New York because crimes like pickpocketing happen a lot and it is very hard to track down who did it because there are so many people. 

We created the artifact out of cardboard I believe that if we had more time we should have tried to make the glasses more sturdy. My partner who had to wear the glasses struggled with keeping them on his face as the sides were a little too bendy and wouldn’t stay behind his ears. We decided that the best way to prevent the glasses from falling off was to wrap a wire around the frame of the glasses but if we had more time I am sure we could have figured out a way to make the glasses sturdy while also making them aesthetically pleasing. I also think that if we had more time we could have thought about a more productive way to make the glasses change color but because we were short on time, we made two pairs to show the audience that the glasses would change color in real life. Looking back, the two pairs of glasses were not a nuisance but more like an added variable that we needed to keep in mind for our performance. Nevertheless, I think that the design we made worked and communicated its purpose perfectly

When making this project we worked all together as a group but naturally, different people became leaders for each step of the project. I was the leader in making the script. After I wrote down most of the script, people added their contributions. After looking at their suggestions I tightened everything up into the final script that we presented.

Crime_Detecting_Glasses <– click here if you want to see the sketch in full screen

A critical analysis and assessment of performance from another group. 

Group 6’s project was a very interesting take on this assignment. They created a VR headset for the story of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that makes the boy in the room suffer. The headset consisted of a box that popped a flower out when it was on someone’s head which I thought was brilliant. I think that this was included to show that the city only flourishes when one person suffers.

In their performance, a citizen tries on the VR and is so traumatized that they leave the city altogether. I think that this invention would be welcomed in the Omela universe because it has the potential to make the boy suffer even more than he did in the story. But I also think that the way the group did their performance did not meet the criteria of the assignment as the performance did not explain exactly what the product was. Additionally, they could have expanded on their creative thinking more as VR headsets already exist in society. I think that though the design for this invention was very well thought out, the execution of how to present it was not. The only reason I can tell you this invention was a VR headset was that the group explained it after in the Q&A. If I were to make a performance about this artifact, I would give more information using the script. I think it would have helped a lot if someone talked about the purpose of the artifact and why it applied to this story because it seemed that the project was up for interpretation. I also think that the performers should have shown how the project works more as they just put it on someone’s head and then walked away. I believe that the ideas behind the project were very intricate and thought out but the execution needed some work.

Describe clearly how your teamwork was, the different roles, the task allocations, and how were the communication within the team.

During this whole project, our group worked together. In our first meeting, we shared the three inventions we proposed in the first blog post. We then looked over the inventions and combined ideas to get crime-detecting glasses. After that meeting, we got together to work on the script. Though we were all a little shy at first we soon got comfortable and started playing off one another’s ideas to create our skit. We then designated the acting roles to each member based on what we thought fit their personalities. After creating the skit we got to work creating the actual project. We met at AB and created two pairs of glasses. One for when there was no crime detected and the other for when there was since we were not allowed to use electronics. After that session, we came together once more to practice our skit with our props. We soon realized that our skit was only 3 minutes long and that we had to add something to make the skit more interesting. We decided to add a part of the skit to explain how the glasses worked in more detail. We also decided to make a fake screen so the audience would know that they are looking at a recording. Throughout this process, we had very good communication skills and were very respectful of each other’s ideas. This project was very fun because it was the first time I got to work with people in a group at NYUSH. I liked my group because everyone was so kind and we got along really well. It was very clear from the start that we were all dedicated and motivated to make the project to the best of our abilities.

Thoroughly document the design, and the interactions of the group to come up with the creation, the building process, and the final prototype you have built.

The making of the glasses was very straight forward. First, we made two designs based off of my partners sunglasses. The first pair was made from two pieces of cardboard and the second was made from three pieces.

Then we decided that though these two pairs could work, they were aesthetically pleasing enough. We liked how the second pair of glasses were made but they were too chunky. We decided that the frame should be thinner and created our third pair.

We liked that design so we made another pair to show what the glasses would look like when crime was detected. We decided to wrap red wire around the pair that represented when crime was detected and silver to show when crime was not detected.

We then met up to rehearse our script with the props. During this rehearsal we realized that our performance was too short and incorporated a scene where the Public Safety officer showed that the glasses recorded crimes and sent it straight to the authorities. In oder to show that the audience was watching a video we made a TV prop out of cardboard as well. We also had a “pause” button to show that the video was paused. This prop was made by connecting smaller cut outs of cardboard to make one big square. We also attached the pause button to wires so a person could to drop it when the Officer paused the video. 

We rehearsed a few more times and then decided we were ready for the performance.

SCRIPT:

Teacher: Attention! You have 5 min left to complete your project.

Student 1: Look what I got (waves the dongle around before putting it in their pocket)

Student 2: No way I want one!

Student 3: Don’t do that you are gonna get in trouble.

Student 1:  Don’t worry the professor isn’t even looking.

Student 3:  But he’s gonna notice that one is missing.

Student 1:  wanna bet?

Teacher: Time’s up! class is dismissed. Everyone have a good day!

(students start leaving as professor counts the cables)

Students: 

Teacher: WAIT! I am missing a dongle and I know one of you took it. I’ll give you one chance to give it back.

Student 1: You are crazy

Student 2: Maybe you just miss counted check again

Teacher:  We’ll see about that tomorrow.

(Student 1 and student 2 rush out, and Student 3 comes back to the classroom)

Student 3: Professor, I saw her steal the cable, but I have no proof! What should we do?

Teacher:  I’ll figure that out, see you tomorrow! Thank you for telling me. 

(Narrator later that day)

Teacher: (walks up to authorities) Is this the public safety office?

Authority: Yes how can I help you?

Teacher: I have a rotten thief in my classes that is stealing my dongles. I need something that will help me catch him.

Authority: Here, these are crime detector glasses, this is an advanced technology that allows you to detect illegal actions, wear these glasses tomorrow. If they detect anything they will react and transmit the information straight to me!

(Narrator one recitation later)

(teacher enters classroom)

Students: hello professor!

Teacher: let’s begin our recitation!

(the student walks in)

Student 2: Today is my day. I’m gonna get one too.

Student 1: Okay man let’s see if you can pull it off.

Student 3: No don’t he’s wearing the glasses!

Student 2: We have no proof that those even work.

Student 1: Yeah I heard they are fake

Student 3: But guys look there is a camera there, it’s recording your every move!

Student 2:  I don’t believe in technology! Let’s try it out, Here I go

Teacher: I knew it! You in big trouble.

Glasses turn red and make a sound: Beep beep cable stolen

Authority: (runs in and says): you’re under arrest for stealing school property please follow me to our office.

(proceeds to throw away dongle)

Student 2: What? you have no proof

Authority: Yes I do the glasses turned red!

(Student 2 runs away and authority proceeds after him, but stays)

Authority: Oh, let her run! We don’t really need her to do that.

Teacher: How are we going to catch her then?

Authority: The glasses are the key. They have cameras and all the needed footage. Let’s watch it.

Teacher: Oh really?

Authority: Yeah! I will click this and it will show the projection of the footage of the crime!

(the narrator installs the camera frame and students come in)

Student 2: (SLOWLY) Here I go (putting the wire away)

Teacher: Oh that’s it! (narrator drops pause button)

Authority: Yeah! We can stop right here! See, these crime detection glasses are truly awesome! We can end crime everywhere!

In reception we made a workout sensor using a tilt switch.

In order for the tilt switch to work, the user has to connect it to their forearm. In the diagram above it shows that when the switch senses that its orientation is past 180 degrees it outputs a 1 to the computer. When it returns back to 180 degrees it outputs a one. Because of the changes in number, the computer can then take those and count the number of reps based on the change in number.

To be used correctly this workout tool can be used for a variety of different workouts. If one attaches the tilt switch to their stomach they could count sit ups, if one attached the switch to their calf they could count hamstring curls. 

Here is videos of the switch in action:

IMG_6182 <– Jumping jacks

IMG_6179 <– Curls

To begin making this project I took two wires and soldered on to each end of the tilt switch

.

Then I connected the two wires into the bread board along with a resistor and a capacitor.

 

Next I took the pre written code from the recitation and uploaded it on to my bread board:

int SENSOR_PIN = 2;    
int tiltVal;

void setup() {
  pinMode(SENSOR_PIN, INPUT);    // Set sensor pin as an INP
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // read the state of the sensor
  tiltVal = digitalRead(SENSOR_PIN);
  Serial.println(tiltVal);
  delay(10);
}

IMG_6173 <– this is a video of the first code working along with the tilt sensor.

Next, I uploaded the second script of code given to us that output a 1 when the tilt sensor went from 0 to 1 and 0 when the tilt sensor went from 1 to 0.

int SENSOR_PIN = 2;
int tiltVal;
int prevTiltVal;

void setup() {
  pinMode(SENSOR_PIN, INPUT); // Set sensor pin as an INPUT pin
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // read the state of the sensor
  tiltVal = digitalRead(SENSOR_PIN);
  // if the tilt sensor value changed, print the new value
  if (tiltVal != prevTiltVal) {
    Serial.println(tiltVal);
    prevTiltVal = tiltVal; 
  }
  delay(10);
}

IMG_6176<– Video of uploaded code

The code was almost there but it needed a few finishing touches. I needed to add a condition that only counted a curl only when full curl was completed, create a curl count, and set a limit so when someone reaches that limit they receive a message.