FINAL PROJECT

Therapy on the Clouds – Sarah & Smile – Professor Rudi

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CONCEPTION AND DESIGN:

Our project is inspired by a game called wooden fish, and we search for therapeutic and mind-soothing sounds. It was a viral game recently, especially for the students tortured by schoolwork and pressure. So, we decided to make a wooden fish on our own. The user experience is the user will use a mallet to hit the 2D instrument pictures that will play the sounds, and it will have a different color of lights coming out from the cloud we adorn on the wooden box we made. Users interact with our project by taking the mallet out of the box and then hitting the instrument(the order doesn’t matter). During the User Testing Session, we got some new ideas and feedback. First of all, we change the vibration sensor into the copper sensor. It works way better than the vibration sensor. We put the processing screen on the box that lines up with the four instruments on the box. That makes the whole project more good-looking and comfortable because it was beside the box before, and the user needs to look to the left again and again. We also make the instrument buttons stand up instead of making them cardboard and lie flat on the box because we think it will be more outstanding and interesting to hit instrument-like things rather than a mere A4. Furthermore, we also decorate it with cotton to make the box more chilling and aesthetic. Last but not least, we also adjust the color of the lights that correlates with the soothing sounds and calming atmosphere.

FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:

I think the most challenging part of this project was coding. We have many versions of codes that never works well, but thankfully at the last minute, we fixed it perfectly with the help of professor Rudi! So, our coding faces a problem of delay and sound file playing errors. It is like when we hit the “button” (or the 2D copper) the sound and light will activate at the same time but most of the time, the sound will play multiple times for one single hit. We were both so confused about that was it the problem of Arduino or Processing, and it turn out to be the problem of Arduino, the code for Processing was perfect. We just need to separate the condition for the Neopixel and the “writer.send” part. I think it is because there are too many “if” statements under one condition. Other than coding, the copper sensor was quite challenging too because it doesn’t sense directly and immediately, it needs the copper to be touched nicely and longer, maybe a second to activate. Before using copper, we tried to use vibration sensors but it doesn’t work well. I think it doesn’t match our project because it only requires touching but not sensing the vibration that needs vibrations, waves, and energy. The elements we selected are straightforward because we want the user to receive an immediate response and the mechanism could process faster respectively.

We rejected a design idea, and I was so sad about it because I really liked it and put much effort and hope into it. It is making a 3D instrument will copper. I was expecting to make a 3D instrument that allows the user to hit wherever they wanted and it will play sound wherever they hit. However, it works well but not all the time and we think it is because the surface of the 3D figure is not smooth and the copper is not nicely attached and it got many wrinkles on it which makes it not accurate in sensing. So desperately, we make them into 2D shapes instead of 3D. But whatsoever, it was really fun and exciting while making those 3D models. I enjoy it so much. Another design we rejected was a 3D printing that we found online. It was an aesthetic and religious designed lamp, and it has a nice design on it but it will only look pretty in a dark room because it shapes the lights and prints nice shadow patterns. It is also because the laptop screen will be on the back and if we put that lamp it will cover up the screen. For our work division, I mostly work on the coding part and Sarah works on the decoration and building circuit part. We will help each other when I was confused or she was confused, and nonetheless struggled together when we both face an obstacle or trouble. During the whole project, we also discussed a lot about the ideas on our project and how to refine it too. Both of us worked hard on this project. I am very thankful that I got a good and reliable partner that always got a backup plan for our project(I was too stubborn about making 3D). Sarah also takes care of the part of searching for the sound. The sounds are extracted from Buddhist meditation instruments.

CONCLUSIONS:

Overall, the goal of this project is to create a therapeutic and calming experience for the user through soothing religious sounds and some visualization such as lighting and animation on the screen. I think our project chive these goals but not perfectly or 100% achieved and satisfied because there are still some delays from the sensor. Sometimes, the copper couldn’t sense the hitting nicely and the sound doesn’t immediately sound as the user hits too. Also, I think the mallet should be placed better because it was hard to pull out and the user doesn’t know what to do when it sees our project. My project aligns with my definition of interaction by when the user hit the copper instrument, there will be sounds, animation, and light effects show up. It is an interaction between the user and the project because the user started an action that turns into the input and Arduino will receive it and send it to Processing, which will process the input and output the result to the user. Both user and the installation work together to accomplish a reaction. If we have more time, I would like to try the 3D model of the instrument again and decorate the installation better and more aesthetically. For the light, I would like to make it fade according to the sound amplitude or duration to make the therapeutic atmosphere more vivid. For the Processing screen, I also would like to make some sound waves that derive from the icons.

We faced a lot of setbacks, redo, and failures throughout the whole project. Our initial ideas were totally different from what was made at last, and it was really complicated to make the game that we originally wanted to build. I learned that it is not important or not the main goal to make a project that is so hard and so advanced to do, because we were just freshmen and are new to this whole lesson. The important thing is that we need to utilize what Professor taught us and come up with creative and interesting ideas (but not technically hard to achieve). We were thinking too complicated about this project and it made us struggle a lot at the beginning of this final project which is the proposal. I also learned that we need to try out many ways and shouldn’t be scared to try out new things. We cannot be stuck on one step or not moving forward. From this final project, I learned so much and I really appreciate everything I have done, decided, and try for this project, and also the compliments, encouragement, help, and support I received from everyone around. The biggest takeaway from this accomplishment is interaction lab is not hard. It is so much fun.

ANNEX