Midterm-Individual-Post – Joy’s Documentation Blog

project title: nondegradable wave,

my name: Joy Yang,

instructor name: Margret Minsky

Context:

Our group project inspires me to choose something that we are able to make, and pay more attention to its practical use. Many projects have sensors or buttons so that people can control the project. They also have buzzers, LEDs, or mechanisms to interact with people and answer people’s orders. I think that triggered my understanding of interaction. My definition of interaction is that there are two main bodies, one body does something, and the other one does some actions to respond, also the response will deliver some information to change the action of the first one.

this is my first draft

Significant of my project:

What make my porject outstanding and special is that it has a critique of reality and calls on people to change reality. The meaning of the project is not just an interaction between people and the artifact, it has a deep meaning. Besides, the interaction is not just people controlling the fans and making waves, the speed of your moving hands, the way you move your hands, will make the waves move differently, and you will see the different visual effects. Also, we pay much attention to the art part, so we think our project is a combination of technology and art. Our intended audience is people who like art, people who need more beauty and art in their lives, and people who need to raise their awareness of ocean protection. For the first two kinds of people, my project makes them sense more beautiful, have visual pleasure, and gives them more fun. For the third kind of people, my project raise their awareness by using a more abstract and more visualized way, also building a connection between them and ocean protection.

Fabrication and production:

The most significant part is to write code and build the circuit, also how to connect the plastic bag itself and with the project to make it like a wave. Coding and building the circuit is the foundation of our project, but also the biggest challenge we met, we don’t have enough relative knowledge. We failed, again and again, every time we failed, we ask LA or the professor for help, and go back to adjust our project. We first think about a parallel connection, but it won’t work, so we change to using two Arduino and connecting with two computers. Besides, we found the fans are not sensitive, so we change the parameter for several times, and it works in the end. The other significant part is the plastic bag connection. In the beginning, the fans can’t make the plastic bag move, so I hold the fan to change its location to find a way to make the plastic bag wave. I found that if put the fans under the connection place of each two plastic bags, it failed. So I avoid it, then the plastic bag worked. My personal role is to make the art part, to design and make the appearance of the project, and to improve its visual effect. We worked separately, Harvey totally take charge of the technology part, and I take charge of the art part. But when it comes to the improvement of our project, we discuss, brainstorm, and make decisions together. During the user testing session, users said that we should put up some signs to guide users on how to use the project, and build a connection between users’ control and the project’s aim. After the user testing session, I made a box behind the project and put some signals on it. As to the connection, I didn’t add something to the project, but I add meaning to the control action, I said it means humans have the power to control nature. Also, I improve the appearance of the project by coloring it. I think the signals don’t work because I wrote it inside the box, and people hard to notice it.

Our code:

int TPin1 = 9;

int EPin1 = 2;

int motor1 = 13;

int TPin2 = 3;

int EPin2 = 4;

int motor2 = 12;

int TPin3 = 5;

int EPin3 = 6;

int motor3 = 11;

int TPin4 = 7;

int EPin4 = 8;

int motor4 = 10;

long distance1;

int distance2;

int distance3;

int distance4;

int duration1;

int duration2;

int duration3;

int duration4;

void setup() { //初始化串口及引脚的输入、输出模式

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(motor1, OUTPUT);

pinMode(TPin1, OUTPUT);

pinMode(EPin1, INPUT);

pinMode(motor2, OUTPUT);

pinMode(TPin2, INPUT);

pinMode(EPin2, OUTPUT);

pinMode(motor3, OUTPUT);

pinMode(TPin3, INPUT);

pinMode(EPin3, OUTPUT);

pinMode(motor4, OUTPUT);

pinMode(TPin4, INPUT);

pinMode(EPin4, OUTPUT);

}

void loop() {

digitalWrite(TPin1, LOW);

delayMicroseconds(2);

// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds

digitalWrite(TPin1, HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(10);

digitalWrite(TPin1, LOW);

// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds

duration1 = pulseIn(EPin1, HIGH);

// Calculating the distance

distance1 = duration1 * 0.034 / 2;

// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor

Serial.print(“Distance1: “);

Serial.println(distance1);

if (distance1 >= 50) {

digitalWrite(motor1, HIGH); //如果距离大于50厘米小灯亮起

} else

digitalWrite(motor1, LOW); //

digitalWrite(TPin1, LOW);

delayMicroseconds(2);

// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds

digitalWrite(TPin1, HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(10);

digitalWrite(TPin1, LOW);

// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds

duration1 = pulseIn(EPin1, HIGH);

// Calculating the distance

distance1 = duration1 * 0.034 / 2;

// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor

Serial.print(“Distance1: “);

Serial.println(distance1);

if (distance1 >= 5) {

digitalWrite(motor1, LOW); //如果距离大于50厘米小灯亮起

} else

digitalWrite(motor1, HIGH); //如果距离小于50厘米小灯熄灭

}

//This was adapted from the original code that comes from http://www.csdn.net

Conclusion:

People can control my project by using their hands to approach the sensor, and the fans will start to work, making the plastic bag move like a wave, and people will try to adjust their movement to see how the plastic bag will change. I think that process totally aligns with my definition of interaction. What not aligns with my definition is that sometimes the fans can’t move the plastic bag move, so it seems like the wave is not totally controlled by human hands. My audience will first put their hands near the sensor to see what will happen, and then they will try to change the way they move to see what will happen, they are glad to see the wave change with their hands move. If I have more time, I will do more tests to make sure the plastic bag can totally move with hands, and add lights and music to make the device more beautiful and more like an ocean. From the setbacks and failures, I learned that when you have difficulty doing something, think about if you need to change your method, to find some other ways to solve the problem. Besides, don’t let yourself stuck on the part of the project, you need to see the overall. Last but not least, don’t give up, keep trying and you will find the way out.

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