Month: February 2022

For this recitation, we built three circuits with Arduino. And the level of interaction as well as difficulty is progressing.

Circuit1:

The first one was a simple circuit connecting the Arduino and the breadboard, and the code was to make the light fade. We succeeded in the first try and we studied the code for a while to see how it worked.

Circuit2:

And for the second circuit, it was basically changing the led in the first circuit into a buzzer. And the code we used was to make the buzzer play a piece of music. It was kind of fun to hear the same piece of music playing all around the classroom. However it was kind of weird that some teams’ music was louder than others, I guess it was because of different current? 

Circuit3:

Last but not least, the third circuit. It was quite complicated for there are many elements and wires used, however, after translated it into diagram, it was pretty clear. When connecting this circuit, the biggest problem we encountered was that the wires would easily fall out, and the connection was quite fragile, so we took some extra time to examine the connection of each element and each wire. At first, we could only detect one of the two buttons used, later we discovered that the other button was not working and after changing it, the circuit was working. We tested it a few times and found it quite entertaining, or in another word, interacting. And professor Minsky reminded us of the importance of observing the participants’ reaction, not only whether they are having a good time playing the game,  but also some other detailed things, for example, in what way can people win this game? Do they have any common in their tactics? Which muscle do they use? Their fingers, wrists, or their arms? We realize from this that building an Interactive project is not only about the building process, but also the observation of the users.

Question1:

In order to make the game more interactive, I think we can add a screen to the circuit. On the screen, there are two programmed people standing against each other and they are programmed to hit the other person once the button is pressed. Whoever is hit 10 times will die and the other person will win the game with the LED lighted up. This idea comes from the article “Physical Computing”. In this article, the author mentioned the importance of image in the communication between human and computer. Also, in the article, there is a sentence saying, “We need to think about computers that sense more of your body, serve you in more places, and convey physical expression in addition to information“. From the original circuit 3, we have engaged our hearing–to hear the music played by the buzzer; we have also engaged muscle–to press the button. Although we have the LED, but I wouldn’t call it something that engage our sight, it’s more of a signal. But by adding the screen, it does engage our sight and add more entertainment element, which increases the degree of interaction here.

Question2:

The 10k resistors act as pull-down resistors. For they contain big resistance, they can prevent the circuit from short circuit. 

schematic for circuit 3:

 

1. 《Newton’s sleep》:

This fiction is based on the basis of a world that is “prototype of the Special Earth Satellite itself”. To my understanding, it realizes the concept of ideal model by controlling variables like pollution, viruses, to reach a status of extreme clean and pure. However, it’s hard, even in the fiction, they didn’t achieve it completely. But somehow it provides me with this idea that if we can’t reach the completely clean status yet, we can at least monitor and prevent it. So my invention for this context would be a cloak that adjust color according to the elements in the air with the help of multiple monitors detecting different variables placing on different areas of the cloak. This cloak will be designed to fit a certain person’s need. For example, if a person is allergic to dust, and is sensitive to heat (for example he/she hates hotness), according to those personal needs, his cloak has these two monitors, the heat monitor is placed on the left side and the dust monitor on the right side. The cloak is completely black when the environment is harmless and normal. When he/she goes to a place that is very dusty, the right side of his/her cloak will turn into red. And when he/she goes to a very hot place, the left side will turn into green. Of course, when he/she goes to a place that is not only dusty but also very hot, he/she will have a very cloak that is red at the right side and green at the left side to warn him that this environment is not good for him.

2. 《The fish of Lijiang》:

One of the most attracting but also a bit scary technology in this fiction, is the so-called “time sense dilation therapy” used in the “Rime Care Unit”. The way time is being used as a patience to doctor, as a unit in an experiment is new and hard to imagine. Time, as an abstract and objective thing, used to be uncontrollable to me. However after reading this fiction, I got a brand new idea of time. Though time itself is objective,  the experience of time is subjective. What if we can experience multiple things in the same time, instead of doing them one by one and using more time, maybe we can actually control time. However, in order to experience multiple things in the same time, a new invention should be invented. Which is, a robot that can transfer the feeling of experience. To be more clearly, for example, I need to attend a meeting with school classmates, but I also need to teach my sister maths, and I want to watch a film as well. Usually, I need to find three parts of time to finish these three tasks. However, with the help of this time-experiencing robot, I can send one to attend the meeting and another to watch the film while I teach my sister at the same time. The robots collect memory and feelings and deliver them to me by a radio wave that can be detected and collected by my brain. The only obstacle for this is that the robot can only do the things as a passive receiver, it can’t share thoughts or be a deliver. So that facing the tasks like watching film or listening to others speaking during a meeting, it’s productive to memorize. However, when it comes to teaching my sister, it can’t act as a experience output, so that I’ll have to do it by myself. But this obstacle can also have a good effect too, for it provides us human difference with robots, which is, we can be both experience input and output while robots can only be experience input.

3.  《Winter Market》

The two main characters shows a distinctive difference in terms of idea and value. Casey is traditional and dependent on his body while Lise is advance and live at the cost of destroying body. The possibility of the existence of cenesthesia after the death of the body in this fiction hits me. For the idea of consciousness can be independent from the body and can be collected seems to be not so realistic in the real life, at least for now, but the collection of memory, which is former consciousness, can be achieved. I think a camera that is activated by the rise of heart rate can be designed. As we all know, when we feel surprised, nervous or shocked, our heart rates will rise. However, when we have these feelings, we can’t really document the moment immediately because we are too shocked or too surprised or too happy to remember that. However, these moments are usually memorable. So, a mini camera that can be inserted in a pair of glasses which is able to sense the heart rate and start recording when the heart rate rises can be helpful and can collect those precious moments can be useful and meaningful. 

To me, interaction is an entertaining communication between two actants, with either or none of them human, but doing man-like actions. Also, it’s consuming people’s senses like sight, hearing and so on.

In this sense, I think the sound circuit art designed by Peter Vogel can be considered interactive. First of all, it’s a communication between people and the machine: the music will be played if people put their hands above the machine. Also, it is entertaining, for people can change the sound by changing their hands’ position, and that provides a sense of freshness to the participants. Last but not least,  this project is sense-consuming. It engages sight and listening.

However, what I’m really curious about is that it seems like many interaction projects are a lot like search engines to me, and therefore is quite different from my definition of interaction.

For example, the project “sleep like mountains” by Lotta Stöver. It functions in the way that the computer scans the body and then provides data sets by comparing the body to mountains. This is very much like what a search engine would do instead of  “Interaction”. However, it does shows a certain connection between computer and human, just that this kind of connection doesn’t really mean “interaction” to me.

Citation:

Eric Forman. (2015, September 12). Peter Vogel Sound Circuit Art. helloCircuits! Retrieved February 22, 2022, from https://hellocircuits.com/2013/10/19/peter-vogel-sound-circuit-art/

Visnjic, F. (2022, February 8). Sleep like mountains – (re-)discovering bodies in landscapes. CreativeApplications.Net. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.creativeapplications.net/processing/sleep-like-mountains-re-discovering-bodies-in-landscapes/

 

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