Amber_Kong's Document Blog

Just another Web Publishing @ NYU site

Project-Reflection: Amber

Interaction device: Moneybot

Introduction: This is a machine that can help people in the third space who is desperate for money to use their mind to control robot and earn money.

Inspiration 

The inspiration of this interactive device comes from the fiction Folding Beijing. Originally we got the idea because people in third space are sleeping for a long time so their time is actually not effectively used at all. So we want to make a machine that could help third space people work and make money even they are sleeping to have their time efficiently used. But we want this project to help those people really need help. So we made a little change in the design purpose for this project.

Working process

I’m in charge of making props with Novi and other of our group member is in charge of writing story and scripts.

Robot “helmet”

I didn’t have hot melt adhesive when making this as all of then were taken. So I used double faced adhesive tape instead.But it is not stable to stick two pieces of cardboard with double-sided adhesive tape. So I use cardboard to make four little triangles to reinforce four corners.

Scene signs

We took sometimes to design this sign as we want to restore the structure of space in the novel. So this is our design. According to the novel, different spaces are connected by a “tube” so we also used a tube. And we use different color to represent different world: Yellowish brown to represent the backward and dilapidated third space and brick red to represent the royal but cruel first world.

Sleeping machine

This is the main device of our performance. We happened to find two hemispherical hood. So we learned how to drill and made it.

Some pictures for rehearsal

————————————————————————————————————————-

Introduction

The project that impress me the most the that “virtue child machine” that helps parents to have a “digital child”.

Evaluation

I’m not sure which story is this relate to but this is absolutely an interactive device according to my definition of interaction. This “digital child” is actually just like an artificial intelligence. It is a machine that could act like a human and interact with human.

Also, their performance was really clear and humorous that even without any explanation, I can understand the use of this device. One thing that I think is very important is that in their performance, they show the two sides of the device, both good and bad. I think this is really a good point as every coin has its two sides. Actually we also wanted to show the two-sided effects of our machine but we didn’t find a good way to perform it.

And for the improvement of this device, I just think that maybe they should consider some more on moral question. I think this might against ethics.

Recitation 2: Amber

Circuit 1:

Circuit 2：

Circuit 3：

Question 1:

I think that using almost all electronic devices in our daily life is a kind of using of technology. Also, building things (like DIY) in our daily life is also using technology.

In the circuit, I made connections between computer and physical devices to put code into visible effect.

I think that the concept “how we  see computer”  and “how computer see us” raised  in the book just describe the interaction between human and computer. This is a mutual process. When a person/device(I call it A) do something and is detected by another people/device(I call it B), B could react and A is able to know that reaction. 

Question 2:

When pressing the button, the electronic potential of the point connected to D10 and D11 would be high and otherwise be low. The 10k resistor here, which is a big resistor,  guarantees the change electronic potential would be obvious enough to be detected by Arduino chips. Also, the current would not be too big to break the circuit.

Question 3:

  1. I would build a screen to show anything people want. Every LED is a pixel.
  2. I could use all the LEDs to make a “starry sky”, where each LED is a star and can move according to astronomical law. This could be put in the museum to show people the gorgeous starry sky and the secret of nature.

Project-reading Amber

Folding Beijing:  In the story, vending supermarket was mentioned. Nowadays, there are “vending supermarket” but its function is not perfect. It require people to be honest and if there is someone who is not honest, they can easily steal things from the supermarket. A true imaginary vending supermarket should be equipped with automatic identification machine, face recognition system and infrared alarm, etc. The technology nowadays could definitely realize this but the cost is too high. In the future, with the development if technology, this vending supermarket could definitely be popularized.

Newton’s sleep: In this story, Esther could not see the world even after surgery. Since people can project the image onto the screen of TV and computer now, then what if there’s a technology that could receive light and generate corresponding signals to stimulate people’s brain in order to help those blind people “see” the world.

The lifecycle of software objects: In the story, Ana has a new “figure” in the game. But what if people in real life could have one new “figure”to replace them to present in front of the public? This may sound like something illegal and would bring benefit for those who want to do something bad, but this could also bring great convenience to many people like disabled.

Project-Research:Amber

My definition of interaction is a process when a person/device(I call it A) do something and is detected by another people/device(I call it B), B could react and A is able to know that reaction. Or this can be concluded as a mutual input and output process. It’s like communication between two items.

Example 1: Object, Body, Movement and Environment

VR Projects @ ECAL MID 2020 – Object, Body, Movement and Environment

This project is a kind of interaction according to my definition. The device could detect users movement and make some changes to the object and environment as a reaction. And the users could also see this change. They are just like communicating with each other. One is giving the instruction and another is conducting it.

This project just let me to check my definition. Because I already had the definition in my mind at the beginning. And I think this one could be an interactive project. So I use it to check my definition to see whether there are differences or not.

Example 2

https://www.creativeapplications.net/vid/thought-experiment-organic-to-electronic-evolutionary-processes/

According to my definition, this example is not a kind of interaction. Because the device only detect the change of environment and the reaction is electronic evolutionary process. But the environment itself could not see/detect this evolutionary process. So this could not be called interaction according to my definition. 

Actually, before I viewed this project, my definition of interaction is like this: A process when a person/device(I call it A) do something and is detected by another people/device(I call it B), B could react and A is able to know that reaction. So if the last sentence is missing, this project seem to be an interactive project. But in my mind, this could not be an interaction project. So I revised and completed my definition. 

Recitation 1: Amber

Reflection

This week I learned some fundamental knowledge about circuit. These are the circuits I built in recitation.

1.

2.

3.(For this circuit, I leave the switch closed in order to take the video that shows the change of the brightness of the light.)

Actually, I learned some basic knowledge about this during high school so I didn’t have much difficulty building this according to the graph. I accidentally got this short circuited once but I quickly figured this out. The reason for this short circuit is that I put two legs of LED in one row so the resistor quickly got very hot.

I think I know how each component works but I am actually not very sure about the function of the capacitor here. I guess it is put here to reduce interference and stabilize current but I’m not sure.

The diagram of how it works

I draw a diagram for the first circuit.

Question 1

I think these circuits mainly use button to interact.The user can press the button to make the buzzer beep or light up LED. Especially, in the 3rd circuit, we use MOV to control the brightness of the lamp, this is also a kind of interaction.

Question 2

  1. Without high-tech computer controller, I think I can build some simple things only by circuit such as automatic light using photosensitive resistor or voice control device using microphone.
  2. Combining with computer, I think I can totally create a 3D scene by computer and using hardware to capture the movement of the user to let them “move” and explore this 3D scene. This is somewhat like visual reality nowadays. Of course the output from computer will not be limited to simple visual effect, it also can be some sound, vibration and even smells.