Author: Like Yang

Circuit: Drawing Machine

Components:

1 * 42STH33-0404AC stepper motor
1 * SN754410NE ic chip
1 * power jack
1 * 12 VDC power supply
1 * Arduino kit and its contents

2 * Laser-cut short arms
2 * Laser-cut long arms
1* Laser-cut motor holder
2 * 3D printed motor coupling
5 * Paper Fasteners
1 * Pen that fits the laser-cut mechanisms
Paper

Videos:

Note: Video 1 is for the demonstration of the stepper. Video 2 shows how to use the capacitor to control the stepper. Video 3 is a demonstration of the drawing machine.

Process:

This week’s circuit is the most complicated one I have ever built so far, which you can tell from the shot of the breadboard in the first video. I made a mistake at the very beginning that I did not make use of the two rows of ports with positive and negative signs. All of the jumper cables crowd around the ic chip and if there is any connection problem, it would be very difficult for me to find it out. What is good is that I did not encounter any problem in the first stage and the stepper moved just the same as instruction. I also noticed an interesting phenomenon that my Arduino works well without the 12V power supply. It seems that the USB port on my laptop can supply the stepper with enough electricity.

In the second stage when I was about to install the capacitor, I felt a little bit confused because I did not see much difference whether or not to install the capacitor. My partner Guangbo also had this problem and Professor Cossovich told us that it is because of the poor contact between the breadboard and the capacitor. By using the analogRead example first, we would be able to make sure that the capacitor is transmitting the correct number back to the Arduino and the problem was solved. 

At last, when we were going to make the drawing machine, we find it very hard to keep the two 3D printed motor coupling on the same surface. Also, the two steppers could not cooperate very well. The one controlled by Guangbo often moves too fast and could not answer to the adjustment of capacitor timely. We think this problem may be solved if we reduce the speed of the stepper by making some modifications to the code.

Question 1:

The machine I want to make is one that involves multiple sources of input to process and produce individualized output. It does not only collect physical inputs such as the rotation of capacitors or pressing buttons but can also conceive the environment it is at or other conditions that the user did not intend to let the machine know. I do not favor choosing swift actuators because I would like to make the users see the entire process of how their input could trigger the output clearly. To my understanding, this process itself is a kind of art – the art of digital manipulation. What is more, the output should be presented in a form that maximizes its aesthetic value. I hope to reach a realm that the users do not view my machine as a simple combination of actuators but something that can communicate or even maintain emotional ties with them.

Question 2:

The art installation I would like to choose is Gastarbyter made by London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson) and Dugal McKinnon. 

This project, finished around the year of 2000, wants to stress the importance of listening and touching rather than seeing. The designer uses cylinders to simulate the feeling of physical vibration but the displays are reduced to neon lights. I think the concept of immersing oneself with multiple dimensions of senses is really interesting and this is what scientists of physical computing have been pursuing. With the invention of faster computers, people would like to create scenarios that most resemble the real world. However, after 20 years of evolution, the development path of the equipment we use to create ‘multi-sensual experience’ did not quite follow what the Gastarbyter did. We can see in the latest VR technologies, what the developers focus on is still the sight and those gadgets which connect our body to the computer are simplified as universal gamepads. In other words, although you may be playing dramatically different games and seeing different scenes in your headset. The reaction your body received from the joysticks may just be similar to each other. Now, 20 years have passed since the presentation of Gastarbyter. We have more advanced actuators instead of cylinders and neon lights but we still need to go back and reflect on our understanding of human perception based on the prototypes of immersed experience such as Gastarbyter.

As for Gastarbyter‘s comparison with the drawing machine we made on Friday, I think they are very different. From my perspective, the main purpose of the drawing machine is to expand human beings’ physical ability to do certain tasks like drawing. However, Gastarbyter is used to expand human beings’ recognition ability through feelings of various dimensions. They all originated from the idea of physical computing but arrive at very different results.  

My Definition for Interaction:

From my perspective, ‘Interaction’ should be defined as a phenomenon that meets the following criteria: 

1. Involves two or more actors.
2. Includes reciprocal processes of receiving information, processing information, and giving out feedbacks, despite the form of information (verbal, physical, visual, analog, digital etc.)
3. Could be carried out without prior interpretations.

Two Projects I Chose:

The project I chose that I think aligns the above definition is called Ethical Things, which is an ‘ethical fan’ that tries to use the resources on a crowd-sourcing website every time it faces some ethical dilemmas. This is how it looks:

The other project that does not fully fits in my definition for ‘interaction’ is ‘F3.’ It is a 3D design software based on Signed Distance Function. 

The Relevance of ‘Ethical Things’ to ‘Interaction’

In Week 1’s reading ‘The Art of Interactive Design‘ by Crawford, he defined interactivity as 

A cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak.

However, as you can see in my own definition for ‘interaction’, I changed ‘two actors’ into ‘two or more actors’ and this modification partly originates from Ethical Things. In its demonstration video, this equipment needs the presence of at least two people in order to fall into an ethic dilemma. If we count the device itself in, the total number of actors will turn to three. Although the number of actors in this project does not follow Crawford’s definition, this did not hurt the interactivity between the device and humans. Ethical Things is able to absorb the information from both objects as its input, find a way to process their information, and give reactions that would affect both users.

What is more, at the input stage, Ethical Things gathers information from different dimensions.  After the two people have sat down, it will automatically detect their body conditions. Based on that, the users can adjust the ethical standards using the rotary knobs and switches on either side of the device. Finally, Ethical Things will go through a crowd-sourcing website for the best solution. Considering the variety of information Ethical Things processed in this process, in my definition of ‘interaction’, I built upon the criterion appeared in Igoe and O’Sullivan’s definition and added that no matter what form of information is involved, as long as it has gone through the process of input, processing, output, we should recognize it as meeting the criterion. 

Last week, we read Tom Igoe’s article ‘Making Interactive Art: Set the Stage Then Shut Up and Listen‘. The core idea of this article is that

Once you’ve made your initial statement by building the thing or the environment and designing its behaviors, shut up.

In my opinion, Ethical Things is very easy to use. The designer of this equipment would not need to explain too much about how this device functions and what it can be used for. The process of Ethical Things making decisions in front of two people is pure interaction. 

The Relevance of ‘F3’ to ‘Interaction’

I think the project ‘F3’ somehow did not fully meet the definition I gave out above. Through in its interactive process, there are 2 actors (computer/software and the user). We could also witness steps of input, processing, and output. However, this project itself is not self-explanatory enough. First of all, as programming software, people without previous experience of computer programming would find it relatively hard to create the 3D structures of their own.

Meanwhile, even for professional users, they did not seem to get the essence of this software. On the Mac App Store page for F3, the one and only review by Mattx09 says that 

Lack of tutorial and step by step sample on how to use it. Normally you can find videos on youtube for everything but not for this. It’s a waste of money 19.99£ and I will try to get a refund for it.

If the threshold of interacting with this software is high, I don’t think it has fully met the standard of ‘interactivity.’ Interactive arts should be as accessible to everyone as possible and should not require very high levels of professional knowledge or detailed tutorials of any kind. 

Our Group’s Interactive Device

Our group would like to design a device that is close to people. In other words, there will be some scenarios that require frequent use of our machine in the future. After passing the idea of an intelligent haircutter and dream maker, we formed the idea of ‘Sfeeder’, an interactive human feeding machine designed to help those who are too busy to have their meals in the year 2119. There are two actors – the feeder and the user. During the interactive process, input refers to the verbal order given by the user, processing involves understanding the users’ order, detecting and locating the food on table, and output is the result of sending the food to the users’ mouth. All its functions are based on voice control so the users would not need to spend extra time to learn about how to use it. There are some elements of our device that resonates with Ethical Things.  The designer of Ethical Things mentioned that while they were thinking about the device, they came up with the following question:

If a “smart” coffee machine knows about its user’s heart problems, should it accept giving him a coffee when he requests one?

This is a dilemma ‘Sfeeder’ would encounter as well. When the feeding machine detected that the user would like to consume types of food that may bring potential health risks, should the feeder still execute the order? In the end, we decided that a machine, after all, should obey to what the user said. Although it can give health advice to users, those suggestions should never bother the user and ruin the overall experience. What is more, to create a feeling of intimacy, we designed the entire device in the form of people even if the function could be replaced by an mechanical arm. The hair and face on Sfeeder is expected to make the users interact with it more often.

Circuit: Distance Detector

Components:

1 * Arduino Uno

1 * USB-B to USB-A cable

1 * HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor

3 * LED

3* 220 ohm resistors

Several jumper cables

Video:

Process:

I picked the ultrasonic sensor simply because it looks cool, just like a stereo speaker. Before building our circuit, we first used the code here to test how the sensor works. At the very beginning, the distance it detected was not stable, with the maximum figures reaching more than 3000cm. But later we found out that we need to connect both pins in the middle to the digital input on Arduino and the problem was then solved. After getting to know the features of the ultrasonic sensor, we began to build a circuit that could light up based on the readings of the ultrasonic sensor. The circuit itself is not a very difficult one and the schematic is quite clear, as you can see above. For the code part, we based on the code in the “Ping” example and added a few lines to control the LED. By using ‘if’ statements, no LEDs would light when the object is over 50cm away. The green LED will be on when the object is less than 50cm away, the yellow one will be on at 30cm and the red one will be on at 10cm.

Question 1:

We intended to assemble a distance detector that could light up different LEDs based on the distance between the sensor and the object. I think it may serve as a helper when drivers need to park their cars. With this detector, they would be able to know how much room do they still have in the front or at the back side their cars so they are unlikely to hit barriers or other cars. Of course, this circuit would be better if we integrate a buzzer because sound may be more intuitive than lights.  

Question 2:

I think this statement is true.  We are unlikely to cook delicious meals or master a skill merely based on a recipe or tutorial. That kind of material only offers us basic knowledge and so are the codes in Arduino. It is often the case that we need to make some modifications to the code so the circuit would be better of practical use. In each example of Arduino, we can see that the author often attaches remarks on what the specific code is for. This gives us much convenience when we need to modify our code by ourselves. 

Question 3:

In my opinion, one of the most significant influences is that human beings tend to spend more time interacting with machines rather than people. With the help of computers, it is easier for us to connect with anyone in the world and we less treasure the time we spend with our close friends or families. The endless, dazzling information on the internet tend to get us immersed and we merely have time to care about the people around us. As a result, citizens of contemporary society, when deep in the dark and still awake,  are more likely to have lonely feelings than they used to be. Someone may argue that this is the new norm in the internet age but I think the time I spent with the people around me is the most precious thing that I could have.

Circuit 1: Fade

Components:

1 * Arduino Uno

1 * USB A to B cable

1 * breadboard

1 * LED

1 * 220 ohm resistors

A handful of jumper cables

Videos:

Process:

Generally speaking, the circuit would not be as complicated as those we built in the last recitation because we used Arduino.  It only took us 1 or 2 minutes to finish this circuit without encountering any problem and the result is satisfactory. One of the fellows advised us to use a red LED for better effect but I didn’t see much difference…

Circuit 2: toneMelody

Components:

1 * Arduino Uno

1 * USB A to B cable

1 * breadboard

1 * Buzzer

A handful of jumper cables

Videos:

Process:

This is the easiest circuit we have built so far. But there’s one thing to notice that we need to distinguish the positive and negative poles of the speaker.  From the second video, you may see that we changed the code to modify the sound it makes (though not a beautiful one). Also, by moving the code from void_setup to void_loop, we made the tune to play continuosly.

Circuit 3: Speed Game

Components:

1 * Arduino Uno

1 * USB A to B cable

1 * breadboard

1 * buzzer

2 * LEDs

2 * 220 ohm resistors

2 * 10K ohm resistors

2 * pushbuttons/ arcade buttons

A handful of jumper cables

Videos:

Process:

This circuit is a little bit complicated. It involves too many components, especially jumper cables so making a mistake is comparatively easy. To make the whole assembling process more smooth, my teammate and I separated the circuit in half. At first, none of the buttons response to the clicks. After a careful check from one of the fellows, he pointed out that a certain pin was inserted in the wrong line so the whole circuit wasn’t connected. At that time, we were really amazed by the carefulness we ought to have to assemble a circuit like this. However, after we have fixed the problem, only that button could respond to the click and the other one was still not working. This time, we carefully checked every connection but still could not find out the problem. We had no choice but to turn to the fellows again. At his first glance, he pointed out that the push button we were using is not connected to the circuit because the pin was bent. He advised us to use arcade buttons instead and we thought it was an excellent idea. As you can see in the video, after installing the arcade buttons, the whole circuit began to work.

Question 1:

From my perspective, there are just too many occasions that we need to use technologies within our daily lives. The modern digital life is essentially moving your eyes from one screen to another. We have sensors within our phones, our laptops, our hallways, our beloved convenience stores etc. The most frequent way for me to use technology is to look at the cameras for Face ID and unlock my phone. As for the circuits we built, all of them work only when we put codes within Arduino. I feel this is the intriguing part to use technology. The code helps us to unlock endless possibilities with the same materials we use for ordinary circuits. In the article ‘Physical Computing‘, the author expanded the definition of interaction in the narrative of physical computing. He regard input as ‘listen’, processing as ‘thinking’, and output as ‘speaking.’ This analogy somehow makes sense because in our class, we use the same method to carry out interaction with the circuit we build. The input refers to putting code in the arduino and the circuit would respond what we would like to see, which is the ‘output’.

Question 2:

If we put the LEDs at an interval of 1cm, 100,000 LEDs would mean that the total length of the band will be roughly 1,000m. Based on that, I think I would choose a specific stadium and install the LEDs on one of the tracks (one track with two sidelines are approximately 400m x2 = 800m). When an athlete is using the track for training, we can control the LED to form a light band where the light moves exactly a little bit faster than the speed the athlete could run at. In this way, it may help the athlete to improve his or her performance. Even if there are no athletes, a flowing light band at night in a stadium would be a very nice view and could serve as alternative light sources.

Circuit 1: Door Bell

Components:

1 * Breadboard – This is the base for us to connect all the other electrical components together without soldering. There are also connections within the breadboard that we can make use of.

1 * LM7805 Voltage Regulator – To make sure that the current went into the circuit is smooth, we need a voltage regulator so that the buzzer would work. Also, may work with the capacitor to protect other components (LED, buzzer) if there is a sudden blackout.

1 * Buzzer – This component can make sound if connected to electricity. Shall be viewed as the central component of a door bell.

1 * Push-Button Switch/ 1 * Arcade Button – They are two different kinds of switches that can control whether there is electricity in the circuit.

1 * 100 nF (0.1uF) Capacitor – In this circuit, it is the same as a resistor that has an infinite amount of resistance so as the voltage regulator could be connected to ground. Also, the electricity stored in the capacitor may help to protect the LED or buzzer if there is a sudden blackout.

1 * 12 volt power supply – get power from the socket.

1 * Barrel Jack – connect the whole breadboard with the 12v power supply.

Pictures of the Circuit:

Process:

It is always very difficult to start doing something that I am unfamiliar with. In fact, I have never seen breadboards and never finished a circuit like this before. At the very beginning, my partner and I even thought that we did not need to use electric wires if we put everything on a breadboard since there are built-in connections. However, we immediately realized it was a mistake. After getting more wires, we stuck on the installation of the voltage regulator and capacitor. We tried to connect them via wires but it turned out that we could use the built-in circuit inside the breadboard. To tell the truth this is confusing because we were unsure how to make use of the connection within the breadboard. The next difficulty we faced is the switch. It was really hard to understand why the switch has four pins instead of two before Nick introduced the design of the switch. Anyways, after encountering so many problems, our circuit finally worked and the process of changing the switch into an arcade button went on smoothly since we have already got some sense of building a circuit.

Circuit 2: Lamp

1 * Breadboard – This is the base for us to connect all other electrical components together without soldering. There are also connections within the breadboard that we can make use of.

1 * LM7805 Voltage Regulator – To make sure that the current that went into the circuit is smooth so that the LED would work. Also, may work with the capacitor to protect other components (LED, buzzer) if there is a sudden blackout.

1 * Push-Button Switch – control whether there is electricity in the circuit.

1 * 100 nF (0.1uF) Capacitor – In this circuit, it is the same as a resistor that has an infinite amount of resistance so as the voltage regulator could be connected to ground. Also, the electricity stored in the capacitor may help to protect the LED or buzzer if there is a sudden blackout.

1 * 12 volt power supply – get power from the socket.

1 * Barrel Jack – connect the whole breadboard with the 12v power supply

1 * 220 ohm Resistor – To reduce the voltage connected to the LED and avoid damage.

1 * LED – give out light after electricity flows into the circuit.

Pictures of the Circuit (My index finger is where the switch was at):

Process:

The process of building a lamp is much easier because we have already built the foundation when building the first circuit. We just need to change the buzzer into a LED light. However, it is important to notice that the positive and negative poles of the LED. The longer pin represents the positive pole and we need to follow the right direction to successfully light it up.

Circuit 3: Dimmable Lamp

1 * Breadboard – This is the base for us to connect all other electrical components together without soldering. There are also connections within the breadboard that we can make use of.

1 * LM7805 Voltage Regulator – To make sure that the current that went into the circuit is smooth so that the LED would work. Also, may work with the capacitor to protect other components (LED, buzzer) if there is a sudden blackout.

1 * Push-Button Switch – control whether there is electricity in the circuit.

1 * 100 nF (0.1uF) Capacitor – In this circuit, it is the same as a resistor that has an infinite amount of resistance so as the voltage regulator could be connected to ground. Also, the electricity stored in the capacitor may help to protect the LED or buzzer if there is a sudden blackout.

1 * 12 volt power supply – get power from the socket.

1 * Barrel Jack – connect the whole breadboard with the 12v power supply

1 *  10K ohm Variable Resistor (Potentiometer) – This resistor allow us to adjust the resistance so as to control the lightness of the LED.

1 * LED – give out light after electricity flows into the circuit.

Pictures of the Circuit:

Process:

To convert circuit 2 into circuit 3, we only need to change the resistor into a potentiometer. But initially I did not know why the potentiometer has three pins. I happened to connect the two pins that are seprarated from each other into the circuit and the LED was not on. Later, after receiving some instructions, I found out that I should connect to the two pins on the left and in the middle. In that case, when I rotate the potentiometer, the lightness of LED would change.

Answer for Reflection Question 1:

According to the author, we should define interactivity as “a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak.” From my perspective, the interactivity of the circuit we built comes from its response when we press the switches. When we implement such an action, the circuit receives a signal. In other words, this is what it could ‘hear’ from human beings. We could hardly say that there is a process of ‘thinking’ within the circuit but after it receives the signal, it answers by turning on the whole circuit and lighting up the LED. I regard this as a way for it to ‘speak’ with us. I think this entire process has met the author’s criteria for interactivity. What is more, for green hands like us to build a circuit often needs communication with others. It would be unlikely for us to complete a circuit solely from the materials on our table. When we have conversations with others about our thoughts on the circuit, this includes interactivity as well. So, I think the circuit itself and the process of building includes two different levels of interactivity but they are both inspiring.

Answer for Reflection Question 2:

In my opinion, there are two ways that physical computing and interaction design can be used to create interactive art. One method is to use physical computing to expand the existing forms of art so that we could see artworks that we would not be able to. An example for this is ‘The Eyewriter.’ The engineers created a method that could help an artist who could not move his body to continue creating graffitis. In terms of art, the work we see is essentially graffiti but the production process involved the intelligence of interaction design and physical computing. Another way that interaction design and physical computing can creat interactive art is to come up with completely different forms of art such as the ‘wood mirror’ that could capture people’s movements by changing colors. Without the help of technology, even if artists have the materials to present the idea, the visual effect and artistic value would not be as good as the one we saw in the film clip. In other words, physical computing helps many artists to put their imagination into reality to the best extent and help them better express their ideas.