Author: ly1164

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Midterm Project “Plantalks”-Lifan Yu-Inmi Lee

Midterm Project Individual Reflection

“Plantalks”

By Lifan  Yu (ly1164)

Instructor: Inmi Lee

     

  1. CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE :

What is our “Plantalks”

       We got our idea from my partner Xinran’s plants. She sometimes forgets to water her plants in her dorms. So we thought of creating a device that helps remind her to water her plants.

       Our “Plantalks” is a device that facilitates the communication between humans and plants. It reminds people of when to water plants and indicate how much water those plants need. It helps plants to express themselves by detecting the wetness of their soil and making movements and sounds to help them “express” themselves (when they are in need of watering, when the amount of water is enough and when the soil is too wet.

When people stand within a distance to the device, it will start working. When soil is too dry, the device will carry plants to move up and down as if it was anxiously waiting for someone to water it. Meanwhile, it will play a piece of audio saying “I’m so dry, I need help, I need water, help!” and blink a red light. When wetness is just fine, the device will play a song saying “It’s unbelievable, this is as good as it gets.” And blink a green light. When the soil is too wet, it will play a piece of audio saying “I’m drowning, no more water please!” and blink a yellow light. A piece of hand-shaped colored paper will start waving as if saying “No”.

This way, the device helps plants communicate effectively with people. People can know when to water the plant and when to stop watering. This device makes possible a long-term interaction possible.

How my group project inspired me

       My previous group project was Heal-o-matic 5000, a medical device that can diagnose people’s illnesses. People put their hands on a specially designed sensor screen and their faces are scanned for their ID. The device will then diagnose people’s illnesses by analyzing the data collected by the sensors and the diagnosis will be appeared on the screen. Meanwhile the relevant medicine will be dispensed.

       This device mainly responds to the environment. The interaction level is relatively low. The person isn’t continuously interacting with the device. The person only sends out information for a small interval of time before the machine responds and this round of communication ends.
       I wondered if I could build a device that can constantly communicate with the other “actor”. That is, it can detect the information of the other “actor” constantly. The other actor can also respond to the device’s movements, sounds etc. I also hope that this type of communication can last for a long time.

The project I have researched & what inspired us

       Reactive Sparks by Markus Lerner. This is an installation of seven double-sided vertical screens that is currently in front of the OSRAM main office in Munich, Germany. When cars pass the road in front of the screens, light-colored lines will appear on the screen. Meanwhile, the orange-color waves on the screen rise when the numbers of passing cars increase.

       This device displays the movements, speed and numbers of the passing cars. Through the changing lights people can see from a distance the traffic conditions on the road. It collected massive analog information and converted them into a simplified, more visualized and artistic form.

       When I saw this project, I wondered if I could create something like that. But I didn’t immediately draw inspirations from this when designing the midterm project. Xinran Fan and I initially thought of creating a device that automatically waters plants according to the wetness of their soil. After consulting with instructors (instructors Inmi Lee and Marcela), we learned that as plants don’t talk, we can create a device that makes movements and sounds to help plants “express” itself so as to remind people of watering them.

       This project we researched is actually a reactive device. However, this type of reaction fits well in our new idea. Showing something that can’t be easily noticed or attached importance on in an exaggerated or artistic style is actually what we need in helping plants to “talk”.

What is unique and/or significant about our project

       Our project involves not only humans but also plants. It facilitate the communications between humans and plants. It presents the conditions of plants in an artistic and attractive way. People are not only interacting with the fun device itself because more importantly, the device made possible the interaction between people and their plants. Combining plants with and interactive device is the most unique aspect of our project.

special value to its targeted audience

       While it helps people remember watering their plants in order to keep the plants alive, it also enriches people’s experience of watering their plants-make this a fun thing.

  1. FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:

What our first circuit looked like: 

Significant steps

3D printing

       Servo motors are only able to turn from 0° to 180°. We need the part of our device that carries plants to move up and down. To convert the form of motion we need a wheel gear attached to our servo motor and a part that can be moved up and down when attached to the wheel gear.

       The parts seem simple but we failed several times when printing. The first time the printer stopped generating heated plastic material:

The second time the printing process went wrong when printing the support parts. We finally succeeded the third time.

       The original flower pot was too heavy for our device to carry. My partner Xinran Fan made a 3D model of a smaller flower pot. The first flower pot we printed broke soon after we took it off the printer. It seems the layers of material don’t stick with each other quite well.

We printed again setting the refill to 99%. However, soon after the printing began, the model couldn’t stick to the platform and started to move. We used another printer instead. This time I added raft. Out model was finally printed successfully.

Coding

       We used If, Then, Else, Else if to blink the lights. However, the red light indicating “too dry” didn’t stop blinking when the green light turn on. After testing repeatedly we finally figured out that in our code, we should also tell the other lights to stop blinking when one light is shining.

     

       When adding the audio pieces, we found that a longer audio piece can’t be played until the end. It always stops playing after a few seconds. It took us a lot of effort to recall the function of “delay” and change the value of “delay”.

       We thought of including the “If Then Else” statements of the lighting and motioning part in another “If Then Else” structure based on distance statistics collected by the distance sensor. But instructors advised us to use && to combine two conditions. Such as “if (distance < 30 && sensorValue > 800)”.

       It was so hard to choose the intervals for “too dry”, “just fine” and “too wet”. We tested countless times to determine the suitable numbers. When the interval for “just fine” was too small, the device will go from shining a red light to shining a yellow light when we gradually pour water into the soil. After an arduous process we finally found the relatively suitable intervals.

Adding audio files

       We added three recorded audio files into our project. These audio files will be played while the LEDs blink. We learned to convert mp3. format to wav. format. (In the end, however, we still used mp3. format) We tried several types of speakers before finding ones that are easy to work with and figuring out the code with the help of instructors.

      

User testing

       At user testing we haven’t added the infrared distance sensor. An instructor advised us to add an infrared sensor so that when people are far away from the plant, the device will not be working. That is, the plants wouldn’t be calling for people “in vain”.

       We didn’t put descriptions near our LED lights to describe what the blinking of each light means. Several people suggested us to add attractive descriptions, so we added a sad face, a smiley face and a surprised face with descriptions “too dry”, “just fine” and “too much water”.

       These adaptions were effective because they helped users make sense of what exactly the plant is “conveying”.

What our device looked like without description:

  1. CONCLUSIONS

My goal is creating an interactive device that facilitates the communication between humans and plants. This device is interacting with plants as well as people.

My definition of interaction: Interaction is the process in which two people, devices, or a people and a device communicating with one another. This type of communication should include receiving information, processing the received information and giving a feedback, response or creating a certain kind of action according to the analytical results made in the processing stage. This idea is shaped by Crawford’s words “interaction is a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak” .

Also, to distinguish interaction from reaction, both of the two interacting units should go through these three processes mentioned. They are both actively engaged in a rather continuous communication. Two-way feedback is indispensable.

In my project, the device, combined with plants can constantly send out their own information to people. People will see the information and react by watering the plants. This kind of long-term, back and forth information exchanging align with my definition of interaction.

During presentation, my audience interacted with our device by stepping forward to the device, seeing its reactions and slowly pouring water into the plant on our device. The different states of the plant are shown in a visual and auditory way. My audiences also put the moisture sensor into other plants provided on our table and saw the different information different plants “wish to convey”.

Improvements we could make if we had more time

An instructor advised us to change the simple, removable moisture sensor into something more complexed and that constantly stays in the soil. If the plant is to be put inside a room, the infrared distance sensor can be put at some other place where people can definitely walk by because people may not always walk up to the plants.

What we’ve learned

We explored the possibilities of facilitating interaction between plants, device and people, which is quite an innovative thing.

We kept facing difficulties in coding and 3D printing. We learned to figure out solutions step by step. When things don’t work out, we just patiently restart. Reflecting on our failures and keep trying is a right approach to success.

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Recitation 4: Drawing Machine –by Lifan (Sylvie) Yu (ly1164)

Recitation 4: Drawing Machines (by: Lifan (Sylvie) Yu, ly1164)

In this recitation me and Kurt made a drawing machine using potentiometer to control a motor which is attached to laser-cut arms that control the a pen to move. We used this machine to draw on a piece of paper.

Materials:

 

For Steps 1and 2

1 * 42STH33-0404AC stepper motor
1 * L293D ic chip
1 * power jack
1 * 12 VDC power supply
1 * Arduino kit and its contents

For Step 3

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

Circuit：

Step 1: This circuit is the most complex one I’ve encountered so far. I made mistakes in connecting the jumper wire to the correct spots. I also put the H-bridge in the wrong direction. However with the help of IMA fellows I finished building the circuit. We used the function “map()” in order to match the movement of the knob with the rotation of the motor.

Step 2: There was a moment when I thought this circuit couldn’t work properly. When I rotated the knob on the potentiometer, the knob on the motor did not rotate immediately. But it was just the delay. It still worked well.

Step 3: I found it a bit difficult to control the movement of the pen using a knob that’s both far away from it and which controlled it indirectly. Then we figured out how the rotating movement can be turned into a linear or curvy movement. We really enjoyed making abstract art with this.

Question 1:

What kind of machines would you be interested in building? Add a reflection about the use of actuators, the digital manipulation of art, and the creative process to your blog post.

The machine I would like to create is a machine that uses moisture sensors to sense whether plants need watering and reminds people of when to water the plant and how much water should be added into the soil. When the soil is dry and the plants need watering, the machine will carry the plant and move up and down to remind people of watering the plants. When too much water was poured into the soil, a servo will rotate a hand-shaped sign to remind people of stop watering the plants.

Question 2:

Choose an art installation mentioned in the reading ART + Science NOW, Stephen Wilson (Kinetics chapter). Post your thoughts about it and make a comparison with the work you did during this recitation. How do you think that the artist selected those specific actuators for his project?

The interactive artwork Waves. Motors in it rotate elastic strings to create complex sounds and visual oscillations. It responds to the different movements of viewers and in a sense present the movements in a transformed, artistic but also corresponding way.

The project we made is actually controlled by people. Unlike the project I read about that senses movements of people. But they both converse certain movements of the viewer into new forms of movements that create artistic results.

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Group Research Project Individual Reflection-by Lifan Yu

My definition  of interaction:

Interaction is the process in which two people, devices, or a people and a device communicating with one another. This type of communication should include receiving  information, processing the received information and giving a feedback, response or creating a certain kind of action according to the analytical results made in the processing stage. This idea is shaped by Crawford’s words “interaction is a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak” .

Also, to distinguish interaction from reaction, both of the two interacting units should go through these three processes mentioned. They are both actively engaged in a rather continuous communication. Two-way  feedback is indispensable.

（An example that aligns with my definition.）
Project: Guten Touch


‘Guten Touch’ consists of two projected displays and a multitouch wall.
In one activity, people can stand in front of the wall and use their hands to touch the areas where the projected “foam balls” appear. They can “touch” the “foam balls” with their fingers and move their fingers to throw the foam balls anywhere. Players can even play a foam ball game called “Space Invaders” by throwing the foam balls.
In another activity people can participate in is creating vitual paintings. They can create colorful shapes using a brush or create digital pbjects on the screen using their hands. They can also move their artworks and see the dropping and bouncing of these virtual objects. （For example in the video, a person dumped a box of virtual objects into another virtual box he drew）

For the device, the sensors in the screen detect the pressure of people’s fingers on the screen. Thus figure out the directions in which the fingertips are moving towards. This is the information collecting and analyzing process. Then in response to this, the projected light spots can move under people’s fingertips. （or creating virtual shapes under people!s fingertips) This is the output process.

For people, seeing the location the projected virtual shapes is the imput process. Thinking about where they will move the shapes to is the processing process. Actually using their fingers to move the virtual objects is the feedback or output process. When they see the shapes actually move according to their own wills, a new round of imput, analyzing, output process begins. Also, when multiple players are engaged in this, players can also interact with each other.

The information giving and receiving process is continuous. Both the people and the device are fully engaged in every process that constitute “interaction”, constantly giving feedbacks.

（An example that don’t quite align with my definition.）
Project: Reactive Sparks by Markus Lerner

This is a an installation of seven double-sided vertical screens that is currently in front of the OSRAM main office in Munich, Germany. When cars pass the road in front of the screens, light-colored lines will appear on the screen. Meanwhile, the orange-color waves on the screen rise when the numbers of passing cars increase.

The screens receive information, process it by calculating the height of “waves”, and output the collected datas by visualizing the density of traffic using the height of waves on each screen. However the people in passing cars aren’t responding to the shapes on the screen. It lacks  two-ways feedback. It may be seen as a reactive or less interactive project.

Group project: “Heal-o-matic 5000”

 

 
Our project is a medical device that can diagnose people with their illnesses. People put their hands on a specially designed sensor screen and their faces are scanned for their ID. The device will then diagnose people’s illnesses by analyzing the data collected by the sensors and the diagnosis will be appeared on the screen. Meanwhile the relevant medicine will be dispensed.

In our project, a person and a device is communicating. The person sends out information by putting their hand on the sensor. The device receives information by collecting the patient’s health data. It processes information by analyzing the data.  It outputs information by displaying diagnoses on the screen.

This device partly reflects interaction. However , after some careful thought, I started to doubt if it is actually a responsive art device.The back and forth process of information exchanging and reacting is somewhat in lack in our project. If interaction still exists in our project, it can be seen as an interactive device that has low levels of interaction.

References:
The Art of Interactive Design, Crawford, Page 1-5

Reactive Sparks by Markus Lerner （https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/moving-art-display-markus-lerners-reactive-sparks）

‘Guten Touch’ Blends Tech and Human Interaction created by Multitouch Barcelona （https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/guten-touch）

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Recitation 3: Sensors Basics(by: Lifan Yu)

Recitation 3: Sensors Basics (By: Lifan Yu)

 

Hardware Required

  • Arduino or Genuino Board
  • Piezo electric disc
  • 1 Megohm resistor
  • solid surface

In this recitation  we built a circuit including a vibration detector.

Question 1: Vibration sensors can be used in mechanical industries. Factories nowadays use a huge number of mechanical devices in production. Vibration sensors can detect the machines’ rate of vibration. If machines are not running properly or something goes wrong, the sensors are able to detect them. In this way people in charge of these machines can know whether machines are running properly. Also, this kind of vibration detection can help people find out the cause for abnormal vibration. Thus, help prevent damage caused by abnormally running machines.

Question 2: I agree that code is like following a tutorial. Codes control computers and devices connected to them. Code is a kind of language the computer can understand. Computers are

being lead to things by codes because running codes is what computers unconditionally perform. When we want our computers to do certain things, we tell them by coding. It’s just like an instructor teaching students how to do certain things using the kind of language that students can understand.

Question 3: Computers influence us in countless ways. For example, the central computers in meteorological stations computer future weather according to past weather records. People can prepare in advance what belongings to bring in certain weathers. Computers help us have a deeper insight into what’s happening in our world.

Also, we now tend to write and take notes on computers. Computers examine our spelling and grammar mistakes. We are less able to remember certain words and grammars because we rely on computers to correct us.

Moreover, computers help people analyze big data and solve real-life problems. A newly appeared type of “doctor”, is actually computers using database to analyze patients’ diseases and give diagnosis. Their diagnosis are usually very accurate. They may also help doctors understand a patient’s condition better. Human abilities can be extended using computers.

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Recitation 2： Arduino Basics (by:Lifan Yu)

September 19, 2019

Recitation 2: Arduino Basics

by: Lifan Yu (ly1164)

Materials:

From Arduino Kit:

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
A handful of jumper cables

From cart:

2 * arcade buttons
1 * Multimeter (optional)

Circuit 1: fade

According to instructions I chose the right code example. I connected circuit correctly. However when I connected my computer with my Arduino and circuit, nothing happened. Then finally, with the help of the instructor, I found out that I didn’t chooe the right port in the “tools” column. After choosing the right port, the light can work properly.

Circuit 2: Tone Melody

The process went smoothly. We successfully made the buzzer work. However, a detail is worth remembering: we should put the buzzer’s two legs diagonally on a breadboard so that they exactly fit into the holes on the breadboard.

Circuit 3: Speed Game

I had trouble understanding the circuit diagram at first. I didn’t know that the thing in the middle was a buzzer. I looked through all my things in the Arduino kit but cannot find something like the buzzer drawn in the diagram. My partner said we should try to put a buzzer on it to see if it can work. Then we made great effort to connect the complexed circuit.

However when we uploaded, nothing happened. I checked if the port was the right one. It was. We examined the circuit for about 3 minutes before an instructor came. The instructor disconnected and then reconnected Arduino to my computer. Then the circuit started working. The instructor told us that we must have done something to the Arduino without knowing it, and reconnecting the Arduino can solve the problem

We tested several times whether the circuit can accurately detect the times the buttons were clicked. We first clicked the left button 1 time more than the right button. In the end, the led lit up on the left. Vise versa. Everything was successfully done.

Question1: Examples of me using technology in my daily life are: using my phone to scan QR codes, write certain codes to draw beautiful diagrams and shapes, using apple pencil and a drawing app to draw pictures on ipad.

In this circuit, I used example codes to send command to an Arduino board, and the arduino board control the circuit connected to it and turn the commands of the codes into actual actions of LEDs and buzzers.

Interaction is the process of imputing, outputting and computing of two actors that communicate with each other. The commands sent to the Arduino are inputs. Such as the times we push the buttons in the two player game. The process of electrical currents running through the circuit computing. The process of the LEDs turning on and off or buzzers playing music according to the commands sent to them is output.

Question 2: The push button doesn’t have a large resistance. Without a resistor with rather large resistance, it may be damaged. Also, if the voltage is too high for other components of the circuit, the circuit may be damaged too. Thus,by using a 10K resistor connected in series with other parts of the circuit, it bears most of the voltage and protects the whole circuit.

Question 3: I would use them to create an interactive artwork with a theme of promoting low carbon way of living. When a person stands in front of a LED screen made of thousands of LEDs, they will be asked a series of questions about their daily carbon production. choices will appear on the LED screen. A reflection of he or she will appear on the screen as a lit-up shape. when he or she answers questions, he or she only need to move his or her hands so his or her reflection on the screen can touch one of the answer choices.  After answering all questions, a star-like diagram will appear on the screen to show his or her carbon footprint in different aspects of daily life. LEDs will be put on devices around the area where the person stands. Then diffenent light shows that introduce low-carbon ways of living will be preformed for people with different levels of carbon production(or different kinds of carbon footprint).