The past two weeks have been a venture into the true definition of “interaction”.  I would surely consider our phones interactive yet when confronted with the rather comical sketch of what our phone sees its handlers as (a giant thumb), it incites the imagination of innovators to dream up new forms of interaction.    Crawford notes in his work on interactive design, “The Art of Interactive Design” that interaction requires communication.  I agree with this more overarching definition of the word and I form my own definition around it.  In my opinion interaction is, “A two way form of communication where every component involved has the ability to take input and create output in some way”.  Yes, my definition is basic and yes I do believe even a light switch is interactive.

When I think about projects that demonstrate what I consider to be interaction I am naturally drawn to the most grandiose of them all, architectural masterpieces.  The first monument I would like to highlight as displaying a great deal of interaction is the Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, WI.  The building itself is an interactive exhibit as it’s wings open and close depending on user input.

So looking through projects I could only find one that doesn’t necessarily satisfy my definition of interactive which is the Murals in Detroit.  While creative and a wonderful way to light up the city with a positive atmosphere after years of troubles it does not demonstrate interaction.  When I envision interaction I see some sort of action reaction sequence.  

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvv3qp/massive-murals-detroit-library-street-collective

Our project for the week was the Super Box Boo 3000.  The idea for the great invention for the year 2119 was come up with in a rather mundane way but surprisingly enough our product did not violate serious ethical norms as our competitors.   Dom thought of the idea randomly while out back and from there we worked diligently each on our separate roles, it was mine to construct the box itself.  Our box satisfies my definition of Interaction because it takes input from your foot and gives the output of a 3d printed shoe.  

For this week’s recitation Dom and I constructed a setup where an LED light would turn on in reaction to moving our hands our an object to a close proximity to an infrared sensor.  We used a resistor, an LED and the sensor to complete this task.  Upon completion we altered the code to allow the LED to fade brighter as the hand got closer and dimmer when it was farther away.  With some help from Katie and a fellow teacher we were able to make it work.

Documentation Questions:

1.  We intended to assemble a simple setup with a proximity sensor turning on a light.  One practical use of such a circuit in my opinion is home defense or an alarm system.  If an uninvited intruder comes to close it will trigger a warning.
2. Code is compared to following a recipe or a formula because, in my opinion, just like a recipe coding requires you to follow specific steps in a specific order in order to achieve your end goal.
3. Computers influence human behavior by allowing us new forms of communication and interactive exchanges; whether it be information or just means of communication.  Computers also change the way we relate to the world as more and more abilities and information are accessible in a way never before seen.

Recitation 2: Arduino Basics

Partner: Dominick Nardone 

Circuit One: Fade

For this circuit we went built the circuit given to us in the recitation picture using simply a resistor and an LED and copying the fade code from Arduino.  It was overall and easy circuit to construct and code resulting in a LED that would flash brightly then fade.

Circuit Two: Tone Melody

For this simple circuit all we needed to do was attach a speaker to an output slot on the Arduino and insert the code that played the melody from one of the premade options in the program.  I found myself curious about what note makes what sound in the code and how many sounds were possible to create.

Circuit Three: Speed Game 

This circuit was far more complicated than the other two and we had to consult the tinker cad website for the exact design.  For this we needed buttons, resistors, LEDs, a speaker, and more than a couple wires.  However, we were able to build a working circuit after copying the code given to us.

Circuit Four: Four Player Speed Game 

For this circuit we merely attempted to recreate the already existing one we had on another bread board and connect the two with a wire from positive to ground and visa versa connecting the two boards.  Tom worked on the coding by adding to more outputs for each LED as well as two more inputs for the buttons.  However, we were unable to get our game to work as only two of the LEDs functioned correctly while the other two did not light up.

Questions:

1.  For the most part I interact with technology in the stupid way referenced in this weeks reading.  I do not often use full body movements or advanced communication methods to interact with my technology.  Instead, I tap and tap and tap on keys in my computer and on the screen of my phone.  For this class however I was able to interact in a new way by building the circuits myself yet the tapping on the button was still the input method.
2. If I had 100,000 LEDs of any brightness or color I would put myself in a very dangerous and precarious situation.  One one hand I would really wanna mess with people and make fake runways near airports promoting pilots to land their aircraft on highways or in back yards creating chaos on an never before seen scale.  Knowing this to be my intention and realizing this would end in a life in prison I would probably sell said LEDs for money to pay back my student loans or wreck havoc on NYUSH until more financial aid was granted.

Partner: Dominick Nardone

Circuit 1: Doorbell 

To make this circuit we followed the instructions using a button, a speaker, a voltage regulator, and a capacitor.  When constructing this circuit we ran into an initial problem, we had the voltage regulator going horizontal across the breadboard instead of vertically. 

However, once we figured out the problem with the voltage regulator we quickly corrected the issue and our doorbell worked.

Circuit Two: Lamp

We had a much easier time with this circuit now that we had figured out the voltage regulator situation.  However, for this project we included a resistor to prevent the LED from frying.  Based off of the knowledge acquired on the first project this one came very easily. 

(Apologies for the terrible quality of this photograph)

Circuit 3: Dimmable Lamp

This circuit was made by replacing the voltage resistor with a variable resistor allowing us to make the light more intense and also dimmer by turning the knob.  (Photo not available for this part)

Circuit 4: Arcade Button Lamp

This one was simple as we just replaced the basic button for this arcade button soldered onto two wires.  By removing the button for the arcade button it made it way more fun and interactive.

Questions:

Our circuits were interactive in the fact that we were communicating with it and it was communicating back to us by either working or not working.  By listening to the circuit we were able to make corrections and eventually arrive at the final solution in which it would listen to us flawlessly.  Through communication on both ends as stressed in the reading we created “interactivity”

By combining the concepts of interactive design and physical computing we as a species can tackle problems that used to be unsolvable.  This opens up new frontiers of exploration, and also opportunistic to help people in all walks of life.  One example that was demonstrated this perfectly was the play station device created by NYU students for the severely disabled adolescent which allowed him to play baseball games without physically having to do the movements necessary to do it the conventional way.  There are so many doors that are opened up by the combination of both of these concepts whether it be just for fun and games or actual, meaningful societal contributions.