Recitation 2: Arduino Basics – By Skyler Liu

Circuit 1 – Fade

Components: 

1 * Arduino Uno

1 * USB A to B cable

1 * breadboard

1 * LED

1 * 220-ohm resistor

1 * Multimeter

A handful of jumper cables

Diagram: 

Picture:

Video:

Process:

The circuit was not difficult and we completed it fast, however, in the beginning, the LED didn’t light up. We checked all the procedure but still couldn’t find out where the problem was. Then we asked the faculty for help; he suggested that maybe the problem was the component itself and gave us a button for checking if the LED was damaged. As expected, the LED was exactly the problem itself. After changing a new LED, our circuit ran perfectly. 

Circuit 2 – toneMelody

1 * Arduino Uno

1 * USB A to B cable

1 * breadboard

1 * buzzer

A handful of jumper cables

Diagram:

Picture:

Video:

Process:

The process of making circuit 2 went pretty smoothly and it worked perfectly when we gave the first try. 

Circuit 3 – Speed Game

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

1 * Multimeter

Diagram:

Picture:

Video:

Process:

This circuit was really complicated to make though we had the physical sketch map. The main problem we encountered when we made it was that we often mixed up the cables. We either forgot to connect a component to the ground or connected a component to the wrong polarity. This kind of mistakes caused the failure of our first try – the button which was supposed to be controlled by player two didn’t respond to the press because we forgot to connect it to the ground. After really hard checking, we fixed the cable problem and made the circuit work. (I won the game! :D)

The process this time taught me a lesson that when we try to do a complicated circuit, we’d better select two different colors of cables for connecting two different polarities instead of letting the cables all mixed up together; in this way, it will be much more clear for us to assemble and check the circuit. 

Circuit 4 – Four-Player Speed Game

Picture:

Video:

Process:

This circuit was even more complicated than the last one and because we needed to combine the work from two groups, things got harder. We needed to connect two breadboards to one Arduino and add commands in the code. In our first try, two buttons only count the first press in the serial monitor. When we tried to figure out if we connect the two buttons to the wrong pinMode, another problem raised: we couldn’t recognize which buttons on the breadboards are the “play one” or “play four” that didn’t count in the monitor. Thanks to our faculty for that he first checked the code for us and proved it was perfect, then he taught us to update a basic program like “button” to test the position of the buttons on the breadboards. After we figured out which buttons on the breadboards went wrong, we checked the cables connected to them and found that we connected the two buttons to the opposite pinMode, making them couldn’t fit in our code. So we switched their cables to the right pin corresponding to our code and soon fixed the problem. In the next try, we ran the game successfully. At that moment, we were all excited and proud.

Question 1: Reflect how you use technology in your daily life and on the circuits you just built. Use the text Physical Computing and your own observations to define interaction.

For me, technology surrounds me nearly every moment in my daily life. I contact with my friends and family through telephone, complete my assignment through my laptop, get drinking water from a water purifier and so on. It seems like I cannot live without technology in such a modern world. And I think all the technology we use today relies on a basic way like how the circuits we built function: it works with both input and output; after we give an input like code, the input commands circuit to process, then the circuit would give us a response as output such as lighting up the LED or ringing the bell. According to Physical Computing, taking the computer as a sample, interaction can be defined as the process “input, output, and processing”. Therefore, I think the process we use technology every time is the process of interaction, for example,  when we press the switch of a table lamp and get light from it, the table time processing with both an input and an output, such a process is just a manifestation of interaction.

Question 2: If you have 100,000 LEDs of any brightness and color at your disposal, what would you make and where would you put it?

I want to use them to build an LED earth model which records the global environmental change in recent years. Recently, I read a piece of news announcing that NASA has released the data of global vegetation change of recent years, and surprisingly, in the recent 20 years, our earth has become “greener”. Inspired by the news, I want to make a model to record the environmental change intuitively, encouraging and alerting people to devote to the environmental protection cause.

I would make a hollow earth model covered by the LEDs and use different colors to represent different kinds of environment on earth: blue is the ocean, rivers, and lakes; yellow and green comprise the land (yellow represents the desert, green represents the green land, more detailedly, I can use dark green to represent the forest, use light green to represent grass, and use yellow-green to represent low growing shrubs in arid regions); white represents the icebergs and ice caps at the South Pole and the North Pole. Then I would put in the data of the global environmental change in recent years, making the LEDs change colors according to the data change each year. By my rough calculations, if each LED is close to 0.5 cm * 0.5 cm, the diameter of the model should be close to 1 m. It would be suitable to put it in the exhibition hall of a science and technology museum for educating visitors.

Recitation 1: Electronics & Soldering – By Skyler Liu

Solder an Arcade Button

Before we finished the circuit 1, we learned how to solder an arcade Button. We first cut a piece of wire in half and stripped one end of each half of the wire. Then we had the button fixed, and melted an end of a piece of metal wire, dripping the melting metal to the connecting hole of the button. At last, we needed to connect the exposed end of the wire with the button by putting the exposed end in the melting metal and waiting till it cooled down. However, our last step did not go very well; we could not connect the wire with the button no matter how we tried. Thanks to our instructor’s help at last; the arcade button was made eventually. And one thing important is that he taught us that selecting the wire which needed to be connected with the button is also a skill: the kind of wire with a single piece of metal wire inside is easier to connect with the button, instead of the one we chose, which is with several thin pieces of metal wire inside.

Circuit 1 – Door Bell

Components:

1* Breadboard: to offer a base where the circuit can be built on.

1* Voltage Regulator: regulate the voltage to the proper value of number that can serve the circuit.

1* 12-volt power supply: to get power from the patch board and provide 12V electrical power for the circuit. 

1* Capacitor: to store and release the electrical energy. 

A few hook-up wires: to interconnect the electronic components.

1* Buzzer: to serve as the “door bell”.

 1* Push button (switch): to control the on-off of the door bell.

Diagram:

Picture:

Video:

Process:

Because the door bell was the first circuit I made with my partner, it was also the hardest one. We encountered a lot of problems we have never met before. In the beginning, my partner and I had no idea of how the breadboard functions and how the electricity flows across all those holes. After first asked our assistant Eszter, we figured out how to connect the wires to the power supply and the ground. However, when we connected other electronic components to the breadboard, we made a mistake: we misunderstood the direction of electricity flowing across the breadboard. The direction of electricity should be transverse but we considered it as longitudinal. So we connected the wires to the wrong holes with the components. Thanks to Eszter; she corrected us again. After got all the wires on their right position, we tried to connect the patch board. The door bell rang, however, the switch didn’t work, which means the bell just kept ringing. We checked the circuit again and found that we put the switch in the wrong direction. It was hard to notice that the switch was not near to a cube but to a cuboid, and we must carefully distinguish its inputs and outputs. After corrected this mistake, we finally succeeded! My partner and I were both very excited.

Circuit 2 – Lamp

1* Breadboard: to offer a base where the circuit can be built on.

1* Voltage Regulator: regulate the voltage to the proper value of number that can serve the circuit.

1 * 12-volt power supply: to get power from the patch board and provide 12V electrical power for the circuit. 

1* Capacitor: to store and release the electrical energy. 

A few hook-up wires: to interconnect the electronic components.

1* 220-ohm resistor: to reduce the voltage passing through the LED in order to avoid damage.

1* LED: to give the light after the electricity flows in.

 1* Push button (switch): to control the on-off of the LED.

Diagram:

Picture:

Video:

Process:

The process of making circuit 2 was very smooth. My partner and I found the difference between the diagram of circuit 1 and circuit 2 was only to change the bell into the resistor and LED. So we kept the other electronic components on the breadboard; only removed the bell and connected the resistor and LED in. The process took less than one minute and we succeeded.

Circuit 3 – Dimmable lamp

Components:

1* Breadboard: to offer a base where the circuit can be built on.

1* Voltage Regulator: regulate the voltage to the proper value of number that can serve the circuit.

1 * 12-volt power supply: to get power from the patch board and provide 12V electrical power for the circuit. 

1* Capacitor: to store and release the electrical energy. 

A few hook-up wires: to interconnect the electronic components.

1*  10K ohm Variable Resistor (Potentiometer): to adjust the luminance of LED by adjusting the resistance, changing the voltage passes by the LED.

1* LED: to light up after the electricity flows in.

 1* Push button (switch): to control the on-off of the LED.

Diagram:

Picture:

Video:

Process:

Similar to circuit 2, we found there was only a little difference between circuit 3 and the last one. We switched the resistor in circuit 2 with the variable resistor and soon succeeded. Moreover, after we finished our work, I helped another group to check their circuit 3 and find the reason why it didn’t work. They connected the wire to a wrong hole so that it could not form a pathway for the electricity. After correcting the wire to the right hole, I was happy to see their work succeeded too. 

Additionally, there was actually a non-standard operation made by me when I helped others. I corrected the circuit without powering it out. Such operations could be really dangerous and I’m sure I will pay much more attention to safety next time.

Question 1: After reading The Art of Interactive Design, in what way do you think that the circuits you built today include interactivity? Please explain your answer.

I think the interactivity represents in the responses of the circuits when we press the switch button. As the author states that interactivity is “in terms of a conversation: a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak”, the circuits can be just considered to include these three elements. When we press the button, the circuit receives a signal; the process is just like the circuit is”listening” to our command. Then the electricity flows into the circuit and searches for a way out; this process is just like “thinking”. In the end, it makes a response, either lights up the LED or rings the bell. The response is similar to “speaking”. Therefore, with all three elements, I think the process that the circuits give responses when we press the button includes the interactivity. 

Question 2: How can Interaction Design and Physical Computing be used to create Interactive Art? You can reference Zack Lieberman’s video or any other artist that you know.

I think Interaction Design and Physical Computing can be used to create Interactive Art by combining the design concept of an interactive artwork and the actual technology of achieving the concept together. In Zack Lieberman’s video, the eye-tracking technology provides a realistic basis for his artistic design, making the product come true. The two things together work out the successful interactive product Lieberman shows in the video. He inspires us that combining the Interaction Design and Physical Computing properly is one way that cannot be ignored during the development of Interactive Art.