Author: zy1190

• CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

My previous Group Project was Heal-O-Metic 5000. It’s a machine that can give you the proper medicine by testing your body condition. But instead of being an interactive project, it’s more likely to be a responsive project. Since my definition of interaction is that it’s a cyclic process requiring at least two objects that have effects on each other, the group project seems hard to motivate the continuity of the interaction. Thus, I wanted to make a more interactive project for my midterm project. We decided to use the fans and the IR remote in our Arduino kit to make a remote control electric fan at first. However, we were impeded by physics because if the current in the circuit was too big, the IR remote couldn’t work properly. And our project seemed a little boring at that time because all the interaction parts were depending on the remote. And the user just needed to click the button on the remote.

Hence, we started to think of another idea. Professor gave us the suggestion that we should focus more on the user’s experience. So we searched for some interactive projects on the Internet to find some inspiration. I found that some of the projects are actually pretty simple, but their designs for user experience are interesting, which can attract the users to continuously use it. And I think it’s also a way to motivate people to interact with the project. Finally, we decided to focus on the user experience. As a result, even though our project seems a little simple, but the users can have different experiences depending on their interaction with our device instead of having the same output every time. I came up with this idea because I recalled a Japanese animation called Dragon Ball. Kamehameha is the way that the main character to use to attack others. I just imagined if I can experience it even once, that’ll be one of the unforgettable experiences that I’ve ever had. So we finally created a Kamehameha simulator. We still use two fans in our project. But this time, we were not limited by the form of a normal electronic fan. The whole project intended to be a project with entertaining purpose and interesting user experience. In my opinion, the targeted audience and user should be the fans of the animation Dragon Ball. They probably want to experience Kamehameha as well. Thus, our project can be a good chance for them. 

• CONCEPTION AND DESIGN

First of all, we decided to make the speed of the fans as the output of our project. And we used a distance sensor to test the speed of how fast you can push your hands in front of the sensor. Then how fast the fans would rotate depends on the speed you push your hands. In the animation, Kamehameha is a very certain action. But we cannot ask the users to act as exactly the same as the character does in the animation.  Besides, we don’t have a machine or method to test whether your move is standard or not. At the same time, if we asked the users to do the same move every time, it won’t be user-friendly for those who never watch this animation. Thus, we decided to use a distance sensor. We first set a fixed time which is 1.3 seconds. And the sensor would test the distance once at the beginning of 1.3 seconds and test again at the end. Since the sensor could get the distance difference during 1.3 seconds, then we can calculate the speed of your hands and map it to the speed of the fans. And the device would work as long as it can test a distance difference. Thus, no matter what kind of move you pose, you can experience this device. In this sense, the device is not limited by the certain move of Kamehameha. Moreover, if we only had two fans to show the output, it won’t be intuitive. Thus, I decided to put a tower of paper cup in front of two fans. In this way, if you can push your hands fast enough, the fans would blow down the tower. Otherwise, this tower would only move a little but not be blown down. After adding the tower of the paper cup, the whole project became more interesting as well. 

In terms of the outlook of the device, we chose to use the cardboard to make the main body of the device, because there is enough space for us to put the Arduino board and the breadboard inside the cardboard box and it’s easy for us to cut it and adjust the shape. We cut two holes at the box to put the fans at first. But we found that if we put the fans without enough distance between the box, the wind would be too weak to blow down the tower of the paper cup. Therefore, we decided to use the 3D printer to print two pipelines to put the fans. In this case, we can place the wires inside the pipeline to make the outlook better and make the fans function properly. We could also laser cut one box. But we rejected it because if we didn’t measure the size of the fan correctly, it’s hard to adjust or cut by ourselves. 

• FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION

The most significant step in our production process was to print two pipelines.  We met with a lot of difficulties when we print the pipelines. I first measured the size of the DC motor, such as the height, the width. And I used the Tinkercad to make the 3D model of the pipeline depending on the size of the motor. However, even though the size fitted the motor well on the computer, the real products were not suitable for the motor after we printed it because of the error. Then I had to make the model larger. At that time, in order to save some time, I printed endways. So the printer needed to print so many layers and it’s easy to mess up. Beyond what I expected, the printer got wrong before I was about to finish. The material was printed in the wrong position. So we must stop the printer and do it again.

This time we tried to print sideways with support. Although it took a longer time than printing endways, the printer functioned properly. In some sense, it also saved our time. 

During the user testing session, one feedback that we received most was that the instruction was not clear. The users felt confused when they first saw the device and didn’t know how to interact with it unless I told them what they could do. At that time, our instruction said that “Start button, 1,2,3…., Push!” So it gave the user a sense that they needed to push the button after 3 seconds but not push their hands. There are only a few times some people using the device correctly because they watched the animation before. Therefore, we tried to make clearer instructions after the user testing session. We write more instructions to inform the user about what they could do. Furthermore, we printed some pictures of Kamehameha and stuck them on the surface of the device to directly show the move. We even had a picture which is the images of every step of Kamehameha. However, when presenting our project, the instructions still seemed a little confusing. And the picture of the steps was not distinctive so that the user might overlook it. Maybe next time, we would make a board with instructions and put it beside the device to directly show the instructions instead of writing the instructions on the device. 

• CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, the goal of our project is to give the fans of the animation Dragon Ball a chance to experience Kamehameha. Basically, our goal is to make an entertaining project which is simple but interesting. Our project is pretty interesting and the user can have a good experience of using it. But the whole process of interacting with it is not cyclic. My definition of interaction is that it’s a cyclic way requiring two objects which have effects on each other. Our project requires one person to interact with it and give the person a direct output. It aligns that two objects have effects on each other. However, it doesn’t motivate people to interact with it continuously, which means that it doesn’t motivate the loop of interacting. A person may feel interested in our project when he first saw it. But after playing it several times, he would probably get bored with it. All the people who have interacted with our project give me a sense that they are interested in it. But they don’t give me the sense that they want to play it for one hour. It’s really different. People would get bored quickly. Thus, if I had more time, I would improve the interactive part more. For instance, I would make it a competing game that requires two players. And the output wouldn’t be as simple as what we have now. In this sense, it can not only involve more people to interact with it but also be more interesting so that people can interact with it for a long time. Moreover, I also learned from the setbacks that user experience is worth being taken into consideration when making a project. We should not only consider what can be interacted with but also consider how can others interact. From my perspective, only when we consider both of what the interactive parts are and how people would interact can we indeed make a good interactive project. 

Overview

Basically, in this recitation class, we were required to build a drawing machine by using an H-bridge to control stepper motors attached to the machine arms. We were first asked to build two circuits individually and work with a partner to finish the drawing machine. My partner, Barry, and I succeeded in building the final machine but I also met with some difficulties during the recitation class. 

Materials:

For Steps 1 and 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

Step one: 

The goal of this circuit is to correctly connect the stepper motor by using the H-bridge and let the stepper motor automatically rotate one round. However, I almost spent one hour struggling with this simple circuit. The images above are the circuit that I first built. I thought I built all the circuits in the right way. But when I tried to upload the test code, the motor just didn’t work. Thus, I checked the circuit for at least twice, I still couldn’t find out what the problem was. Even though I asked my partner to help me with the circuit, he couldn’t find the problem either. At last, I just realized that I couldn’t waste more time on the first circuit so I plugged out all the wires and rebuilt it. After rebuilding the circuit depending on the diagram step by step, I finally make the circuit run correctly. And here is the video about the first circuit. 

Step two:

In this step, we needed to change a sample code and add a potentiometer to the circuit to control the stepper motor how much it would rotate. Due to the lack of enough time, I didn’t actually do this step by myself. I asked my partner to help me build the circuit and I wrote the code to control the rotation. To make sure we have enough time for the final step, we double-checked the circuit and the code. Fortunately, all the circuits worked well. Here is the video about controlling the rotation of the stepper motor. 

Step 3:

As for the third step, there was nothing to do with the electricity and the circuits. What we needed to do is to construct the drawing machine depending on the sample image. In fact, the last step was to enjoy the sense of the success of building the machine. We just rotate the potentiometer to create our abstract art. Here attached to the video of the process of drawing and an image of our masterpiece. 

Questions:

1. I’m interested in building a machine that contains the functions of entertaining and exercising. For example, I want to build a gaming machine that encourages people to interact with and actually exercise when you interact with the machine. Since I find more and more people overlook the significance of keeping fit and exercising, this machine is a really good motivation for those people to actually do some exercise. Even for me, I don’t spend much time exercising in a week. But I have the willingness to lose weight. Thus, such a machine can really encourage me to move and when I do the exercise, I won’t feel boring. In terms of the digital manipulation of arts, I think it’s a really prevailing way to create art. For example, more and more people start drawing on the computer instead of drawing on the paper. We cannot stop or change such a trend of art. What we need to do is to get used to the new ways of arts and not forget the origin of the arts. 
2. After reading this passage, I am impressed by the MovieCards by Mika Miyabara and Tatsuo Sugimoto. Basically, people can change the sequence of several cards. And each card has an image of a scene from a movie on it. In my opinion, the main purpose of this art installation is to encourage people to imagine their own stories about a movie by seeing those scenes. Compared with the work I did in the recitation, their work mainly focuses on people’s imagination but it’s an invisible process. Our work is more visible and controllable. 

My definition of interaction is a cyclic process requiring at least two objects that have effects on each other, which can be regarded as the communication between two objects through a loop of inputs and outputs.  According to Crawford’s article, The Art of Interaction Design, interaction must have three parts: input, process, and output (5). In this case, one of the objects’ effect should be regarded as the input and the others’ effect should be regarded as the output of the interaction. 

One interactive project which aligns my definition better is RAMPS, which is a wheelchair based DJ interface created when designers John Schimmel, Wlodek Koss, and Tristan Perich met disabled rapper E$. This project is like a wheelchair-shaped DJ turntable. The person who sits in the wheelchair can interact with the music by moving the wheel. And it’s like what DJ does in clubs. This project quite fits my definition of interaction because the movement of the wheel can be regarded as the input and the change of the music is the output. Furthermore, the user will do more changes depending on the music. In this circumstance, the music becomes the input and the further actions of the user become the output of interaction. Thus, the actions of interaction continuously occur between the user and the music.  In this sense, the cyclic process is developed in this project. 

One interactive project that doesn’t align my definition is Short ++, which is a pair of robotic platform shoes worn by artist Adi Marom. This project is basically a pair of shoes that can change the height of the shoes to make the person look taller. The only interactive part of this project is that you may click a button to change the height of the shoes. However, except for this part, there is no more interaction between you and the shoes. The so-called cyclic process also doesn’t exist in this project. Maybe the possible further interaction could be the communication between you and those who see you wearing this but not between you and the shoes itself. Thus, this project aligns less with my definition. 

Our group is the third group that made the Heal-O-Matic Machine, which is an assistant machine telling you what’s wrong with your body and giving you the medication. Our idea is that if people are sick or get injured not too severely, they don’t need to go to the hospital. They can find a Heal-O-Matic and the machine will dispense the proper medication for you by sensing your body condition. The general idea of our project is to improve people’s lives and make our lives more convenient and easier in the future. As for the interactive part, it also fits my definition of interaction. When the machine is sensing your body condition, all the information about your body, such as your blood type, and your body temperature, is the input of interaction. After processing all the information, the machine will dispense the proper medication, which is the output of interaction. After taking the medication, your body condition has changed. When you use the machine again, the input will change so that the machine will also dispense different medications as the output. In this sense, the process of interaction between you and the machine would continue until you get completely cured. In this sense, this process aligns with the cyclic precess in my definition. In addition, the machine also contains an artificial intelligence voice assistant. It would tell you the medication plan depending on your body condition at that time. And what it says actually motivates the user to give their feedback as well, which also promotes the continuity of interaction between the user and the machine. In conclusion, our project embodies our understanding of interaction and shows the prototype of the life in the future. Even though this project only requires us to make a prototype, the whole process indeed lets us explore the meaning of interaction. As I learn more in this course, I can discover more information and knowledge behind the word “interaction”. And I’m looking forward to exploring more about interaction in this class. 

Overview

In this recitation class, we were required to try to use at least one sensor and understand how it worked. Since my partner, Barry, and I are both game fanatics, we chose the joystick as the sensor we used in this recitation class. 

Materials:

From Arduino Kit:

1 * Arduino Uno
1 * USB A to B cable
1 * breadboard
5* LEDs
5 * 220 ohm resistors
A handful of jumper cables

From cart:

1*Joystick
1 * Multimeter (optional)

Basic Circuit:

Since the joystick has two potentiometers, x and y axis, which are both analog input, and a pushbutton for the z axis, which is either analog input or digital input, we plugged the signal pins of two potentiometers into analog sockets and we also plugged the signal pin for z axis into the analog socket. After finishing building the circuit, we copied the example code and checked the status of the joystick by seeing the serial monitor. And here is the video about testing. 

Further endeavor:

After checking the status of the joystick, we make some changes to the original circuits that we added five LEDs to directly show the output of the joystick. In this diagram, two potentiometers represent x and y axis, and the button represents the pushbutton z axis. In reality, the four LEDs would turn on depending on the status of the joystick, while another LED would turn on depending on whether the pushbutton is pushed. Anyway, this circuit is just the simplest way to embody the output of the joystick. Maybe later we will have some further experiments based on the circuit. For example, the LEDs may turn on sequentially if you push the joystick to right for particular times. And here is the video about our further endeavor. 

Questions:

1. If our sensor combination were to be used for pragmatic purposes, I think those who love playing games would use it since the joystick is an important part of a game controller. Furthermore, if we can combine the joystick with some other sensors to create a game controller, it would be more interesting for a player to use it. For instance, if we can combine it with a vibration sensor, the player can use the joystick to control the movement of the character in the game and the player can shake the controller to finish some particular task in the game, which can integrate the player more into the game. 
2. From my perspective, computers are executed by following the logic of the code. The whole process is like cooking a dish that you just cook step by step as what the recipe tells you to do. Similarly, a computer executes by following the code step by step. 
3. Nowadays, as the computer becomes more and more functional, it influences our life deeper and deeper. In the past, we almost had to do everything on our own. But now, we can use the computer to deal with most of the issues. For example, students must write down all the notes on their notebooks in the past, while students can take notes on their laptop and the software on the computer can automatically edit the note in a logical way in the present. In other words, I think computer is making our life easier. Meanwhile, people are also becoming lazier due to the computer. For instance, in the past, if we wanted to find some resources to finish our essay, we needed to go to the library and read a lot of books. On the contrary, we just need to move our fingers to type several keywords on the computer and we can find tons of information related to what we want. Anyway, our life is still getting better due to the computer. 

Overview

Last Friday, we had our second recitation class. In this class, we were required to build three circuits based on Arduino. My partner Barry and I succeeded in building all the required circuits and finished the optional one which was adapted from the third circuit. 

Matirials:

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

This is a very simple circuit, which is basically using the code to change the brightness of the LED. Maybe later we can add a sensor to make this circuit more interactive. 

Circuit 2: toneMelody

In this circuit, we can make the buzzer play a short melody by using Arduino. And every time we click the reset button on the Arduino board, the buzzer can replay the melody. Since the classroom was a little noisy when we first built the circuit, we didn’t record it right after we finished the circuit. Thus, we found a quiet place to take this video again. Furthermore, we found some example codes from the Internet which could make the buzzer play a real song and copied the code to test the codes. However, it’s a pity that the codes worked but we didn’t record it. Anyway, it’s pretty interesting to play some melodies by using Arduino. 

Circuit 3: Speed Game

Basically, this circuit was for playing a simple interactive game, which involved two players who competed for which one can click the button faster. Compared with the previous two circuits, this one was more complicated. In this game, if you are the winner, the LED on your side would turn on and the buzzer would play a melody to show that the game is over. At first, we met with a problem that the circuit only worked for player one. Even though player two won, the light didn’t turn on. After checking both the codes and the circuit, we couldn’t solve the problem. Fortunately, after changing the LED on player 2’s side, it worked. The LED we used at first was broken due to some reasons. Solving the problem made both of us happy. Anyway, even though it’s just a simple game, my partner and I still enjoy playing it. And here is the video when we played the game. 

Optional task:

 

After finishing the third circuit, we followed the instruction and built the circuit for four players. Since the space of the breadboard was so limited, we connected two breadboards to build the final circuit. And the first image is the diagram of how all the components are connected. As for the codes for four players, I added two more variables for player 3 and player 4. Moreover, I also added two conditions to finish the game. By the way, the codes for the last circuit can be further improved since the codes always first read the input from the first button. In this case, every player has to click more than ten times to achieve the goal of clicking ten times to end the game. And here is the video about playing the game. 

Questions:

1. The definition of interaction contains three parts: input, processing, and output. The first two circuits seem not interactive. But they are still two interactive product. The output for the first circuit is the brightness of the LED. The codes are processing to change the brightness of the LED. And the input is the parameters that we enter in the codes. Such simple interactive technology can be seen so many places in our daily lives. For instance, there are some speakers with buttons to control the volume and a LED which can glow. When you click the button to turn down the volume, you can hear that the volume is getting lower and the brightness of the LED is getting darker. In my opinion, we are actually surrounded by a lot of interactive technology in our daily lives. 
2. The 10K resistor is used for protecting the button from a high voltage. 
3. If I have 100,000 LEDs of any brightness and color, I would like to decorate them in a big room. At the same time, I would code them to make them change their brightness and color dependent on the music I play in that room. If I hold a party and play some loud music inside the room, the LEDs can become colorful which are suitable for the atmosphere for a party. If I want to play some smooth music and stay alone inside the room, the LEDs can become soft so that I can really relax in the room.