I found it really interesting that this recitation was conducted through three different workshops because we got to specialize in certain topics that will help us focus on assembling our final project. I decided to join the serial communication workshop with our professor Young because for me, in particular, I did not have a very clear idea of how to use certain sensors to send signals from Arduino to Processing. In this workshop, we worked primarily with a potentiometer and switch to activate and manipulate certain sketches on processing. For me this workshop was extremely important since a large part of our project is based on sensors that detect movement and send signals to processing in order to create the animation of certain objects.
My experience in this recitation was very helpful. I was able to accomplish the recitations’ task. For me personally, it wasn’t very difficult due to the fact that we have been practicing serial communications in the last two recitations. But because we got the opportunity to specialize in one specific area, I was able to ask all the minor questions about how serial communication works and clarify all my doubts about the if statements.
Since a large part of my project focuses on sensors, my instructor helped me clarify certain doubts about how to send the signals that processing can understand so that it can turn them into images. For me this is quite important since the signals of the sensors are invisible I need to let the user know that his interaction signal managed to create an object in my project. And this for me is the beauty of working on interaction projects, since computers and sensors manage to captivate the most minimal signals and turn them into an (if well done) visual feedback. One as a creator must also make this operation possible, but the great majority depends on the sensors, computers, and components.
