IMA Recitation 1 Documentation – James Bai

For this recitation we had two main activities. The first was to assemble three different circuits. And the second was to solder the switch to two wires.

Circuit 1: Door Bell

The first was to create a door bell with a breadboard, voltage regulator, capacitator, a switch, a speaker and a few wires. 

The breadboard connects the wires and configures everything to work together. The voltage regulator maintains the voltage at a rate which the whole door bell can function properly. The switch turns the speaker on and off and the wires connect everything together.

This was our First Trial which was a fail. It was a failure because the speaker’s positive and negative side were swapped, which resulted in the wrong side connecting to the ground. We asked one of the learning assistants to help and it worked right after.

This was our Second Trial which was a success.

Circuit 2: Lamp

The second circuit was to turn on a LED light with the switch. It was created with a bread board, voltage regulator, capacitator, a 220 Ohm resistor, a LED light, and a switch.

The bread board connected all the wires and needed items together to turn on the LED light. The voltage regulator regulated the amount of voltage for the lines coming in, out, and to the ground. The capacitator did the same as for circuit 1. The 220 Ohm resistor limited the voltage going through and the switch was to turn on and off the LED light.

First Trial was a success! This time we double checked everything.

Circuit 3: Dimmable Lamp

There is little difference between circuit 2 and 3. The only difference is that in circuit 3 there is now a variable resistor in between the 220 Ohm resistor and the LED light. We breezed through this by just adding in the variable resistor.

First Trial for this one was also a success.

So we went to the other IMA room to solder a button switch to two wires. During the soldering process we did not take videos because we were protecting our fingers from a quite hot piece of metal. After it was soldered we took out the original wires for Circuit 1 that connected to the switch & the switch itself. And then we connected the soldered wires to where the old wires were.

Here is the First Trial of that which was a failure…

Ryan and I discussed the reason for this failure was that the wires were not fully soldered and connected to the button which resulted in a weak speaker sound. We are still not sure if this is a success or a failure but it seems more like a failure.

Question 1: In the article, interactivity was described through two agents reacting with her, the first agent was the switch or the button and the second was the LED light or the speaker. When the switch was turned on the LED light interacted by turning on. They needed the switch to be turned on or else they wouldn’t turn on themselves. In this way I think the LED light interacted witht he switch.

Question 2: Zach Lieberman had a project that helped disable people draw with their eyes. I feel like the interactive art that is created here, is between the people and what they are drawing. They are interacting with the computing design to create drawings with their own imagination. Their own interactive design is solely dependent on what they want it to be, and the computing design helps them create it. I think this is a very beautiful and inspiring project

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