Through research, we developed the Black Box which interacts with user through the sense of touch and vision. Black Box uses two motors that have feathers attached to touch the user and a series of fiber-optics attached to RGB LEDs would create the face. The user would place their head on a chin rest activating the speed of the motors. If the user is in a relaxed state, they would be placing more weight therefore slowing the speed of the motors. If they are in a nervous state, the speed would increase. The user can move their head forward using the chin rest, as they do so, the colours of the faces would change and since there are 2 overlapping faces, it allows the user to formulate their own unique face depending on the distance and colour configuration. 

Black Box is an intimate space as well, allowing the user to form an attachment with the face and possibly trigger abstract images in their mind when viewing the faces.

While building and testing the Black Box, our group faced several challenges, we realized that the Arduino has difficulty providing enough power to both motors since they require more than 5v. An external power source would solve this problem. The motors themselves were an issue since they did not have enough torque to spin under pressure. 

Black Box from mark nazemi on Vimeo.
 

We used various materials and multiple Arduino boards to complete the project. Since there are so many levels to this project, I have included both the codes, a video link, slides, and research to get a better sense of our project. Also check out my previous posting to learn about our initial idea for this project.

Code for the Motors

Code for the LEDs

Presentation Slides

Research Paper

We all agreed that we should create a wearable product for the final project. Some of the ideas that we came up with were:

- temperature controlled wearable object using muscle wire

-human pulse controlled wearable object again using muscle wire & LED’s to display the persons mood or state

-social interactive wearable which could identify the person close by and communicate with that person’s wearable.

For the final, we have decided to use a combination of some these ideas. Lu came up with an interesting idea for a bracelet which we think of expanding to other objects like hats and scarfs. 

The wearable bracelet could identify another object using infra-red LED’s and react by having muscle wire embedded in the bracelet to move and a series of LED’s changing light patterns indicating friend or foe. 

Currently, we are conducting research on muscle wires, bracelet and other wearable objects, and arduino programming for the infra-red LED’s. We will be purchasing our own muscle wire and LED’s for the project. We hope to have a prototype of it soon.

One of the examples that is included in the final version of our presentation is an interactive installation design for children called Paradox Beach.

According to the website, Paradox Beach is a “responsive room and game for kids between the ages of 6-10 years.” Children have to solve mysteries and puzzles presented to them using floor projection. The system uses video tracking, synchronized sounds, and music. 

The second example we found which was an interactive installation at a children’s hospital called Interactive Waterfall.

The installation allows the user to move their hand through the projected waterfall and modify the movement of the water. Ripple effects, color changes, and pixel modifications are displayed. The installation uses an infrared camera to detect motion. The image is displayed on an LCD screen in the form of pixels.

Our third new addition to the research is Dance Floor Moves. It ”is a colorful, projected, interactive floor that can be installed anywhere. When a person moves over the floor, it reacts. ”

The following image below is our patch in action were the cloud can bounce off or be pushed by the user.

The following is gives you access to our presentation: click here sketch2_final

Max Patch

Below is a sketch of our project.

On the weekend, I went to the Illuminate Yaletown which featured local artists displaying light installations using various tools and projectors. I was excited because such events rarely take place in Vancouver so walking through the street and seeing the works was fun and inspiring. Below are a couple of photos from the event.

It was interesting see SIAT students and faculty attending the event and it also made me think about future projects that I would like to work on that would include more complex visual projection with lighting.

Link

On an Alexander Refsum’s page, he has made a really interesting patch using MAX MSP which analyzes both audio and video signals and converts them into a visual spectogram. 

I also did some research on body movement and art just to be able to understand interaction better. I ran across this website that has some interesting examples of visual performance & body movement performance.

While conducting research I stumbled upon a site about Rutt Etra who managed to make a video synthesizer using MAX, the patch work is great and in a way shows how flexible MAX MSP is in terms of developing any form of interactive Media.

This week, I hope to have our idea finalized and begin work on the Jitter patch.

Last week, I completed our first sketch which was called “Drum Wear”. The concept revolved around the idea of drum circles but with a modern & intimate twist. My group modified a pair of pants by stitching 4 switches (made up of copper film & fabric) and running them to the arduino board. 

The initial idea was that the switches would send voltage change to the arduino board, then that information would be converted to Midi messages which in turn would trigger drum sounds from a drum machine.

I encountered problems with arduino trying to communicate with the drum machine (problem still unknown!). So with the help of my instructor Greg, I was able to create patch in MAX / MSP which would read the information coming in from the digital pins. One slight problem was the amount of latency I ended up getting which made it difficult triggering the drums sounds in time. In the past I have had issues with arduino sending information serially to any other device hardware or software. Not sure if it is the transfer rate or the actual hardware itself.

Week 5

I have been researching ideas for our next project and I’m excited because I found several books on amazon that deal with exactly the type of work we are doing in the course and areas that I am interested in, below are the book covers.

There a lot more on my wish list and I’m hoping to get some of these while I am still taking this course

I have wanting to get more into installation art and one of the venues that I am hoping to submit my work is a farm in Gibson.

The farm is called “Deer Crossing a Farm” and the following is a link to their website

http://www.deercrossingtheartfarm.org/home

In April, I will be making a trip out to the place to find out more about the location and what can be possibly presented.

“Flow 5.0 is an interactive landscape made out of hundreds of ventilators which reacts on your sound and motion. By walking and interacting the visitor creates an illusive landscape of transparencies and artificial wind.
Moving through Flow 5.0 the visitor becomes conscious of himself as a collective body, in a dynamic relation with space and technology.”

In sketch one our group will be designing a soft interface which comprised of 6 switches connected to trousers. The switches are then wired to an arduino board. Voltage change from the switches are converted to midi messages. The midi messages are note on / off messages that trigger drums samples from a drum machine.

The idea is inspired by drum circles which occur around the world. A drum circle is when a group of people gather in a circular formation and create drum rhythms by playing various types of skinned drums such as bongos, tablas, etc. 

Since many people might not be able to play these instruments but have an interest in drums, by wearing these trousers, the user can trigger drum sounds by just tapping on their legs.

In Week 2 we experimented with Arduino by triggering LED light with a button. We used a breadboard to attach the button, resistor, and LED to the Arduino and used a modified program from the Button Example.

The following is modified Arduino code:

/*

 * Button

 * by DojoDave <http://www.0j0.org>

 *

 * Turns on and off a light emitting diode(LED) connected to digital  

 * pin 13, when pressing a pushbutton attached to pin 7. 

 *

 * http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Button

 */

int ledPin = 13;                // choose the pin for the LED

int inputPin = 2;               // choose the input pin (for a pushbutton)

int val = 0;                    // variable for reading the pin status

void setup() {

  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);      // declare LED as output

  pinMode(inputPin, INPUT);     // declare pushbutton as input

}

void loop(){

  val = digitalRead(inputPin);  // read input value

  if (val == HIGH) {            // check if the input is HIGH

    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);  // turn LED OFF

    delay(random(500));

    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);  // turn LED OFF

    delay(random(500));

  } else {

    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // turn LED ON

  }

}

We also formed our team which include the following members:

Lu Ma

Betty Lee

Mark Nazemi

In the team scenario, we combined all our sensors and developed a communication warning system for a submarine. By touching, the sound (alarm) is triggered which triggers a powerful light that warms up the air which causes wind to form blowing out of the submarine indicating a problem, similar to the blow hole of a dolphin.