21 November 2013

Maryyann-Looking Outwards + Final Ideas

1.Comet

Comet is a phone booth that allows one to have private calls while in an enclosed space. The builders hacked into an old hair dryer helmet using Arduino circuits and created a special helmet that streams the voice of the person you’re calling while a microphone captures your own voice. I was inspired by this video and wanted to incorporate some kind of sound recognition in my final project.

I think the appearance of the project could have been greatly enhanced, but the video didn’t seem like the final product, so I’m expecting to see a cleaner video of this creation.

Comet from Pedro Andrade on Vimeo.

2. Standuino Pi

This project involves syncing a microGranny and frauAngelico together to create musical combinations. The Standuino microGranny is a pocket sized handmade granular sampler. It uses a microSD card to store samples and allows you to change many different parameters. Since I’ve never messed with sound before on the arduino, I wondered how I could use it to create a communication between the user and my piece.

Standuino π [pi] synced with frauAngelico + microGranny from standuino on Vimeo.

3. Sweatshoppe

Sweatschoppe takes place in Europe. It involves a group of new media artists and their vision to create two-story tall video paintings. As each artist, rolls their paint roller across an empty wall, a new part of a video clip is revealed. This is done through computer software tracking the location of the paint roller. Video Painting allows them to create the illusion of painting on walls through electronic paint rollers.

I think this is an interesting idea and I wanted to try and incorporate not just projection, but also motion tracking in my final project similar to the paint roller.

SWEATSHOPPE Video Painting Europe from SWEATSHOPPE on Vimeo.

Final Ideas:

1) Polly

Sound became a trigger while I was searching through examples and inspirations for my final project. One idea I had was playing with voice recognition, but I realized that the shields were really expensive for that piece of hardware. So I looked in another direction because usually if you combine a variety number of smaller cheaper shields or sensors, you can recreate essentially the same effect.

My first idea called Polly because it is a parrot that tracks your movement, and repeats back to you what you say, but in a parrot voice.

2) Tank

My second idea involves the combination of arduino and augmented projection.

I think it is fair to say that the world we live in is parallel to the ocean. Each person or living creature can represent a tiny fish in the vast open ocean. For this idea, I want to have an empty “ocean” projected onto a section of the wall. As people walk by, each person will drop into the ocean as a fish, which will involve motion tracking. Depending on the type of fish dropped, the fish will either stay in the view, or follow its “owner” out of the frame.

21 November 2013

Melanie-LookingOutwards + sketches for final project

1) games: Thomas Was Alone + The Binding of Isaac + The Sense of Connectedness

I wrote about Thomas Was Alone before (not as a looking outwards entry but an example), and Ralph wrote about The Binding of Isaac (and is in fact the person who got me into the game). The Sense of Connectedness, despite also being an indie game, is very small compared to the two games, especially since it’s f2p PC downloadable. It’s an intense game in the not-action-y way: I felt as though my body was pulled through the grinder after spending a good hour on it, and in a good way. The sound is perfect and paces the player really well, prompting him/her to follow the rhythm in order to progress through the game without being an overtly rhythm-based game, and the vibrating graphics invoke a feeling of tension and urgency. It’s a game that messes with your mind as you try to figure out what’s going on, the mechanics of the gameplay, if you’re even in control of anything, etc. It’s an experience that encourages exploration and discovery.

There are three distinct respective elements I want to pull from these games: minimalist landscapes, randomization to the effect of infinite re-experiences, and overarching sensation of psychological discovery and engrossment.

2) Luan Chyi

It’s a generative landscape installation, based on the traditional Oriental ink painting. While it’s evocative of its source material, it stands strong on its own: a landscape that flows like water, ebbing and rushing constantly.

3) ALEPH

This is a “combination of imagery driven by generative processes in perspective to create representations of memory and mental association.” I become easily moved by art that channels the metaphysical, and this is no exception. Not only is it visually stunning, but it also has a compelling and alluring concept of the “aleph,” where “one can see the entire universe, from every angle at the same time.” It’s just very appealing and scary to think about.

First project idea is a game idea that’s been incubating in my head for quite a while now, and furthered by #1 in the looking outwards. Ideally, it would be minimalist in aesthetics, and the levels would revolve around generative landscapes that are different for every playthrough and level. I want to sustain an exploratory heart in players, and I think constantly moving landscapes a la #2 on looking outwards would help in that. Ultimately there’s a goal in the game other than to just explore the levels but figuring out what to do with the generative landscapes comes first.

(meager sketch because I’m too tired to take the rest of the photos. I will add more later)

The second project is an augmented projection but also playing with the idea of generating landscapes. Lemercier’s works come to mind when I think about what I want to do. Since this project is supposed to be small, projecting onto just big-enough-drawings instead of an entire room is what I’m aiming for. There’s a lot of random geometric landscapes in my sketchbook at the moment so there’s no shortage of materials to project onto… but I also want to create a meditative work like in #3 on looking outwards, so I might combine the two urges somehow.

21 November 2013

Chloe – LookingOutwards – Community Sourcing (Final Project)

As we approach the end of the semester and a period of high burnout rates, I wanted my final project to take on CMU’s stress culture, and finding ways to foster a greater sense of community. I’ve always been inspired by the projects of Candy Chang, who has taken on the mission of “Making cities more emotional”. Some of her most well-known projects include “Before I die…” and “Confessions”

A principle of her projects and what I want to pursue is the idea of crowd-sourcing. With the capabilities of the tools that are available to us, it should would be easy to collect, store, and showcase such data. It’s only a matter of what that data is and how. One project I came across was Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s “Voice Array” (2011), in which participants can record their voices, which is looped and layered with the collection of all the past recordings.

“Voice Array” at MCA Sydney (2011) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer from bitforms gallery on Vimeo.

It is a beautiful display of both user input and history, like an updated oral tradition rich with meaning from those before. I think that it would be interesting if there were a prompt of some kind–like Candy Chang’s “Before I die I want to….” or the confessions that she prompts. But instead of displaying them as mere handwritten notes, how cool would it be to hear the voices–complete with intonation and personality–upon tapping into them?

Messa Di Voce (2003) by Zachary Lieberman, Jaap Blonk, Joan La Barbara, and our very own Prof. Golan Levin is an example of displaying user audio-input, creating bubbles of audio that release the sound recorded when the bubbles are dropped. For a project based on confessions, displaying a participant’s confession as such gives a sense of anonymity, as well as a randomness when others try to tap into and listen to these confessions.

Possible prompts that I have in mind for such a community confession booth would be things like “I wish______”, “I dream_______”, or “Where I see myself in 5 years time”. It would be interesting to see what the hopes and dreams of CMU’s students are, and also a good opportunity for the stress-ridden students of CMU to remember why they are here (i.e. the pursuit of their future, etc.). Another form of a prompt could also be a way to pay homage to Randy Pausch (“What are your childhood dreams”), who was one of my biggest reasons for being here at CMU, as well as fostering my love for the convergence of technology and art.

Another element of community building is by fostering a sense of connection between strangers, making fleeting, transient interactions meaningful and/or interesting. I’m particularly inspired by Passing, a project by Jonathan Ota, a CMU Design graduate during his study abroad in the Netherlands.

I was equally intrigued by the extensive testing and research he did for this project, as well as the simple beauty of the interaction itself. Through this, connection between strangers is facilitated in a transient space.

This then got me thinking about the transient spaces on CMU’s campus, the closest one for me being the long hallway of Maggie Mo, a place truly interdisciplinary both in the spirit of the Design school residing there, and in the literal sense of the mix of students that pass through it, from design, to architecture, to music, to business, to economics, and so on. I thought about ways that I could perhaps facilitate connections there, but struggled with trying to not be too intrusive as it is a very high traffic zone, and dangerous for any projector and kinect to be installed.

Another idea I had was inspired by the Talking Doors project by Julijonas Urbonas that was shown to us in a previous class, where Maggie Mo’s popularly used revolving door could be used as a control for music to be played. I’m not as keen on this one as it is rather one-sided, and kind of a rip-off of its inspiration. As an artist seeking ways to facilitate meaningful community building, it would be important to seek two-way interactions–a give and take/collect.

I think it would be interesting to have a device that demonstrates the goodwill of CMU students. On the giving end, participants would have some equivalent of a “big juicy red button” to push, with the prompt that they could make someone’s day. If pushed, somewhere else, a Hershey’s kiss/some sort of candy/some sort of compliment/note/treat would be released, ready to be picked up by those around the device. Even cooler would be to have live video feeds in these separate stations, so that the Giver could see the results of his goodwill. A compassion machine of sorts, if you will.

The context of the input and output of such a device could very greatly change its intentions–for example, thinking about the differences between a student giver to a student receiver, and a student giver to a campus employee receiver. Whereas the former could be taken as a recognition of empathy, the latter is a form of thanks for the employee in their service of the students. If the input is not a tangible button but rather a Facebook ‘Like’, that it itself already taps into the debatable realm of how meaningful/substantial “Likes” actually are.

Lots to think about and let incubate. I look forward to fleshing out some of these in studio later today!

21 November 2013

Ticha-Sketches

I Think I May Scratch Myself in my Sleep is a project by Marco de Mutiis that depicts the inner violence of man through animating a dismembered piano. Without the strings to produce melodic tones, the hammers of the piano are left to flail about and rap against the cloth. The movements of the hammers are triggered by data received from internet sex convos, making their rapid tapping a manifestation of the internal frustration we suppress on a daily basis. While I don’t think I plan to make something this sophisticated for my final project, I really like this concept of taking data and representing it in an quirky, poetic manner.

The Pong Playing Flexible Screen on a Shirt is a pretty self-explanatory project: it is a T-shirt that also serves as an interface for playing pong. Wearable electronics has become a recent topic of interest of mine because it raises the question of how an article of clothing can be both fashionable and functional.

Speaking of wearable electronics, this pressure-sensitive conductive sheet seems to be a handy sensor to have for a wearable technology project. I was mostly drawn to it because it is a lightweight, cheap alternative to bend/flex sensors. In the example on Adafruit, it was used to create shoes that lit up with each step a person took – and building off that for inspiration, I thought it would be interesting to also make a project that focused on walking behavior.

Ideas:

1. Groove Gloves

I was thinking about creating gloves that play sound based on certain finger movements – an air piano, in other words. Each finger would have a sensor that gets triggered when that finger is bent, which causes the note corresponding to the respective finger to be played. Instead of buying 10 expensive flex/bend sensors, I was thinking about making my own simple ‘contact switches’ that can be used to determine whether a finger is bent or not. When the fingers are relaxed the contact strips will be disconnected, otherwise when the fingers are bent to a certain extent the contact strips will be connected, triggering the sound.

It would be interesting to incorporate a visual aspect into the gloves as well – perhaps an LED for each finger that lights up whenever a note is played. With these two attributes the ‘Grooving Gloves’ can be used as a visually appealing performance-art instrument.

2. Tread Carefully (backup plan)

While footsteps have a nice percussive sound, they do get a little boring after a while. With Adafruit’s FLORA and a few Velostats, boots can be made for both walking and music-making. These shoes allow a person to add some more spring to their step, because with every step they take a random note is played. But the greater the force is applied to the sensor, the louder the sound becomes; so if the wearer wishes to be less conspicuous, they would have to tread carefully.

20 November 2013

Rachel-Final Project Sketches

The RAM Dance Toolkit by Yoko Ando and YCAM fuses two art forms: dance and programming. Using a motion detection system attached to the dancer’s bodies, the program catalogs and predicts the fluid motions of human expression. This project beautifully captures art within technology, though I find the external motion detection system distracting. So much of dance is about the visual body and its contours and forms in space that clunky straps and electronics retract from the performative aspect of the dance as it is captured. Though on-body systems are probably much more accurate than a single plain watching devices like the kinect, they take the magic from the art, turning it more into an ancient practice to be chronicled than a thriving societal pulse monitor.

tangent’s KIHOU is integrates simple beauty and mystery. A bowl of sticky transparent liquid covered in black oil is underlit with LEDs. Air bubbles push the liquids about, forming bubbles and pockets of animation and life within the substance. The design of this object is striking; sleek post post modern lines and minimal color contrasted with a viscous, organic, messy substance. This juxtaposition speaks to society today; to deep urges and desires buried beneath smooth facades. This generates a mysterious aura around the KIHOU object that makes it beautifully vague yet meaningful.

Signal | Noise’s Monolith

By the title, this object is meant to function as an artifact of current society. With clean, reflective surfaces and engaging light seams, the project does embody the design and conceptual concerns of today’s society. Ironically, these concerns mirror the post and lintel forms of ancient human monoliths. The light arrays react to touch, allowing every visitor to become a part of the work, a parallel to the ritualistic nature of ancient human monoliths in which every pilgrim was connected to each other through the common goal. The impact left on the light beam by one visitor is immediately absorbed by the next, so the interactions a viewer has with the object are really significant only to himself and not the object itself. This heightens the intimacy between viewer and object.

Project Ideas:

TIDE

The Intuitive Development Environment takes input from a Kinect and generates a simple Processing program based on repetitive gestures found in skeletal movements. The code writing process becomes interactive and engaging, and much more akin to the creative impulse and practice of creating art than the stereotypically sterile methods of programming. The motions of the programmer are directly documented by the code, as is the conversation and dialect that forms between the artist and the creation. These connections are spiritual and integral to the creation process, an element I often find missing in the computerized world. The spacial element of this environment is also significant, as it actually does create an environment that is tangible and yet still defined by the user.

Meeting Place(Modern Monolith)

This project attempts to connect human concerns over eons and methods with common concepts and concerns with the creative process. Meeting Place consists of two parallel pillars, one for the sun and one for the moon, each with a large central hole carved through the tops. Through out the day and night, motors slowly turn each pillar so that the hole faces the celestial body that pillar is attuned to.LEDs are embedded in each pillar to illuminate them during times when the sun or moon’s light is not visible. This ensures that light is always passing through both openings. A meeting point/holy space is generated between the pillars, a space that is always connected to what is beyond humanity, yet a perpetual human goal. The pillars themselves would be constructed with a hollow wood armature covered in joint compound to give them a stone texture.

20 November 2013

Looking Outwards + Final Project Sketches

Looking Outwards:
1. The Kinetic Chandelier

I personally found this chandelier quite endearing; the way it follows you around reminds me of something that just wants a hug. In fact, I see this less as a chandelier and more of an ecosystem within and of itself. Arguably, this could belong underwater as well. This chandelier also boasts a utilitarian feature: the light is always pointing towards you, so say goodbye to shifting around awkwardly while reading, trying to catch the light!

2. D.O.R.T.H.E.

While this particular piece is also somewhat endearing, I like the idea behind the typewriter. If this were on a computer running a program in your background it would be less artistic but adhere more to the idea of one’s life having a soundtrack. (I always imagine mine does.) If my computer were able to sense and generate music based on my mood, I would be extremely impressed. Granted, the majority of the work done here is in the hardware which would be difficult to transfer to a computer, but it is possible to completely transfer the program to only software. I think I’m seeing a trope here — I like the idea of a machine being able to read one’s emotions. (Although perhaps not in the style of Marvin from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). It really gives these machines a life force of their own.

3. Touch Vision Interface

Not a novel idea, I know. With that being said, the idea of being able to hide in a corner and control some piece if technology (in particular, with the goal of surprising someone — can you imagine an augmented haunted house with controls like these?) appeals to me. This kind of technology is already implemented in Razzy’s down on South Craig in a similar fashion — one choose what song to play over the speakers from from one’s own phone. A touch interface like this, however, gives that extra degree of control that makes the experience a little more special.

My Project Sketches/Ideas

1. An Electric Violin

This violin would be feature pressure pads on the neck where each of the four strings would normally be situated. I realize there should be a second set of pressure sensors just below the fingerboard to emulate a bow, but am at present unsure as to how these two would interact with one another. One thing is for sure: If I am to implement this project, I will have to switch to using a Teensy.

Violin body would have to be lasercut, and potentially layered (depending on the thickness the lasercutter can deal with). Fancy futuristic body shape.

I think perhaps it would be more “realistic” to use the cord which changes resistances as it stretches. Granted, it would have to start off fairly taught. There also needs to be an output device somewhere.

Additionally, would it not be awesome to make the body/bow from acrylic and insert lights?

Second Idea Coming Soon!

I guess a second project (also music-related) would be to have a piano with pressure sensors under say, a certain octave of notes. When pressed, lights on the piano would light up in different ways.

20 November 2013

Dave – Looking Outwards Final Project

Inspirations

1. Simstudent

http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/research/simstudent-computational-model-student-learning-advance-sciences-learning

Simstudent is a research project at HCII at CMU. Humans learn by teaching, so we can take advantage of that fact by having real students teach algebra to a computer program, the Simstudent, so in turn the students themselves can learn. It uses machine learning algorithms to find patterns in algebra problems to solve them in logical steps. At each phase of the problem, the Simstudent will perform a step in an algebra problem, and the real student has the option to accept it as right, or correct the computer, which will proceed to remember the operations taken so it will not make the same mistakes next time. This is not an art project, but I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when my once-derpy Simstudent became a master at algebra and starts mowing problems down with ease. Thus, I wanted to create my final project based on a machine learning algorithm, so that my audiences can feel what I had felt.

2. Falling Stars

“Falling Stars” is an iPad app that lets the user draw objects on screen, which will produce sounds when drops of falling stars collide with them. The ability to easily create a musical composition that sounds decently coherent with seemly random drawings impresses me. The visuals themes are also great looking and create a calming mood. As an interactive program, it allows the user to create something that not only looks cool but also sounds great. I have always wanted to create a project that uses music and sounds, but I myself do not have enough understanding of music theory to create compositions myself. However, if all I do is set up the environment, and let the audiences and computer take care of generation of music instead, just as Falling Stars did, that might just be possible.

3. MIDI keyboard in Processing

I originally wanted all the music creation to be taken care of by the computer. However, if the user’s only interactions are to rate a composition as good or bad, then he or she might have to brute force through a lot of bad music to find one that is good, which is not exactly a rewarding experience that I had been hoping for. In order to make the experience more interactive, I decided to use a Processing library which can receive input from MIDI keyboards known as RWMidi. I also found an example project made from this library, which displays the robustness that I need. I am currently waiting for my MIDI keyboard to be shipped to me so that I can test it as soon as possible.

Ideas:

1. There is a fish tank filled with fish. When each of them flails up out of water, it sings a note. When these fishes do this over a sequence of time, they will produce a composition. The user will then vote whether it is good or not. With a machine learning algorithm, the fishes will remember the label and modify their future compositions based on the user’s taste. This effectively lets the user train the fish to produce “music”. The user can also choose to play music with his/her MIDI keyboard, thus giving more teaching power to the user.

2. Something with music information visualization. I invested money into a MIDI keyboard so I will be using it no matter what. It would be nice to create a visual story with music. This will be something similar to the reverse of “Falling Stars”, so it will probably grow things via pattern of music.

Update: 11/18
I have finished the machine learning backend, and it can play music correctly. All that is left to do is to implement the frontend and sync its timing with the backend, which will not be trivial, but it is not going to be planning intensive.

19 November 2013

Pinwheel

Intended to use rotational speed on pinwheel to measure wind speed by converting angular velocity of the pinwheel to linear velocity. Looking back, I’m not sure how accurate this way of measuring wind speed is, considering properties of the pinwheel (such as friction).

Angular velocity is calculated by using a photocell to detect when a blade of the pinwheel passes over.

What it looks like:

A simple demo video that shows it working:

Fritzing board:

Code:

#include 

#include "Adafruit_LEDBackpack.h"
#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"

Adafruit_7segment matrix = Adafruit_7segment();

int historyLength = 100;
float sensorHistory[100];

float runningL;
float runningMaxL;
float runningMinL;

float threshhold;
boolean covered;

int speedHistLen = 400;
float speedHistory[400];

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
  // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  
  matrix.begin(0x70);
  
  for (int i=0; i0; i-- ){
    sensorHistory[i] = sensorHistory[i-1];
  }
  sensorHistory[0] = sensorValue;
  
  float currMax = -9999;
  float currMin = 9999;
  for (int i=0; icurrMax) { currMax = ith; }
    if (ith15.0) {
    if (!covered && currL< (runningL-threshhold*halfRange)) {
      //If sensor is NOT covered and current sensor value falls below threshhold,
      //then a blade is currently passing over
      updateLinearSpeed(0);
      covered = true;
    }
    else if (covered && currL>(runningL+threshhold*halfRange)) {
      //If sensor IS covered and current sensor value falls above threshhold,
      //then a blade just passed over, so update speed
      updateLinearSpeed(1);
      covered = false;
    }
    else {
      updateLinearSpeed(0);
    }
  }
  
  delay(1);
}


int nBlades = 8;
float radius = 0.085; //in meters


void updateLinearSpeed(int n) {
  int totalPasses = 0;
  for (int i=speedHistLen-1; i>0; i-- ){
    speedHistory[i] = speedHistory[i-1];
    totalPasses+=speedHistory[i];
  }
  speedHistory[0] = n;
  totalPasses+=n;
  
  float spinSpeed = 2.0*PI/nBlades*radius*((float)totalPasses)/((float)speedHistLen);
  Serial.println(spinSpeed);
  
  int displayed = (int)spinSpeed*100;
  
  int tens = displayed/1000;
  int ones = (displayed/100)%10;
  int tenths = (displayed/10)%10;
  int hundredths = displayed%10;
  
  matrix.writeDigitNum(0,tens,false);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(1,ones,true);
  matrix.drawColon(false);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(3,tenths,false);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(4,hundredths,false);
  
  matrix.writeDisplay();
  
}

19 November 2013

Sitting Above [Adam & Miles]

Sitting Above from adambd on Vimeo.

Sitting Above is a dynamic sign that displays an estimate of the number of people currently flying overhead. We were interested in bringing attention to the fact that people are always above us. Commercial air travel, once a remarkable feat, has become a necessary and even “inconvenient” reality. In keeping with our low expectations for air travel, Sitting Above uses the alienating visual language of street signs.

We experimented with two modes of representation: kinetic and numerical. We had considered visualizing the biomass of people above using automatically blown bubbles – but were discouraged by the scarcity of helium gas (not to mention the questionable ethics of using helium).

When Wolfram is unable to provide flight operations data for an airline, we resort to random numbers (between 150-200).

The sign uses a Wixel to communicate wirelessly with a laptop. A Python program queries WolframAlpha for a list of planes above, then asks Wolfram for the average number of people on a given airline. The sum total of these figures is sent to Sitting Above, which shows the value on a seven-segment display.

“It’s only powers of primes I think.” – man outside Newell Simon Hall

“Paul! There’s some kind of device.” – Police officer

Python program

import wolframalpha
import time
import random
import serial

ser = serial.Serial('/dev/cu.usbmodemfa131', 9600)

def testQuery():
    client = wolframalpha.Client('X55U4H-PQ459QE3U4')
    res = client.query('planes overhead')
    output = next(res.results).text
    lines = output.splitlines()
    planes = []
    for line in lines:
        if(line[0] != '(' and line[0] != '|' and line[0] != ' '
           and 'flight' in line):
            endName = line.index('flight')
            planeString = str(line[:endName]) + 'flight operations data'
            if(planeString not in planes): 
                planes += [planeString]
    print 'Number of planes: %s' % len(planes)
    totalPeople = 0
    for plane in planes:
        #print 'trying %s' % (plane)
        planeResults = client.query(plane)
        planeInfo = next(planeResults.results).text
        planeData = planeInfo.splitlines()
        perFlightLine = [l for l in planeData if('average per flight' in l)]
        if(perFlightLine != []):
            start = len('average per flight | ')
            end = perFlightLine[0].find('people')
            perFlight = perFlightLine[0][start:end]
            totalPeople += int(eval(perFlight))
            print 'Per flight for %s: %s' %  (plane,perFlight)
        else:
            randPeople = random.randint(150,200)
            #print randPeople
            totalPeople += randPeople
            print 'Rand people: %s' % randPeople 
    digit = 1
    print totalPeople
    for i in xrange(4):
        ser.write(str((totalPeople/digit) % 10))  
        digit *= 10

while True:
    testQuery()
    updateTime = random.randint(30,120)
    time.sleep(updateTime)

Arduino sketch

#include 
#include "Adafruit_LEDBackpack.h"
#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"
int number = 0;
int digit = 1;  

Adafruit_7segment matrix = Adafruit_7segment();

void setup() {
  matrix.begin(0x70);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  if(Serial.available()) {
    if(digit == 1) number = 0;
    number += (int(Serial.read()) - int('0'))*digit;
    digit *= 10;
    if(digit == 10000) digit = 1;
    Serial.println(number);
  }
  matrix.writeDigitNum(4, number % 10);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(3, (number/10) % 10);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(1, (number/100) % 10);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(0, (number/1000) % 10);
  matrix.writeDisplay();

}

19 November 2013

Weight in Greed (Ralph + Maryyann)

Have you ever patiently stood in a Buffet line, waiting for your turn to grab some food? Finally, you reach the start of the table and pick up a plate, but you suddenly realize that the previous person had taken such large portions that the rest of the hungry customers don’t have enough to eat.

People always say to be more conservative or watch our weight. But we never take the time to recognize how much we actually take when we serve ourselves. “Weight in Greed” is based on the idea of bringing awareness to that issue. The most difficult and most important part of our project was actually building the scale to measure the difference in weight. After many attempts, we finally created a wooden scale consisting of a force sensitive resistor, a rounded screw, a few pieces of hardboard, and of course an arduino. The round wooden table, as seen in the video holds a pillar which presses against the force sensitive resistor underneath. Whenever the weight changed, the force applied onto the sensor would change and the difference would flash before readjusting to inform the next customer.

#include  // Enable this line if using Arduino Uno, Mega, etc.
//#include  // Enable this line if using Adafruit Trinket, Gemma, etc.

#include "Adafruit_LEDBackpack.h"
#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"

Adafruit_7segment matrix = Adafruit_7segment();
const int pressurePin = 3;
int prevPressureLevel = 5;

void setup()
{
#ifndef __AVR_ATtiny85__
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("7 Segment Backpack Test");
#endif
  matrix.begin(0x70);
}

void loop()
{
  int pressureLevel;
  pressureLevel = analogRead(pressurePin); 
  boolean drawDots = false;
  int ledDisplay = 0;

  if (abs(pressureLevel - prevPressureLevel) > 15){
    delay(3000);
    ledDisplay = abs(prevPressureLevel - analogRead(pressurePin));
    Serial.println("hi"+ledDisplay);
  }

  matrix.writeDigitNum(0, (ledDisplay / 1000), drawDots);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(1, (ledDisplay / 100) % 10, drawDots);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(3, (ledDisplay / 10) % 10, drawDots);
  matrix.writeDigitNum(4, ledDisplay % 10, drawDots);

  matrix.writeDisplay();
  //  Serial.print("sensor: ");
  //  Serial.println(pressureLevel);
  prevPressureLevel = pressureLevel;
  Serial.println(pressureLevel);
  delay(200);
}
}