Physical Computing
Gratitude
Gratitude is an interactive display that encourages people to reflect upon moments of feeling grateful. It is comprised of a wall-mounted wood panel, lit from behind. Capacitive touch sensing allows users to seed the panel with moments of gratitude that inspire later moments of contemplation for each other. Materials include laser cut pecan veneer, sanded [...]
Arduino Lifespan Survey
As noted on the Arduino blog, I’m gathering some usage data to support a Life Cycle Assessment of the Duemilanove. The results I receive will help me to determine functional units and usage hours for the analysis. Arduino fans, please complete this short survey (now closed– please see update below) if you have a spare [...]
LCA of Materials for Intro to Physical Computing
After some serious thought about my final project for If Products… I’ve decided to drop the modern heirlooms project. It’s just not well-defined enough to be successful during the short time span between now and the end of the semester. Instead, I’ll be performing a Life Cycle Assessment of the Arduino Duemilanove. From there, I’ll [...]
Velas Photos
I need to add a layer behind the screen to diffuse the LEDs, but the glowing looks amazing in a darkened room.
PComp Final– Velas Code
The Arduino code for Velas is here. It includes Alex Leone’s notes on the TLC5940 Library. I tried to comment as thoroughly as possible, but please contact me if you have any questions.
Pcomp Final– Velas Presentation
This is a short summary presentation I made to accompany my final project for PComp and ICM. Please download the PowerPoint file in order to view this presentation as it is intended. Unfortunately, SlideShare does not support slide animations, and it has some problems with formatting. I will upload images and code in the next [...]
PComp Final– Parents, Children, and Triggers
I got my paper screen back from the AMS last Wednesday, and the laser cutting looks great. I also got multiple LED drivers daisy-chained together and lighting multiple LEDs. My code was starting to get unwieldy, though, so I met with Rory again to get some help organizing it. We ended up scrapping a bunch [...]
PComp Final– Preparation for laser cutting
I finally have a draft of my design for laser cutting, and I have an appointment at the AMS on Wednesday. After digging around and failing to find wood that seemed appropriate for the project, I’ve decided to prototype the screen with heavy paper. I’m excited (and a little nervous) to see how it will [...]
PComp Final– more progress
This week I’ve gotten help from lots of people. I met with Rory to talk about light sources, and he referred me to Bryan and Aly, who helped me figure out what kind of LED drivers to use in order to dim multiple LEDs in groups and pointed me to the Arduino library for the [...]
PComp Final– progress
Working on a such a personal project is pretty difficult, but it’s been totally worth it so far. After class the other day I was completely frustrated with my idea, convinced it was destined to be a failure, but a few of the comments I got in class were extremely helpful. Angela mentioned hearing the [...]
PComp Final– Possibilities
Possible input methods: Mudra to acknowledge grief/acceptance/letting go– fingers touching either closes switch or uses fsr. Sleeves touched closes switch– based on tendency to pull my sleeves down over my knuckles, especially if I’m sad or stressed out. Necklace to tug on– just got a phone call from a friend, Patrick, who just returned from [...]
PComp Final– Inspiration
What I want it to feel like when you’re inside the hut (click on the images to view full size):
PComp Final– more on mourning/grief
I’m starting to do some research on methods of mourning and dealing with grief in order to support my pcomp midterm. An article on mourning by Therese Rando in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying is helpful in understanding psychological approaches to mourning, particularly since it contradicts the the common notion that the grief [...]
PComp Final– Grief/Mourning Brain Dump
Lately I’ve been sort of preoccupied with grief and mourning. One of my closest friends died in a car accident last February, and I find myself battling waves of grief at the oddest moments– walking through Washington Square Park, riding the subway, sitting at my desk at work, or trying to focus in class. Because [...]
PComp Week 7– Transistor Lab
In trying to complete the Transistor Lab I ran into a few problems. First, I have a potentiometer that is wired with misleading colors, so when I first hooked up the circuit it was drawing too much power from the USB port. My Mac immediately shut down the port. I fixed that issue, but my [...]
PComp Midterm– Petje
I worked with Nahana Schelling and Peter Esveld for the Physical Computing Midterm. We wanted to create a way for people to convey presence and communicate nonverbally across distance. We wanted whatever we created to be irresistably touchable and yet slightly creepy in order to highlight the awkwardness of communicating via technology. Here are the [...]
PComp and ICM– Week 6
This week I’m using analog input to the Arduino (heat and light sensors) to manipulate an image in Processing. I started off by prgramming a very basic ellipse in Processing. My goal is to make the color of the ellipse warm as the thermistor registers warmer temperatures and to make it brighten as less light [...]
Physical Computing Week 5– Serial Communication
I used the same potentiometer set up as I did for the panorama viewer last week, but uploaded the lab sketch to graph the potentiometer’s input in processing. This is what my desktop looked like:
PComp Week 4 – Servo
This week I built a tiny little panorama screening machine: This is what it looks like without its case:
PComp Week 5– Midterm Observation
Nahana, Peter and I have met a few times to discuss our project, and we seem to have reached a general agreement about where we’re headed. We’re trying to create a device that allows people to communicate nonverbally across a distance, conveying a sense of presence that just doesn’t seem possible with existing devices like [...]
Physical Computing Lab – Week 3 – Electronics
Instructions for this lab are available at http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/Electronics. 1) Measuring Voltage I felt a little bit like one of the primates from 2001 during this part of the lab. I’ve never used a multimeter before, so I looked at How to Use a Multimeter from Make Magazine. I was still confused. Then I realized, duh! [...]