Labs and Works done in Physical Computing Class at SVA IXD, by Beatriz Vizcaíno.
Eat Real, eat local (http://infosthetics.com/archives/2009/07/eat_local_eat_real_video.html)
A new concept map focuses specifically on physical wellness achieved through drinking enough water.
Imagined Project
The first project for physical computing was an “imagined object or idea”. For this I created DWEAVE short for (Dream-weaver). The Dweave is a headband that detects a user´s brain activity when he is fallin asleep, allowing the person to have lucid dreams. A lucid dream is a dream that happens when you are aware you are sleeping and dreaming and can control the sequence of the actions that happen in the dream.
Mind-Full Final Project Personal Documentation
For the Mind-Full Final project I worked on the prototyping face and form development of the idea.
The form was inspired by a chopsticks stand. The look we wanted to accomplish was stylish, elegant and clean. Because of the components we were placing inside the object we needed it to be a two piece element for it to be able to open and replace the pieces inside of it. The other consideration for the form was the “clicking” function it had, this was another reason for it to be a two piece element, for it to work as “button”.
This were some of the sketches we had on the first instance:
Go to picture 1
Some of the materials tried in the protyping process were paper, vellum, translucent acetate, black vinyl and balsa wood. Go to picture 2
The translucent acetate was the material that we chose for the first iteration. With this we had a two piece element. The material allowed the LED light to be visualized from any sides. From group considerations and suggestions from other classmates the privacy concern became an issue for this material. Go to picture 3
Our next step was to find a material that will cover either one of the elements of the whole 2 pieces or just a portion. The black vinyl was a really good choice because it gave us that elegant and clean look we were looking for and allowed us to prototype by letting us cut and fold to create the object from a template (Go to picture 4) as we had been doing from the beginning.
With this new material we prototyped two models, one that had a black cover, so that the light was seen just as an ambient light on the bottom piece. On the other hand, we developed another model that was all covered in the black material except for the face facing the user, for a user that was more concerned with privacy issues. (Go to picture 5 and 6)
The last consideration I had on the design process, was creating some 3d renderings to visualize the future of the object, with wireless elements and real materials. (Picures 6 and on)
Wireless Lab - Doorbell
For this lab we were required to work with a partner, in order to “synch” or configure 2 pairs of x-bee radios and create a doorbell.
The first step for accomplishing this was to connect power from the Arduino to the Breadboard. This was done by both me and my partner. Different from the other labs we have done, this one requires power of 3.3Volts (the xbees will not run with 5 Volt power).
The second step is to mate the breakout board with “male” headers, which have to be cut out for them to fit on the breakout board. This step is required because the Xbee has pins spaced 2mm apart, which don´t fit in the breadboard. The female headers have to be soldered after on the opposite side of the board.
The 3rd step in this lab is creating Xbee connections from the breadboard to the Arduino.
After, we had to decide who was going to be the receiver (doorbell) and the sender (button). Wire the input and output for the button and doorbell and Configure the Xbees.
The configuration of this radios was done with the XBeeConfigTerminal program. The program opens an interface that asks you to specify the serial port, then write down a PAN ID, (ours was BEEF) and enter it as: ATID BEEF. After the program retrieves an OK, we could continue with entering the ATMY which is “my address”, in this case we started configuring the sender so it used 0 as an address. Then, select a destination address which will be (1) for the doorbell or second configured Xbee radio. The last step is entering ATWR and pressing send for the system to save the settings. The same thing has to be done with the second Xbee radio, specifiying that “its address” is 1 and the destination for it is 0.
Both of the radios have to be programmed with Arduino, uploading a piece of code for each of them. When the code is uploaded, the Serial Ports for each of the Xbees should show a capital D, and the doorbell should be heard. I struggled a lot for the doorbell to ring, and configured Xbees twice, also changed the Xbees thinking there was something wrong with them, after a couple hours of exploring the possible error that wasn´t allowing the radios to connect, we figured out that the soldering was not done properly.
Feedback Doorbell
To receive a feedback in the first Xbee (button) an LED was added to the circuit, allowing this to work as a feedback for the person who is “ringing the bell”. Another chunk of code was uploaded for both of the Xbee radios for this to work.
