Flitter Bloom

Inspired by Disney’s Botanicus Interacticus project, our project aims to explore how plants might react to human presence and touch, and also, how people would react to plants that responds to them.

Technology

Input:

Arduino Uno with capacitance sensing circuit 

(http://www.instructables.com/id/Touche-for-Arduino-Advanced-touch-sensing/ )

Output:

2 x 5 volt micro servos attached to strings controlling the plant

Acknowledgements

• Dale Clifford
• Zach Jacobson-Weaver
• Andre Le
• Austin McCaslan
• Ayo Olubeko
• Gaby Moreno
• Ali Momeni

Looking Out 7 - Chin Wei

To ride the Moscow subway for free, do 30 squats

The Moscow metro has set up an unusual vending machine that sells single-trip tickets to passengers in return for performing 30 squats.

Final Project Presentation - Chin Wei + Nissa

Final Project Proposal: Chin Wei & Nissa

Mood Bins

Project Intent:
There are two goals to this project. One, to encourage people to throw trash into bins. Second, to
leverage on people's desire to express themselves and influence their surroundings.

The idea was somewhat inspired by one of the Fun Theory projects that was posted at the beginning of the semester. We wondered if we could change people's behaviour positively by making it fun, could we make them to do the same by allowing them to express themselves?

The Looking Out projects and the feedback we've received throughout our development process of our whiskers made us realise the way people interact with our products is what gives it life. We wanted to build a product that was simple and could easily blend into people's consciousness. People throw trash all the time. What if we could from this action "see" the mood of people in the area?

Brief description:
The idea is to install two bins, side-by-side, in a place where people tend to hang out, like a school cafe or study area. One bin would be associated with "Happy" mood and the other with "Sad" mood, through the use of colours and decorations on the bin. As people throw trash in the "Happy" bin, it contributes to the happiness "score" in the room. Likewise, people throwing trash in the "Sad" bin would contribute to the "Sad" score.

When the score in one bin is higher than the score in another bin, the lighting in the area changes. When the room is more "Sad", the lights turn a bluish-hue. When it is "Happy", the lights turn to a yellowish-hue.

Additional thoughts:
We feel that the project presents an opportunity to explore certain aspects of people's behaviour.

For example, it would be interesting

• to know the different kind of trash that enters into each bin. It is possible that the "Sad" bin will end up containing more articles that express frustration, such as crumpled drafts of work.
• to see how people react to the current mood of the room. If the room is "Sad", will they attempt to make the room "Happier"? And in doing so, will it make them happier? Or will a "Sad" room drive people away?
• to see if the mood of the room changes as we might expect it to. For example, would the room be "Sad" during finals?

Possible extensions of project:

• to visualize the occurrence of "Sad" or "Happy" days across time, for example across a school semester
• to create multiple sets of bins so we can map the mood across different places

Flow:

• Sensor (Proximity?) detects trash entering bin
• Arduino updates mood score and compares "Happy" and "Sad" score
• If there is an overall change of mood, change the colour of the light
• Save relevant data?

Logistics:

• 2 Arduinos, one for each bin
• For each Arduino,
• 1 Proximity sensor - $5
• Suitable batteries with battery attachments
• SD card reader? (if necessary to do data logging) - $3
• Wireless light bulb
• 2 trash bins - $6-$25 each
• Stuff to attach the electronics to the garbage bins
• Stuff to decorate the bins
• Garbage bags

Tentative Timeline:

Week	Starting from	Task
0	18 Oct	Submit Project Proposal
1	21 Oct	Order supplies / Work on prototype
2	28 Oct	Finish proof of concept
3	4 Nov	Install on trash can / get feedback
4	11 Nov	Get feedback / Iterate
5	18 Nov	Get feedback / Iterate
6	25 Nov	Test
7	2 Dec	Begin documentation
8	9 Dec	Complete documentation

Looking Out 6: Chinwei

Musical Laser Forests, Light Painting, and Quadcopters

by The Creators Project 

A number of very cool projects involving lights and lasers, by The Creators Project. Most of the projects shown in the video are extremely immersive experiences, and for projects such as the Musical Laser Forests, the audience is literally experiencing the performance from the inside. What is also interesting is the attempt across these to create a sense of warmth using technology. I especially like the Quadcopter light show which happens at about 03:16.

Looking out 4: Chin Wei

Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise

Using pulleys, remote controlled chairs and spring loaded books, these actors staged a convincing display of telekinesis that shocked the actual customers in the store.

Whisker V4

Based on people's  feedback, we decided to make the camera's whisker longer, so people will be more likely to mess with it. We kept the photoresistor for now; although, we now know that covering the camera's eye is not something that people naturally want to do.

Whisker V3

We were disappointed when the second iteration of our whisker kept falling over during the demo, so the class's positive response to our whisker's disability was a pleasant surprise. We decided to keep the whisker slightly unstable and have it fall when its eye was covered, using a photoresistor to detect the low light. Unfortunately, the sensor was a bit too sensitive, so the whisker kept falling all over the place. The class wasn't able to discover why but had some fun messing around with the little guy who seemed to have broken free from whatever outlet he had been tethered to.

A4: Whisker Evaluation

Evaluation of Our Whisker

Chinwei, Mauricio, and Nissa

 

In this iteration we decided to continue with the idea of our whisker being some sort of exploration bot. In order to give our whisker more life, we decided that it needed to be able to survive without being attached to a clamp, so we added a platform and wheels. While it's not quite working the way it would ideally, our camera whisker now has a motor and servo so it can move and turn. Only two of the original whiskers remain, and the interaction with them has changed since we have made our whisker mobile. These whiskers make the camera turn when they are hit.

Adding wheels to our whisker may not have been the most imaginative thing for us to do. We all thought it was the next logical step. However, adding the wheels has opened up a lot of possibilities, and now we have to figure how our whisker is going to interact with its environment as it moves about. Our whisker is a camera, so we would also like to make use of the fact that it seems to have a giant eye.


We spent a good amount of time working and reworking this iteration. Some photos of the process are below.

Looking Out 3 - Chinwei

Projecteo: A Tiny Instagram Projector

http://www.getprojecteo.com/

Projecteo is a tiny projector that projects image in a film wheel onto a screen. The images for the film wheel are obtained from Instagram, and the comapny has a service to print these images onto the film wheel.

The appeal of this project comes from the portability of the projector, and the transportation of images in a digital space like Instagram onto a physical space. While slide projectors used to be commonplace in the days of film photography, they were usually much larger in size; typically one would have to carry a briefcase size box of slides to where they wanted to project the slides. This tiny projector contains just the essence of the experience where a group of people can view the photograph together away from the screen.

Whiskers Iteration 1 - Chin Wei, Nissa, Mauricio

For the first iteration of our whiskers, we dismantled an old digital video camera and repurposed the frame as a body. The frame had an awkward shape which made it impossible to stand upright by itself. However after we attached the frame to a clamp and oriented the lens horizontally, it began to look like some sort of a mechanical creature with a big eye.

We decided that 'whiskers' in this context could be literal; We could have long, thin sensors sticking out underneath, to the side of the 'face' and on the top of the frame, resembling the moustache and hair of a human, the whiskers of an animal. Following that, we wired the moustache to trigger LEDs when they are pushed from the side.

A4:Whisker Evaluation

Evaluation of Andre, Gaby, and Maya's Whisker

Nissa

What I see it as: A cat that makes noise when you flick its whisker and makes other noises when you poke its eyeball with stuff.

What I imagine it becoming: A mouth that nibbles at stuff, delighting everyone nearby with its musical mastication; though, how whisker-like is that really?

Andre, Gaby, and Maya’s sound-making whisker has changed a lot since A2. It is now much more compact, which makes it much more portable. However, I think it has less presence before. There was also something a bit charming about its rawness in the first iteration. Now, I think it’s in an uncomfortable place between raw and finished, but it is a work in progress. The whisker now has a face and is recognizable as a creature head. I think that it was interesting that the group chose to make their whisker into something recognizable. The laser cut pieces look very nice aside from a few rough edges. I think it is interesting how adding the face has changed the interaction. People are less likely to poke at the gears through the eye sockets to make different noises, but the creature is sensitive to physical output and reacts in a way a real creature might.  

 

Chinwei
The new compact form factor and portability is the most obvious change in this iteration. The next obvious change is that this whisker is starting to resemble the eyes of a face, with the nose being the primary sensing organ and the eyes being the primary feedback. Aside from the fact that this it is now less convenient to stick something into the moving gears, there is a resistance to wanting to stick something into the "whisker's" eyes, as if someone could potentially hurt it by doing that.

Somewhat lacking in this current iteration of whiskers is a proper platform for it to elevate itself to a certain height to more convincingly appear like a face. In its current state, the entire mechanism is too low on the ground to be accessible to humans touching it. Also, the sensors (the nose) is a bit small considering it is acting as a touch sensor for the rest of the face.

Despite that however, once the mode of interaction becomes clear, feeding the gears with various materials and playing with the 'nose' to produce a sound is both exploratory and experiential.

Looking Out 2 - Chinwei

Personal Environment Monitor
Lapka
https://mylapka.com/pem

The Personal Environment Monitor Kit contains four professional-grade sensors - one to measure radioactivity in the surroundings, one to measure the amount of fertilizer in food, one to measure electromagnetic waves, and one to measure humidity.

What's interesting about this product is its ability to incorporate something so utilitarian into such a compact and beautiful package. Although the use is perhaps more educational than practical, this device empowers individuals by augmenting their knowledge of their surroundings, giving them more information to make everyday life choices.




Invisible Bicycle Helmet
Fredrik Gertten
http://www.hovding.com/en/

This unconventional bicycle helmet is worn around the collar instead of over the head. When the wearer is falling, various sensors on the helmet detect the wearer's motion and releases an airbag that encloses the wearer's head. The team measured the motion profiles of cyclists over many years in order to accurately determine when a person is falling.

Looking Out 1 - Chinwei

Piano Staircase

by thefuntheory.com


Piano Staircase is an installation designed to encourage people to take the staircase over the escalator, by making it fun to do. The belief is that people are willing to change their behavior when it is fun to do so. Piano Staircase is essentially formed by a number of boards embedded with pressure sensors and wired to a sound system. When a person steps on a 'key' on the stairs, a corresponding note is produced.

I like this project for it's simplicity and ability to transform a mundane (and heart-benefiting) activity like taking the stairs into a fun experience. Another interesting aspect of the project is that it allows anyone to make music by simply taking the stairs. This especially can be seen at [01:36] where it shows a person lingering around the bottom steps of the staircase to interact with the piano.



The World's Deepest Bin
by thefuntheory.com



Another project by the same team, The World's Deepest Bin also attempts to encourage people to throw rubbish into the bin instead of the ground, in a subtle and unintrusive way. Using a sensor wired to a set of computer speakers, the 'bin' detects when rubbish is tossed in, produces a sound that simulates a piece of trash falling through a long way to the bottom (thus the name).

Again this is a project that can change a fundamental human habit just by injecting fun into a mundane, everyday action. What is amazing about this 'bin' is how much benefit it can bring, both in terms of the hygiene of the surrounding area, and the educational value it brings to people. If kids grow up thinking that tossing rubbish into bins are cool and fun, we would likely have much less trash on the streets!