animation and code
Forget-Me-Not is a system of small devices you can use to make sure you never leave anything of yours behind again.
Just attach one of the smaller units to an item you are prone to forgetting, like your keys or your umbrella, and keep the larger unit in an item you are likely not to forget, like your bag. If they ever get separated, your bag will scream out at you to remind you to go find your keys.
We finished working on the Tapper gloves, and although there is still aesthetic work to be done, this version is complete functionality-wise.
Tapper now outputs a MIDI signal instead of the custom protocol we were previously using. This means that it won’t work anymore with the Processing sequencer we had built, but that it works with most audio production apps available, such as Live, GarageBand, or Reason. Tapper sends a NOTE ON signal when an FSR is pressed, an AFTERTOUCH as long as the FSR is still pressed, and a NOTE OFF when the FSR is released. This makes the response much more natural as we don’t get repeated notes when the FSR remains pressed and we can change the velocity of a note by pressing harder or softer.
Ari and I advanced our work from phase 1 to phase 2 of the Tapper gloves by conquering the aspect of the project that proved to be our most serious roadblock: actually integrating the technology into the apparel. No, it wasn’t the programming or the circuitry that threw us for a loop… it was dealing with unwieldy polyester and subpar sewing skills.
After consulting with our trusty sewing consultant Sara, we decided on completely avoiding any sewing whatsoever and instead opting for finger condoms, a.k.a. massacred rubber gloves. The flexibility of the rubber proved a perfect tactic for keeping the sensors closely affixed to the fingers and therefore giving us the most accurate readings.
In many respects, the tactile elements of the project are complete as the gloves work largely as advertised. With this part of the project near completion, Ari and I will be focusing on how to refine control over the interface so that the gloves work as expected.
The Processing component has come a long way in the last week. I programmed the integrated samples for the gloves using the minim sound library, giving us a foundation for eventual behavior of the gloves. However, we still have to calibrate the sensors in order to make sure the samples respond as desired.
Explanations are nice, but ultimately it is a live-working prototype that really speaks for itself. Check out the video below:
I saw a very interesting example of successful interaction design at Battery Park over the weekend. There is a spot on the ground where 9 metal tiles are arranged in a 3×3 pattern. When you step on any of them, they make a sound, and each one has a different tone.
For the 30 minutes that I was sitting there, the same scenario kept re-occurring. A couple of people would walk by, someone would try it out, they would stop and play with it, more people would stop and try it, and in a matter of minutes a bunch of strangers would crowd around the piece, jumping around and talking to each other.
I think this is the best possible interaction scenario that my work could have. It should be instantly recognizable, easy and fun to use, and bring people of all ages together. This is a very difficult thing to achieve, but I think simplicity is a major player and an important factor to remember when designing objects for others to play with.
I did not have an accelerometer for the Multiple Serial Output lab, so I used two potentiometers instead. The result reminded me of an Etch-A-Sketch. I wanted to push this idea further so I built an interface that is exactly the same as an Etch-A-Sketch, but which draws a digital picture on screen.
The left and right knobs control the horizontal and vertical position of the cursor respectively. If you shake the controller, the image gradually fades away.
Ari and I are working together on a project tentatively titled Tapper. The idea came from observing people on the subway who seem very engaged in the music they listen to, by singing, dancing, or tapping their fingers on the walls, poles, seats, their knees, etc. We decided to focus on this last action, and to create a portable musical instrument played by performing the natural action of tapping your fingers to the beat. 
Tapping is a natural response to listening to music and we thought that it could be interesting to actually sequence samples and create music through this action. The action of tapping along with a song seemed like an effective way of turning music appreciators into music producers. We decided to use a glove because we wanted the device to be portable, non-obtrusive, and usable on any surface. Tapper will communicate with a sampler using a common protocol such as MIDI or OSC so that it can interface with any software or platform. Ideally, we would like this to be a portable device like a cellphone or iPod.
The tapping action will be captured using force sensing resistors (FSRs). These seem like the natural choice as we would need to record the different strengths of the taps.
We performed some tests with a rudimentary prototype to get a feel for the action, but also to see the range of values we would get and if that range would change depending on the finger we used.
According to our graphs:
 
 I completed the serial output lab and was able to get the Arduino board to communicate with Processing. I used a potentiometer and a pressure sensor as inputs and realised that they had very different readings.
 
 
The potentiometer graph looks fine but the problem is with the pressure sensor. Its range is from -7 to 19. Since a byte is unsigned, -7 gets interpreted as 249 and that’s where those weird columns come from. Another problem is that since the range is much smaller than 0-255, the graph is not very representative.
Continue reading ‘Serial Output Lab’
I just did the servo lab. It was pretty straightforward; I got it to work with both the original version and the new Servo library in Arduino 0012.
Here are some stills from the “Understanding Electricity” lab for Physical Computing.
 
