Get Physical!

It's all done! Hard to believe the show is already over. It was a blast though, a lot of people came by so that was nice as well. Here's the only good picture I had from the show (I thought for sure I took more). Looking forward to grabbing Sean's pictures and movies.

There's the iGrind in all of it's glory!

A close up of the display (and yes, all of these features are false).

I'm still considering doing some more filing for documentation, just so I can demonstrate everything that the project did.

One More Thing...

Remnants of the stencil.

Final product!

It's Done?!

I can't believe it either, but I think I'm done!! I bought the spray paint this morning, started working on it in the afternoon, and before I knew it I was complete! It's definitely nice to have everything done far before Thursday's class...so any improvements or suggestions are welcome!

I like the look, although in person the gray came out a little too dark. The massive Apple on top is a nice touch - I was intending on doing a small one but messed up, so I was forced to do a really big one! The whole time I was imagining the new Macbooks, with the aluminum and black glass (as opposed to the whit plastic Macbooks).

Enough words though, here are some pictures!

Spray paint, Wiimotes, and force cups...not sure what else I could ever need.

I should have thought ahead on this one...hopefully the landlords don't come by anytime soon!! (Or read this blog...)

Here's a close-up of the handle, quite sturdy. It does through the entire wheel and then has an extra brace on the outside.

Here's the box (without the handle). Notice the large Apple!

And that's it! All done!

Great to be done. Once again any suggestions are welcome. The computer won't go inside, only because I don't want to trust flimsy cardboard with my computer. It should work though, since you need the display of the laptop anyways. And everybody who's played it has really enjoyed it even though the laptop is out. Feels so good to actually have a project to show (that works!)

First Steps Shots

Here are some shots of the final box built (and drying from the ridiculous amounts of glue!)

Drying, but it's built!

Close up! Shouldn't of put glue on carpet...

Prototype Shots

Here's some shots of the prototype version I built to test out the mechanics.

This is where the Wiimote goes.

A shot of the lazy susan piece.

And this is what the whole package looks like!

Almost Done?

So here's some more progress on the organ grinder - with more pictures of the process to come!

So here's the coding on the computer. Users can select any of the songs available, and in fact any mp3 can be added (in case of requests).

Here's a snippet of the program - "iGrind"

The box with one piece of cardboard attached. It's sturdy enough to take some abuse.

The box with all of the sides covered. Tracy's working on the fancy cardboard handle.

It's done! Completely turnable handle - which actually makes the entire project feel much better - it provides some resistance, and forces users to not spin it too fast.

A shot of the inside of the box. It's only a Wiimote!

The project's starting to shape up! I still need to decide the aesthetic for the project. I'm leaning towards wild and crazy right now, but we'll see. I'd like to go the whole "smooth and slick" iPod look, but still use the cardboard.

The code is also working well enough. It plays fast, normal, and slow. The wheel feels responsive, but I do wish it could be more so. I was originally using the accelerometer raw data, but the numbers became very complicated, so I just used the orientation sensors. It gets the job done, but if you spin it too fast it doesn't pick up anything. Thankfully the handle slows people down!

Pictures (with progress tomorrow)

So here are some pictures! I figured we need to document our progress, so I thought I'd take some (relatively?) useful pictures. I have an unexpected break of time tomorrow before class, so much of the construction/designing/coding will be done then (and the blog will be updated accordingly).

The tools of the trade: cardboard, wood, pencils, glue, and screws.

A nice cliche shot down the wood pieces - DEPTH OF FIELD!

A test to see if the cardboard would look good with colored pencils...

The colored pencils came out surprisingly nice! I think the box would look great like that instead of sharpie, but would that be the best way to do it? (and notice how the pencils are nicely laid across the cardboard, CLEARLY IN USE!)

How the corners of the box will be assembled.

I imagine that should be sturdy enough (especially with some glue in-between)

And that's it so far. I know it's not much, but there will be more tomorrow! In class I'd like to get the code working like I want it to. All I need to do with the code is register rotations (which it's doing, I just have to hook it up to the audio file) and figure out variable speed. It's coming together!

Final Proposal (Appendix A)

Some additions:

Final Proposal in PDF

And here are some of the links to songs I found online:

Spanish Eyes

Awkward Busker 1

I also got the Wiimote to finally talk with Processing in class today! It was a terrific moment, really. Now I can actually make something...although it looks like slowing down/speeding up music is just a big a problem in Processing, so that's the next hurdle to overcome.

If I can't figure out how to do it, one possibility might be to have different versions of the track playing different speeds, and the code will jump between variations - giving the illusion of speed control. We'll see though. The Wiimote works though!

Final Proposal

So here's the Final Project Proposal! In the right order even!

My intent/reasoning needs some work. While I feel like I know why I'm doing this, it hasn't come out as clearly or purposefully in words.

I plan on bringing in the Wii Remote and getting that all done tomorrow in class. I think I'm also going to bring along the wood and cardboard to see if I can get a start on that. The only problem with the wood is that I don't have anything to cut it with...although it really isn't that thick.

April Fools

This Blog has been pretty miserable lately - I haven't written a single thing since February. YIKES!! I didn't realize how long it's been since our project proposals. And as we learned in class last week, that's not a good thing for documentation!

As described last Thursday, my final project is going to be an electronic organ grinder. The project should prove to be ironic since an organ grinder can be done totally mechanically. This one, however, will only exist because of electronics. There'll be a Wiimote on the inside detecting the handle rotation.

I really liked Chris's idea to use the cardboard. I just picked up some wood to make a frame for the grinder and plan to cover the frame with pieces of cardboard. I haven't decided how I'm going to decorate the cardboard - whether I'll make it look amateur with Sharpies and lines or try and make it look like something nice (like a real organ grinder). I'm also going to need to get a strap so that people can wear the organ grinder (which is half the fun?).

I also grabbed a couple of music samples from online, although I might see if my dad can send me a recording of his organ grinder.

Progress should be pretty easy now (building-wise). The software/hardware is still proving to be problematic. I just can't seem to get the Wiimote to hook up reliably. The other thing is that the software will need to have variable playback speed so it'll matter how much you spin the organ.

I can't wait to get started on the building though, should be fun. And once that Wiimote stuff is resolved, the programming will be pretty easy. The rest is taking the project to the next level - having wires coming out of the box, needless technology, all the stuff the class talked about.

Project 2 Proposal

Here's my proposal!  Backwards AND at the top of the post.

Here's the main gist: Users will walk up to a stand and rotate a flat, circular piece of material that interfaces with a computer display.  The hope is to create a system that is incredibly easy to understand and immediately intuitive.  It'll show how there doesn't need to be any instructions for well designed systems (just like we don't have instruction books on how to appreciate art or even how to interact with buildings) and the ever narrowing gap between virtual and physical, hardware and software.

Project 1

The first project is more of a tech demo than anything, but like the assignment said, hopefully this can be a springboard for future projects (now that a lot of the technical stuff is out of the way). 

Users hold a card with two squares to the camera, and MaxMSP finds the squares on the paper and then draws a box showing the boundary lines.  I've also included a patch that looks for the average box, so that it's not quite as jumpy as the included Jitter code.  

The problem is that the tracking should be more accurate.  I now understand why people are paid money to do video tracking, because it's difficult to get a good signal.  Most of the problems have come from trying to get color ranges correct.  After this I'm definitely looking into hooking up a WiiMote to Max, since that'll look for heat signals which should be easier to pick out.

All in all though, I learned a lot of new things about MaxMSP.  I feel like I have a much better handle on things.  I spent a majority of the week creating my own Color Tracker (but it moved very slowly), and even made a gradient maker.  I'm also going to look into connecting it to Flash to do some graphics (or look into the built in graphics of Max).

1/29 to 2/5

This past week I've been playing around with a lot of the Jitter commands...and the problem is that there are just so many!  One helpful thing from going through the tutorials is really understanding how and why things work.  It does take a considerable amount of time to go through all the Tutorials/help file/web sites...Max did a great job of providing support and documentation!

As for now, I don't have anything to show, I've been tinkering with different projects.  So class time should prove helpful in actually getting something to work.

Project 1 Development

Here's a list of ideas that I thought of during class and while going through the tutorials.  Although making things with the Aduino Board was really interesting, I'm feeling a bigger pull towards manipulating video.  As always, most of these objects are not only too ambitious, but fail to provide any sort of meaningful commentary on anything.  It's easy to think of something cool; it's much more difficult to think of something artistic.

• Hooking up a Wiimote to Max - Don't know what I'd do with it, but using the Wiimote's infrared cameras could be neat (and relatively simple by downloading a couple drivers).
• Replicating accelerometers with a camera.  Users would hold a bright green card, and the camera would look at it's angle.
• Having a clear, lit up surface that users would touch.  A camera would look for the shadows projected on the surface from their fingers.
• Having a 3D world users can move though, and whenever they see a mirror in the world, it would show them (with the use of a camera).
• Finding and displaying (abstractly) the number of wireless signals in a room - we're becoming increasing connected/wireless.
• Trick the user.  Actually develop a procedural game with strange rules/interactions, and just when the user thinks they understand how to play, switch the rules or turn off the game.  That way, they think the patterns they were finding were just in their head.

That's it for right now.  Next step is seeing if I can actually do any of this. 

First Post

Here's my first post!  No ideas to put on paper (computer screen) yet, but I'm thinking of the possibilities!