Final Project (week 4)
After class on Nov. 4, our group realized that we would not be able to suspend our final project, so we were therefore limited to creating a wall or floor surface, but our concept could still remain pretty much the same. Tonight we discussed how to physically construct the surface and what effect we were hoping to achieve.
In our discussion, we realized that using polyethylene could prove very difficult in that fold and wrinkles in the plastic may be inevitable. Also, forming the plastic to the exact shape we want could also be very difficult to achieve. I created a rendering that showed what this surface could look like. I really liked how different colored lights adjacent to one another could create different colors; however, the actual effect may be difficult to achieve due to the curving form and the limited brightness of the blinkms.
During our last class, Max Shtein showed me an artist named Tara Donovan who uses the repetition of everyday objects to create a larger effect. One of her works uses thousands and thousands of straws to create a wall surface. This concept of using clear or translucent tubes is something we wanted to investigate. We bought 1000 clear straws and bundled them together, then placed a blinkm behind it, and the effect was magnificent. This straw concept is now our main focus for our prototypes.
Final Project (week 3)
Our group began this week with two prototype concepts. One concept involved creating an interactive table that could use different sensors like the ones used in our interactive cube. Our other idea was to create a “cloud” structure that would be suspended above peoples’ heads and and use the blinkms to track one’s path as they walk under the structure. There were pros and cons to both prototypes. We liked the table idea because our smart surface would also serve a very functional purpose, but we may be somewhat limited in the form. For the cloud prototype, we liked the idea that people would be forced to interact with it as they walked underneath, but it would solely exist for aesthetic effects.
After debating the two options, our group decided that the cloud prototype was the most worth investigating. We began working on this prototype by playing with ways to diffuse and reflect light using different materials. Our goal was to find which method of diffusion would create the largest effect from a limited number of blinkms. We found that using a translucent paper to diffuse the light made the most of one blinkm and created a large spread of light.
We then took this concept and researched precedent art installations and found an artist, Leo Villareal, who used white polyethylene to diffuse LEDs. Within the next week, we hope to use this same method of diffusion while incorporating an interactivity within our surface.
Final Project (week 1 & 2)
For the first week of our final project, we were given a $200 budget to purchase sensors and actuators. After receiving our items, our main focus was to utilize a few of the new sensors to see how they work and begin thinking about how they could be utilized in further prototypes.
Our prototype concept this week builds off of our 2-week surface earlier in the semester, in which our smart surface consisted of 2 separate surfaces that defined a volume of space. In addition, we wanted to explore the concept of interaction further, not only with the surface itself, but interaction between people using the surface. Taking these concepts, we designed an interactive cube that consists of three different sensors. One side of the cube is interacted with through light, the second side utilized Hall probes, and the third side consists of thermal sensors. When one side of the cube is activated, an LED light comes on on a different side in order to encourage interaction with that side. To promote interaction among multiple people, we designed the cube in a way that when all three sides are activated at once, a song plays on the fourth side from a piezo.
While this prototype is still in a very conceptual stage, we believe that it was a successful project in that we were able to test many other types of sensors, and it allowed us to think more clearly about where we want to take the project in the next weeks. This idea of interaction among different individuals as well as with the surface itself is definitely something we want to pursue further in future prototypes.
Biomimetic Solar Tracker (week 2)
This week, one of our group’s main goals was to simplify our design. Our first prototype became much too complex just to do something fairly simple. So for this half of the project, we came up with a new design with the primary objective to make a solar tracker that works.
For this prototype, we took the idea of solar harvesting by reflection and applied it again. But instead of using a hemisphere to reflect sunlight, we designed a “trough” that would reflect sunlight upward onto a PV cell. The main benefit of switching to a trough design was that it can be more easily scaled up to accomodate more PV cells.
The largest problem with our first prototype was the complex system of servos and strings that were needed to rotate the hemisphere. For this prototype we mounted an MDF board directly to a servo for horizontal rotation. On top of this board was our entire solar tracker, constructed mostly using the Mercer set. In order to obtain vertical rotation, we mounted a servo to the central support structure, then attached the trough supports directly to the servo, thereby eliminating the need for any string.
After completing the prototype, we realized that while it did work, there were a lot of improvements that still needed to be made. One of the most important things that our group needs to work on is being more specific in the construction details. For this project, as well as previous ones, we would come up with a concept and a general idea of what it will look like, but when it comes to putting it together and making it look good, we quickly come to realize that we don’t know how to actually assemble the prototype.
Going into the final project, I feel that if we can learn to not make our concepts overly complex, and focus more on details, we can have a very successful prototype.
Chris Niswander
