Friday, February 15, 2008
Project 1 Development
So far I've managed to successfully connect and use a distance sensor and stepping motor with the Make Controller. The motor progresses to precise numeric positions based on the distance of an object to the sensor. More soon!
Project 1 Musings
So I've been developing ideas which will make the second idea I proposed below more physical. Below are links to a few sketches.
Basically a small plant/tree will be placed on a table and made to react to the presence of viewers by way of distance/motion sensors and motors. These motors will be attached to the tree or plant with fishing line and will cause both movement and shaking depending on how they interface with the fishing line. Think of it as puppetry. I propose two versions in my sketches. The first, the most simple, uses 1 sensor and 2 motors for only one direction of movement and shaking. The second uses 3 sensors and 4 motors for more realistic movement in 3 directions as well as shaking. All sensors and motors will be placed beneath the table so they're not seen and the lines will be as hidden as possible.
The idea is that this plant/tree will react to the user in a way that is appropriate to its fragile and subservient position to those who interact with it. It cannot run or hide and is at the mercy of those around it and therefore is quite scared. It will shy away from those around it and start shaking if you come too close. It make even react audibly to your presence. I may have to use a fake tree to avoid the unintended message that I am in some way trying to turn a living thing into a puppet although that could be another interested take on this project.
Basically a small plant/tree will be placed on a table and made to react to the presence of viewers by way of distance/motion sensors and motors. These motors will be attached to the tree or plant with fishing line and will cause both movement and shaking depending on how they interface with the fishing line. Think of it as puppetry. I propose two versions in my sketches. The first, the most simple, uses 1 sensor and 2 motors for only one direction of movement and shaking. The second uses 3 sensors and 4 motors for more realistic movement in 3 directions as well as shaking. All sensors and motors will be placed beneath the table so they're not seen and the lines will be as hidden as possible.
The idea is that this plant/tree will react to the user in a way that is appropriate to its fragile and subservient position to those who interact with it. It cannot run or hide and is at the mercy of those around it and therefore is quite scared. It will shy away from those around it and start shaking if you come too close. It make even react audibly to your presence. I may have to use a fake tree to avoid the unintended message that I am in some way trying to turn a living thing into a puppet although that could be another interested take on this project.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Ideas and Musings
So it is definitely easier to develop ideas for a medium you are familiar with. I've had some trouble coming up with physical computing ideas simply because I don't really understand the full range of possibilities. I can propose a few though:
1. Rework the Drum Circle arcade game/interactive table that was developed by Dylan Moore, Andrew Gardner, and myself. It never really became a game and I'd like to get it to that point as well as make a more manageable and portable version. Also, we never implemted a solid form of beat detection which would be crucial to it operating as a game. I've already noticed several Max/MSP scripts that function as beat or even rhythm detectors. I also have a dead toaster lying around that is just dying to become a game 'cartridge' reader.
Original Drum Circle
1. Rework the Drum Circle arcade game/interactive table that was developed by Dylan Moore, Andrew Gardner, and myself. It never really became a game and I'd like to get it to that point as well as make a more manageable and portable version. Also, we never implemted a solid form of beat detection which would be crucial to it operating as a game. I've already noticed several Max/MSP scripts that function as beat or even rhythm detectors. I also have a dead toaster lying around that is just dying to become a game 'cartridge' reader.
Original Drum Circle2. Interactive Tree Studies installation. The 3d trees I created last semester are begging to be made into an interactive piece. My first inclination is to use motion sensing to allow the mere presence of a viewer in the same room as it to cause a tree to start failing in health and such, shown by diminishing posture and wheezing, etc. As soon as the viewer leaves the installation area the tree starts to recover its health.
3. The last idea I had would be to create an intuitive game controller for the concept I proposed in CAR340, regardless of whether or not it gets picked to be worked on. The game is designed to operate using some sort of kinetic input (proposed as the wiimote) but could really stand to have an even more physical and realistic simulation of the motions displayed in game. The game characters are battling, vertically oriented, plants which operate in a spring-like fashion, duking it out using darts and dodges. They never leave the spot they start on and simply swing about. The controller I would develop for this game would be a real world interpretation of your character (a dolled up spring?) which utilizes motion tracking along two axis' to communicate where the top of the spring is at all times in x and y coordinates. This info would be relayed to the game engine which would translate the characters 'head' to it's correct position, allowing the darts and dodges to be controlled directly. If the actual game was not chosen to be worked on I would have to create a simplified version which mostly demonstrates the use of the controller.
3. The last idea I had would be to create an intuitive game controller for the concept I proposed in CAR340, regardless of whether or not it gets picked to be worked on. The game is designed to operate using some sort of kinetic input (proposed as the wiimote) but could really stand to have an even more physical and realistic simulation of the motions displayed in game. The game characters are battling, vertically oriented, plants which operate in a spring-like fashion, duking it out using darts and dodges. They never leave the spot they start on and simply swing about. The controller I would develop for this game would be a real world interpretation of your character (a dolled up spring?) which utilizes motion tracking along two axis' to communicate where the top of the spring is at all times in x and y coordinates. This info would be relayed to the game engine which would translate the characters 'head' to it's correct position, allowing the darts and dodges to be controlled directly. If the actual game was not chosen to be worked on I would have to create a simplified version which mostly demonstrates the use of the controller.
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