Computation09

Nick Hardeman --- Computation Projects

Project 1 - Nove Bit

Nove Bit is an interactive 3 x 3 matrix that allows users to record sequences of light and save them as 9 bit memories. Nove Bit addresses human to computer interaction by allowing the user to physically input the memory as 9 bits, as opposed to the traditional 8 bit computer memory. Nove Bit also touches on the notion of a personal memory by recording a users’ thoughts in time and replaying them as a pattern of lights. The visual memories are stored as 9 bits, represented by a corresponding button. Compared to 8 bits, 9 bits also allows for a visually even distribution of the memory as a square. The “Nove”, which means nine in Italian, also references the Arduino Duemilnove, one of the two micro-controllers that control the unit.

Nove Bit from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Featured on: Hackaday.com, someone also contacted me about making a Nove Bit Mini, and I said of course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sOiAxwfLYM

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Project 2 - Squaremin

 

“Squaremin ” name thanks to Collin Cunningham from his post at blog.makezine.com, this project is also featured on engadget.com. This battery powered electronic musical instrument is a descendant of the theremin and can be played without contact from the musician. This small instrument contains two infared (IR) sensors that measure proximity. One sensor controls the note, while the other controls the octave that is played through the speaker in the front. The tone is reflected by one of seven colors that illuminates the center area and highlights a small indicator located on the top panel.

Squaremin - Narrated from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Featured on: Engagdet.com and blog.makezine.com, as well as, 48 other blogs. A full list can be seen here: http://nickhardeman.com/blog/?p=171

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Project 3 - Morning Monster

 

The Morning Monster is a plush electronic alarm clock. He has all of the normal alarm functions, set time, set alarm, snooze, etc. However, what makes him a monster is his ability to shine the sun on your face when the alarm goes off by opening the blinds. The blinds are also manually controlled my moving his left arm up and down and he will never over-crank them!

Morning Monster from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Featured on: I wrote to Rob Faludi because I used his open source code as a starting point and he wrote a post on his blog! This was also on make and arduinoshow.

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Final Submissions

MakerFaire
Ars Electronica
Piksel

Morning Monster -- AHHHH!!

Summary: The Morning Monster is a plush electronic alarm clock. He has all of the normal alarm functions, set time, set alarm, snooze, etc. However, what makes him a monster is his ability to shine the sun on your face when the alarm goes off by opening the blinds, unfortunately in the video, it is night time and pitch black outside. The blinds are also manually controlled my moving his left arm (our right) up and down. Don't worry, he knows where the blinds are, so if you hold his arm in one direction, he will never over-crank the blinds. GRR--.

Morning Monster from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Breakdown: The clock hour and minute are set by pressing his top teeth, while the alarm hour and minute are set by pressing his bottom teeth. The alarm is activated by pressing his nose (I have to sew a white X on). There is functionality for the snooze and it works by giving the sleepy head 15 more minutes of bliss, but I have not added the capacitance touch to activate it yet, its wired inside and the code is functional.

He controls the blinds with a flex sensor in his left arm (your right). Moving it up or down opens and closes the blinds. He keeps track of the blinds so that they will not be over-cranked and so he knows how far to rotate to open them. So no matter where you open the blinds manually, by moving his arm, when the alarm goes off, he will open them to the correct position.

He talks with the blinds via wireless communication through an RF transmitter and receiver with a protocol that I wrote. He has an antenna inside him and the range is good, even through the material. There is a receiver in the little black box in the window, with a blue antenna that translates the signal and activates the blinds.

The monster and the blinds are powered by plugging into the wall, that is what those little white wires in front of the blinds are in the video.

A piezo speaker makes an alarm clock sound when it goes off, but somehow there is no sound in the video, so you can't hear me either.

The black box that controls the blinds houses a 12V stepper motor, driven by a h-bridge motor driver, a wireless receiver and of course, a MAPDUINO. I breadboarded all of this project for time and sanity sake. The stepper motor sits in a cradle created by two i-hooks so that it can move accordingly and can adjust to many angles when installing this puppy.

One Page Sheet

Morning Monster Showing Some Skin

I got to sewing this weekend and now the Morning Monster's skin is complete.

In addition, I also created a skeleton for him. The front of the device is hard and flat, but the sides and back have room for stuffing, so they should be softer, to a point.

I decided to go with a full Arduino for the skeleton because I think that wireless may take a while and I will need to be able to leave in the programmer, for efficiency. So I have to add the sensors in his arms and get the shades open next.

Alarm Clock Test with LCD Screen

For this test, I have the LCD screen hooked up and all of the numbers are created out of custom characters so that they can span two rows. The little guy on the right denotes whether the alarm clock is on, and I need a way to show when you are setting the alarm clock and when you are setting the time clock.



Alarm Clock with LCD Screen Test from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Morning Monster Prototypes

Implementation:

Alarm Clock Test from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Role:

Morning Monster is an electric alarm clock that helps you wake up with the most powerful energy source, the sun. He opens your blinds 20 minutes prior to your alarm setting. And if that is not enough, an annoying buzzer will go off. Of course this little monster has all of the standard features, snooze, set time, set alarm time, clock, etc. This little guy is optimal for people who wake up when the sun is out or coming up and who have a window(s) for sunlight to flow into their room.

Look and Feel:

I believe that some off-white canvas for the body and teeth would look nice. For the lips, I will use the red cloth that we received in class and black cotton cloth for the inside of the mouth. I purchased a cube like Tweetlite for support of the innards. I also purchased an lcd screen from sparkfun with a black background and white lettering.

Linkbacks to Squaremin

Original Content: Nick sent word of his digitally squarewave take on the legendary theremin instrument - hmmm, a Squaremin perhaps?

......

The highly portable fold-up case design is hot! Check the source code + related media on Nick’s blog.

Unfortunately there was no picture of my theremin posted? :(

Links:
Original:
http://diyhow2.com/?p=156
Original post on different links:
http://daily.ocular-witness.com/?p=2064
http://clickworldnews.com/2009/04/17/touchless-digital-synth-takes-after-theremin/
http://www.developages.com/touchless-digital-synth-takes-after-theremin/61982

What unexpected things happened when you created your design files?

When I started designing my puffin robot I realized that there is no innovation or real purpose to a little bird running around on the top of a table. So, I thought of something that I would be useful for me. I live in a basement apartment, with one window that gets light. So, when it is time to wake up, it could be 3 am or 3 pm and the light in the room would be the same. So, I figured it would be nice to have the sun shine in from the window and light up the room. This is where my new concept evolved from. I would like to make an alarm clock that opens the blinds so that you can wake up easier. I could not figure out how to incorporate a clock into the contraption on the blinds. And then I thought of having a plush alarm clock that you could hit in the head to snooze and hold its head to turn it off. The plush toy would be the controller for the blinds and would send out the signal to open and close them. Moving his arms up and down would allow the user to open and close the blinds manually. He would display the time through his teeth.

Morning Monster

This little guy acts as an alarm clock. The time is displayed through his teeth. When the alarm goes off, he vibrates and an annoying buzzer sounds. This guy also controls your blinds, so like 20 mins before it goes off, it starts opening your blinds and after 20 mins, your blinds are fully open and the buzzer sounds. You can manually open and close the blinds by moving his left arm up and down. There is a capacitance snooze button that is the top of his head and to turn off the alarm, you must hold his head for like 3 seconds.

Plush Toy Proposals

Annoying Chicken Toy Deconstruct

I have no idea why anyone would buy this for their kid.


Check out the pics.


And some video of only his leg.

Annoying Chicken Toy Innards from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Links for Tech Stuff

Blogarinos

http://www.switched.com/

http://www.ubergizmo.com/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

Events, Conferences, etc.

http://www.techfair.org/

http://limericktechfair.blogspot.com/

http://en.oreilly.com/et2009/public/content/home

Theremin Style Instrument

This battery powered electronic musical instrument is a descendant of the theremin and can be played without contact from the musician. This small instrument contains two infared (IR) sensors that measure proximity. One sensor controls the pitch, while the other controls the tone that is played through the speaker in the front. The tone is reflected by one of seven colors that illuminates the center area and highlights a small indicator located on the top panel.

Theremin Style Instrument from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Serial.print

If your sound does not sound tight and clean. Try taking out the Serial functions. This includes the Serial.begin and Serial.print functions. The serial slows down the chip, so use it to get the readings out of your sensors and then turn off Serial when you want to test your sound. Hopefully this saves someone a headache, as it took me a few glasses of wine to figure out.

Theremin IR Sensor Try

So. I have started the code for the theremin and it seems to be coming out ok. I am controlling the note that is being played via distance. But, the data is non-linear. poop. Ohwevs, when I hook up another sensor, my readings are all over the place. That one is to control volume, so basically it does not work. in the video, it only has the one sensor controlling the tones.

Here is a prototype of the look and feel. To be constructed out of wood.

Sound Control with IR Sensor and a dweens from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Sonic Range Fail

I can not get anything close to accurate out of the sonic range finder using the analog read pin. Does anyone have any tips. This is the values that I got with nothing over it, besides the ceiling, and it is extremely noisy when it should be accurate. The values range from 79 - 21 and everything in between.
On the other hand, the IR sensor is pretty accurate.

Integrated Prototype

I have updated the programming and buttons on this prototype. Thanks to our class feedback and The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda, I decided to make the programming of sequences easier and with less steps. Now someone can walk up and push a button to start programming a sequence, wait 2 seconds to input that sequence and wait another 4 seconds to save the entire sequence. The prototype saves the last two sequences, with a pause in between sequences.

I also worked on the buttons to make them easier to press. The metal washers were not working consistently, so I made yet another trip to the hardware store and found some black rubber washers. These are good because they provide support all around the bottom of the button and contract a little bit to give a "push" feel to the button. I also backed up the pcb board with some wood pieces to support the board so that it does not break.

Check it out in action. The quality is crap cuz I am using a little web cam that has auto focus, so thats why it is annoyingly zooming in and out.

Download my One Sheet.

Passage of Time Final Integrated Prototype from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Prototype Layouts

The following diagram displays all of the correct dimensions and layout for the final prototype.

This is a potential placement and the desired look for the final prototype, white buttons and dark wood, trying to class it up.

 
So far I have begun adding the assets that will be concealed by the wood. I have also completed code for detecting button presses and for lighting the leds with pwm. The next step is to combine the code and have it working in conjunction.

User Testing Prototypes

For this user testing I questioned 8 MFADT students. I showed them two ideas about displaying the passage of time. I then explained each prototype and its functionality. I described the context of each prototype and asked which one they would prefer.

PROTOTYPE 1 - Table Center Piece
Basically, I explained this prototype similar to a center piece for a table top and placing items on the outer pods would alter the light animation that played throughout the smaller pods. For the most part, people liked the idea that this prototype of a function and was "useful." They further explained that this was because the user could place items, in which most people said could be glasses, on the outer pods and the center piece could be a holder of some sort, like a buffet tray.

However, one person imagined the prototype to be of a very large scale in which stepping on the different pods could activate the sequences.

Another person also described the prototype in this large scale format and talked of a large playground toy for kids, in which each outer pod could serve as a place for a child. The children could sit on these pads and spin around the larger center circle.

People also enjoyed the social aspects of this prototype in which people could use it as a tray for food at a table, or a center piece at a restaurant. One person mentioned giving this prototype a clock functionality when nothing was on any of the pods.

PROTOTYPE 2 - Memory Animation
I then proceeded to explain my second prototype verbally and utilized my sketches to further explain my concepts. I asked for feedback on this prototype and most liked the idea of memorable patterns that could be programmed by the user and would play back sequentially.

Some suggested that the animation change or cease after a certain period of time to help keep it unique. Almost everyone asked if it was possible to use more buttons.

One person spoke of creating hidden sequences in which the user must press the correct sequence of buttons to reveal the patterns. Another talked of it like an animation tool. Someone suggested that pulsing the lights shows the "passing" of time better, as opposed to on/off, which would be more like a "change of state." They also referred to it as capturing time, in the sense that it showed what you were doing at some point in time, and referenced a memory in an abstract way.

Preference - Center Piece - 5, Memory - 3
I then asked which prototype was more interesting to them and which they were drawn to. Five people said the first "center piece" prototype, while the other 3 were more interested in the second "animation" prototype. Everyone who enjoyed the center piece prototype liked the physical, practical and social aspects. They felt that the animation piece was something to do by yourself and they would not sit there and play with it. The people who chose the animation prototype were drawn to the fact that you could program the piece and that it would capture this moment in time.

I then showed them my previous prototype to show them the kind of diffusion I had in mind for either of the two prototypes. Everyone enjoyed the diffused light, especially the white. However, several people disliked the red light because it gave off the "warning" or "stop" vibe and thought it may be too strong.

Layout Preference
Regardless of which prototype they chose, I showed them the following layouts and asked them which design they liked the most. This was just a test to see which shapes and patterns the user was drawn to, for application to either prototype.

I had each person pick one from each row that appealed to them the most, and their favorite of the three that they picked. The results were staggered, as two people chose 2c, and the other six people chose 1b, 1a, 3d, 3a, 1c, and 1d.

Target User Descriptions

Student - Anna is a 18 year old undergraduate student at Ohio State University. She lives in the dorms and pursues objects that are small, compact and interesting to add some character to her room. She reads blogs normally, so she is aware of the latest trends. She has a HD lcd tv and she is looking for something to place on the wall directly above it. She does not have much room, but she wants something interesting that her friends can play with when they come over.

Tech Geek - Rob is a 37 year old technology guru, he enjoys the latest gadgets and technology. He prefers a usb or laser pen, as opposed to a standard writing tool. He enjoys explaining his latest tech purchases to his friends and his knowledge of how to use the product. Upon a recent purchase he explores the product and tries to understand how it works, reading the manual and doing research online. While the product is still new he promotes the product to friends and family, but quickly loses his interest as the novelty wears off. Rob would use the programmable prototype by coding his own messages and having his friends decode them when they come over.

Passage of Time 7 Prototypes

I have been thinking about exactly what my project would be used for and I am not exactly sure, so I decided to work on more role prototypes than implementation or look and feel.

Role 1):  Create a soothing light in a residential/personal setting. Create an ambient light to influence its environment, but not become too distracting. Not meant to provide lighting for reading or working. User can also set several sequences to determine "mood" of the light. For example, slow/soothing cycle in a dark room to help fall asleep or a rapid light sequence to help the user stay awake.

Role 2): Make the light and form usable. Place drinks/items on the light sources. Not interactive. The user can determine the light sequences with buttons, but placing items on the sources does not influence the pattern. Minimal interaction and soft light in a dimly lit atmosphere.

Look and Feel (Role 2, Center Piece):

A larger center is illuminated by a diffused white light. This center piece is surrounded by 6 smaller red pods that can be used to support drinks. The glasses atop the red pods will be illuminated red and the light from the led within the red pod passes through them. The 6 outer red pods are controlled by pwm and the entire pod glows red, no concentrated light.

Implementation (Role 2):

The containers would be spray painted white, as in previous prototypes, to diffuse the light. The artifact will have a power cord that reaches the Arduino through a hole in the center item. The outer containers would be attached to the larger center one, and would be illuminated by a single 360 degree led that passes through the center piece. The lights would share a common ground, that would not affect the light that hits the side of the white container. The user could select from pre-defined light patterns via buttons placed next to the power cord. An on/off switch would also be accessible on the outside of the container, next to the power cord.

Role 3): User can interact with the piece via non traditional buttons, altering the patterns of the lights and which lights would affect the pattern. Another ambient light for a dim lit space, but would provide some interaction as the user could "program" the light sequence. A number of buttons could be placed on a larger circular container. A pre-determined button would be used to clear the sequences and to let the user know that they can program a new sequnce. The user could then press the desired buttons in the appropiate order they would like to be played back. This would allow the user to add some interaction to an otherwise static object.

Look and Feel (Role 3, Memory):

The larger centerpiece would be lit via a single 360 degrees led and would not pass through the top. This would create a white light base, that the user could choose to have on or off. This white light base could also be programmed into the sequnce of the lights, via button presses of the "clear/reset" button. The top pods would also be lit by single 360 degree leds and the entire top could be physically clicked. The top would contain 9 red pods that could be programmed into the light sequence. The light sequnce could also be turned off and the white turned on, by programming the red center button (pressing it).

Implementation (Role 3):

To make the button physically clickable, two push buttons would support the top of each red pod, leaving a small gap between lid and base. This would allow the user to press down and the top and physically feel the button click. The led would be placed in the center via a hole in the bottom of the red pod, and the top of the center pod, to allow access to the Arduino with the wires. The lid of the center pod would be painted solid white and the sides, would be semi-opaque. This would block all white light coming out of the top of the white base and would allow white light to pass through its sides.

Passage of Time with PWM + Buttons

Unfortunately, when pressing a button you have to wait until the animation sequence is complete to see the effect of the button press, which is driving me crazy! The only solution that I have come up with is to copy and paste that checking function code throughout the for loops. But I think that there has to be a better way, and I will find it. It's not too bad to do that for this project, but for more complex animations I feel that this way is inefficient and there must be a better solution.

Video Time.

Passage of Time with PWM and Buttons from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Here is the Download Code.

Passage of Time with Buttons

Adding buttons to the passage of time project. I have them sharing the same power source and initially had them sharing the same ground. However, this did not work because one button would trigger the other. A quick trip to the Arduino site solved that. Each has its own ground with a resistor on it. This allows the buttons to read up to about 515, since they are sharing the same power source. Pressing the buttons in different combinations yields different results, red on, red off, white on, white off and if both red and white are on, a little surprise for you.

I forgot to show it in the video, but I have a toggle switch for the power inside the container, which is simply cutting the ground for all of the leds. This means that the Arduino still runs after the power toggle is turned off.

Check out the vid.

Passage of Time with Buttons from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Here is the Download Code .

LED Passage of Time - Prototype 3

On this prototype a majority of my time was assembling the little structure that supports all of the leds over the arduino. I had to figure out how to allow all of the lights to shine on the outer shell, without casting shadows and still have access to the arduino. I built a small platform that supports all of the leds and places them over the arduino while, facing them to the middle height of the outer shell. The yellow led in the center is a 360 white led and gives great diffusion. The inside of the container is diffused using white spraypaint and works well in hiding the guts. I think that combining this iteration with my last one will be my next step.

LED Passage of Time -- Prototype 3 from Nick Hardeman on Vimeo.

Time Based Art Works -- Internets

THE BIGGEST DRAWING IN THE WORLD.
Erik Nordenankar created a briefcase that contains a GPS tracker and traveled around with DHL with specific coordinates. The output contour drawing is from his locations that he visited.  Watch the you tube video below for a project overview, or check out the site biggestdrawingintheworld.com.

DIGG Visualizer

This visualizer maps all of the latest DIGG's for certain subjects. Every time that one is added to DIGG, it is updated in real time. As the time goes on, the stacks get taller and taller. There are 5 options for visual representation, but I prefer the stack version.

http://labs.digg.com/stack/

Time Based Art Works -- Library

Joseph Beuys is a political artist He was a German fighter pilot in WWII and his plane was shot down in the middle of a snow storm in Crimea. A group of Tartar natives nursed him back to health with traditional folk remedies, that included wrapping him in animal fat for warmth. Beuys viewed this event as a rebirth and related his wounds to that of society's state.
One of his projects that I found interesting was titled " I Like America and America Likes Me," 1974. For this piece, he wrapped himself in felt, representing a shepard, and locked himself in a cage converted gallery with a wild coyote for a week. Beuys would poke and prod the animal and a time-based recording of a turbine engine would roar through the room. Once the animal's growling grew fierce, Beuys would symbolize defeat by laying on the floor. The coyote never attacked Beuys and the animal was said to achieve "moral consciousness."

Art on the Edge and Over, Linda Weintraub. p. 178 - 183. Art Insights, Inc. 1996.

Another work that was based on time was that of Jan Dibbets, titled "Shortest Day at Konrad Fisher's Gallery," 1972. For this piece Dibbets photographed the same same detail of the Galerie Ficsher with the same perspective under different light conditions. He then mounted the individual photographs in chronological order on a large card. Displaying the photographs in this manner blurs the line of individuality and the viewer is forced to view them as a whole and change over time becomes prevelant.

Conceptual Art. Daniel Marzona. p. 54 -55. Taschen. 2005.

Toy Fair -- Fav Toys

The toy fair was very large and overwhelming. It contained a bunch of dolls and lead-detecting guns for toys. There were not many toys in the electroncs/high tech category. But these are two toys that I enjoyed.

These guys were on the 2nd floor giving a demonstration of their roller blade inspired contraptions. They were wheelin n dealin, but it looked like it required quite a bit of skill, which I did not have. The foot pad also detached so they could be stowed flat, and fit easily inside a book bag. The guy giving the demonstration was weaving his legs and it reminded me of a snake. Not sure how far you could get in these things, but they looked fun, at least for playing around.

They also had a video of this crazy water skipper. You can check out more of their stuff on their site. (At the toy fair there was  a video of a guy wearing a suit, that rides this thing and casually dismounts onto a dock).
http://www.inventist.com/.

USB Controlled Cars

These cones are powered by a usb port. Once you plug them in, they light up and the little man waves. Arranging them in certain ways, dictates the direction of wireless cars that accompany the toy. However, they did not have a brochure for this toy (or that's what they told me), so I only have this pic from my iPhone which, unfortunately, does not show the car. I like the idea that this toy is powered by usb, but this requires that a usb connection be present. Their site is http://www.wizland.co.jp.  I couldn't find this toy on their site.

I also found a date.

LED Passage of Time - Prototype 2

These are the sketches I made to map out how I wanted to make the prototype. I drilled holes for 13 leds and wire wrapped all of the legs and used a common ground.

Here it is with a light pattern that does not include pwm.

Arduino code.

Nick's Bio

I must have taken this picture right when I to New York, cuz I am really tan. I grew up in Miami, so this winter is my first real winter. I came up with only t shirts, so I had to buy a whole new wardrobe. I received my BFA from Florida State University in 2006. I studied graphic design, 3D animation, and suprisingly only a small amount of web. The best classes that I took were with Stuart Robertson for visual effects. Stuart is a badass and his most notable achievement was an Oscar for visual effects in the movie "What Dreams May Come." The film school is top ten in the nation and our class was working on effects for student films. I took it for two semesters and the second semester, my friend and I did the special effects for Stewart McAlpine's MFA thesis film titled "The Caress of the Creature", which was about a gay sea monster. The run time was approximately 20 minutes and there were quite a few visual effects due to the fact that we had to create the illusion of a cave in a boy scout cafeteria with blue and green screens.

After I graduated, a friend introduced me to Flash and I haven't stopped. I became a flash designer/developer at an interactive agency named WA007. I decided to go to Parsons to pursue my own interests and here I am.

My favorite toys growing up were the teenage mutant ninja turtles. My favorite was Donatelo because if you played with him in the video games on NES, his weapon had the furthest reach. Got em.

Oh yeah. I am taking computation because I am tired of making things for pixels only. I want to bring it out into the real world for more interaction.