hjc309’s blog

Final Project “Tea Table”

December 18, 2007 on 3:44 am | In Physical Computing |

The tea table was the product of our imagination and our technical learning from this course. After a lot of hard work and ingenuity, we finally realized the fruition of our efforts. We created a link between the user, the technology and the Asian culture we displayed.
There were many technical difficulties with this project. We had to paint it multiple times. We had to create ripple effects that made it look like the fish were swimming. We accomplished this with the processing switches. We learned how to do fade in and fade outs with the LEDs through the FSR value.
The problem was to make the table look accurate to our culture, and to work as well. It was interesting to see how our technical demands had an impact on the creative element of the project. For example, after much discussion, we decided to make a “pond” with LED flowers.
AMS helped us cut the table, but we made the rest of it ourselves. Working with FSR was necessary to create the effect of the fade in and outs. Our goal was to let the LEDs fade in when people start to fill a cup with water, then fade out when they lifted a cup. The LEDs were programmed to fade in and out from sensors at the bottom of the cups. This also allows people to have some light if the tea party was in a darkly lit atmosphere.
The LEDs were programmed to fade out to let people know they could stop pouring the water.
Four switches were placed at each corner of the table to cause a ripple reaction in the pond, as if fish were moving to the approaching movement of people. Then the LCD monitor in the middle of the table shows the fish swimming as a group. As they press various switches, the fish run away from the movement and cause ripples.
This tea table will be a source of pride for me when I share it with my family and friends. They will see how I combined my respect for my native culture with my technical learning in the States.

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