Introduction Physical Computing - Fall 2006 / Wednesday

Group 5: Midterm Project

Allistar
Liz
Christian

The first week: Observation

For the first week we must observe an action. We should spend this time watching and recording on the action that we choose to observe.

Thursday, Sept. 28th: This was our first meeting to discuss ideas and decide what action we should observe.

Here is a list of some of our ideas.

Opening a door
Shaking hands
Turning on a T.V.
Walking
Dancing
Soccer
Opening a Combinaiton Lock
Teaching

After discusses these ideas and many possible focuses we decided to focus on Dancing and observe that over the weekend. Thinking about questions such as when do people start dancing, are they nervous, what kind of music do they dance to? We will meet again later in the week to talk about our observations.

Wednesday, Oct. 4th: This was our second meeting. We discussed what we had observed about dancing. Interestingly we each observed different aspects of dance and dancing. Here are our observations.

Liz {http://itp.nyu.edu/~efg227/2006/10/dance_dance_dance_midterm_obse.html}

Week 2: Making a Prototype

Tuesday, Oct. 10th: We had our third meeting. It seemed like we were worried about creating an idea based on our observations. However, settled on something very quickly and become working out the technical problems.

Our Idea

Twister is a game that is familiar to all of us. It has alot to do with motion but what if it had more to do with dancing? What would that game be like? We decided to try and create a musical version of Twister. This game would be played by two people who might like to dance together. Here's what it would look like.

{http://itp.nyu.edu/~efg227/2006/10/heres_what_the_midterm_will_lo.html}

The people playing will step on the circles. If they get the wrong combination the red light and a buzz will go off. If they get the right combination then the blue light will go off and a song with play. The goal is to get the right combination.

Problems with the Idea

We thought we should use pressure sensors to communicate with the arduino. These sensors would tell the arduino when someone stepped on the circle. However, we soon discovered that these sensors are expensive and hard to find. The computer store did have touch sensors but these too were expensive.

Allistar and Liz talked to Dan Shiffman and he gave us some helpful advice. We realized we didn't need a sensor we just needed to create a switch that people would step on. These could be made easily out of foil. It was amazing to realize that we just needed to think about things differently to make it work!

Wednesday, Oct. 11th:

We met before class to work on our prototype.

Sunday, October 15th: It's all documented here:{http://itp.nyu.edu/~cb1591/PComp/2006/10/2nd_prototype_16_switches.html}

Monday, October 16th: Update on our Multiplexer / Wiring Problems: {http://itp.nyu.edu/~cb1591/PComp/2006/10/problems_with_our_multiplexer.html}

Monday, October 23rd: Update 16 Switches all inputted in the Multiplexer not working perfectly: {http://itp.nyu.edu/~cb1591/PComp/}

Tuesday, October 24th:

 So today is definitely crunch time!:  {http://itp.nyu.edu/~efg227/2006/10/pcomp_midterm_down_to_the_wire.html}

Wednesday, October 25th:

 Project Due! Today is the day!
  {http://itp.nyu.edu/~efg227/2006/10/pcomp_midterm_today_is_the_day.html}

Saturday, October 28th:

 Allistar | Wrap up of Midterm presentation | [ http://omorphy.com/ITP/pcom/Midterm.php]

Group5