Category Archives: Introduction to Physical Computing

Daniel Shiffman, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Manxue Wang, Projects, Shan Jin, Tom Igoe

Taste Your Drawing!

Manxue Wang, Shan Jin

Taste Your Drawing!

http://www.manxuew.com/?p=376

Description

Project Introduction & Video

Project Process

Mapping your drawing to different kinds of drinks, and then make an Alcoholic beverages for you.

In this project , we want to make a cup of alcohol beverage by mixing the proportionate colors drinks according to the paintings in real time so as to offer a new way to appreciate audiences’ painting’s connotation. Different flavors in drinks may present people’s different feeling and may offer people totally different experiences to their own paintings.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

Arlene Ducao, Introduction to Physical Computing, Karthik Patanjali, Koen Holtkamp, Projects, Tom Igoe

Light Cycle

Koen Holtkamp, Karthik Patanjali

The 'LightCycle' is a unique lighting interface based around natural inputs from outside sources such as the light and temperature of a particular location as well as a way for the user to directly interact with their personal lighting environment.

http://www.koenholtkampitp.com/?p=193

Description

The 'LightCycle' is a unique lighting interface based around natural inputs from outside sources such as the light and temperature of a particular location as well as a way for the user to directly interact with their personal lighting environment. There are four individual settings, each of which have distinct parameters for the user to customize.

The 'Auto' mode reads the characteristics of your local outdoor environment via light and temperature sensors and then reacts to these elements by creating and inverse relationship to the actual natural light outside so when it becomes darker as the sun sets or clouds move in front of the sun the light indoors will become both brighter and warmer.

The 'Simulation' mode works similarly to ‘Auto’ but receives information from sensors placed in a remote location so if you are away from home you can get a sense of the light that your friends and family are currently experiencing or simply just experience the light in another part of the world.

The 'Cycle' mode is a reaction to the static nature of most lighting systems. A manual mode where the user sets the range of change in brightness and hue as well as the amount of time the change takes to occur. So for example, the user could set the cycle to change brightness over several hours if they wanted it to be more of a subliminal presence or a few minutes if they wanted to be more aware of the light changing over time.

The 'Floyd' mode creates a psychedelic light show based on input from an amplitude sensor. The light show reacts to the users choice of music to create a playful and hypnotic visual experience.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis, Introduction to Physical Computing, Nicholas Hubbard, Projects

Historical Contusion

Nicholas Hubbard

Historical Contusion asks the question: when we physicalize, make visible the impact of silence around difficult topics, are we willing to engage, and stay engaged?

http://www.ndhubbard.com/itp/historical-contusion/

Description

This project is an durational performance and installation in which users are invited to read a primary historical text that contains difficult/troubling content (a massacre that occurred in Northern California in 1860). The action of a motor will be driving an axe that will hit the performer with the blunt end, repeatedly, over the course of the event, unless a user intervenes. The user's voice, as long as they are reading, stops the motor. The aim of the project is to interrogate what it means to share history, and to connect that history to the body/emotion through the use of technology (is there such a thing as cyborg history?).

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis, Introduction to Physical Computing, Magdalena Kovarik, Projects, Songee Hahn

Felt Sound

Magdalena Kovarik, Songee Hahn

Build and feel the sounds while you play with colorful wooden blocks on an interactive mat!

http://www.sonihahn.com/pcomp/w8-9/

Description

There are a bunch of colorful wooden blocks on the top of a felt mat. While you place, stack, and knock down those blocks, you can make countless combinations of sounds in your own ways. Several sensors are embedded inside of the felt mat, and each sensor generates different types of sounds. As you place more blocks, more sound will be added in harmonious ways. The felt mat is specifically designed to turn an everyday object – the felt mat- into an unexpected sound playground for those who participate.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

Daniel Shiffman, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Marcelo Cespedes, Projects, Tom Igoe

Postural Awareness – Social Experiment

Marcelo Cespedes

Create awareness about poor posture, using a game.

http://www.marcesp.com/icmphysical-computing-final-project/

Description

Your posture and body alignment don’t have to be dramatically off to affect your function. I choose a game as a distraction to measure people's posture and create awareness about it. I'm documenting people's reaction after they found out that they were being under a test.

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS

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The user is asked to wear a vest in order to play a game only to discover it's an excuse to measure its posture and show him the kind of disease he could get if he continues in that position.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

Dan O'Sullivan, Gregoire Housset, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Projects, Tom Igoe

Well Tap

Gregoire Housset

Well Tap is a system of networked sensors that allow people to quantify their water consumption on a daily and weekly basis.

http://www.madebygreg.co/well-tap-project-update-12-3/

Description

Well Tap is a network of sensors that attach to a household’s various water outputs (i.e. kitchen faucet, bathroom faucet, shower ect) and gives users a snapshot of their daily and weekly water usage. Each sensor is attached to a console that displays how much water they consume in each use and sends data wirelessly to dweet.io after each use. The Well Tap Dashboard then parses the dweet JSON data to visualize it in Processing.

I created Well Tap because water waste is a big problem but it’s a hard one to wrap your head around for those that don’t live in affected areas. It’s very hard to know what your actual footprint is and that actually creates a lack of accountably to oneself and the greater community. By providing people with clear data on their daily and weekly usage, and comparing that data to average numbers for the various household sizes, users will immediately get some context on their water usage. The goal is not to make anyone feel bad by pointing fingers, but simply to make people more conscious as I believe we are inherently good. I hope something like Well Tap could influence people to make small efforts, and in turn, create systemic change.

Well Tap is the first step in quantifying the intangible aspects of a person’s ecological footprint. Everyone is aware of how much energy they use, because of the important financial implications, however, that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be conscious of the other aspects just because they’re not as linked to your wallet. In the future, I think there’s great potential in adding a community element to allow users to compare themselves to colleagues and neighbors. Also, I’m really interested in extending this concept to quantifying waste and recycling to bring further transparency to an area where peoples’ understanding seems to be quite opaque.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

Ben Light, Byoung Han, Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Physical Computing, Projects, Tom Igoe

Augmenting Balloon

Byoung Han

Balloon with tablet will float around ITP revealing augmented version of ITP in real time.

http://getarobo.com/itp/

Description

Planting CG object on ITP, balloon will float around to reveal hidden graphics within ITP. User would be able to plant objects of their choice or browse through ITP to find augmented objects.

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Physical Computing

Hub Uy, Introduction to Physical Computing, Jeffrey Feddersen, Luke Kao, Projects, Xi Liu

Jeff

Hub Uy, Xi Liu, Luke Kao

In a world of increasing diaspora, “Jeff” is an interactive teddy bear designed to let children (ages 3-7 years old) easily send text messages of love to their parents abroad.

http://www.hubertuy.com/?p=2243

Description

We are living in a hyper-global society where diaspora is increasingly becoming commonplace. In the Philippines, for example, 10% of its population, over 10 million people, are living and working abroad. As the numbers continue to grow every year, we slowly see a generation of children growing up without their mothers and a generation of fathers working to support their children who they will never see growing up.

Although social networks and smart devices have made communication with loved ones abroad easier, these platforms are not designed with children in mind. If a child wants to Skype with dad, for example, the child would need to ask mom to open Skype for him. What if we could design a product specifically for children to easily send their messages of love to their parents abroad?

This is where “Jeff” comes in. “Jeff” is interactive teddy bear designed to let children (ages 3-7 years old) easily send text messages of love to their parents abroad. By simply hugging “Jeff”, a child will be able to, for example, send an “I miss you, dad” to his father abroad. The father abroad can also send back his love by simply texting a reply and lighting up “Jeff”s heart.

Here is how “Jeff” works:

At the heart of “Jeff” resides an Arduino with a GSM shield, a SIM card, a motor that moves Jeff’s head and body, a force sensitive resistor (FSR), and a few LEDs and a 12-volt battery to power everything.

Once powered, a white LED will light up to show that the Arduino is initialized and ready to send text messages.

When a child hugs “Jeff”, the FSR will trigger the GSM shield to send a pre-composed text message to a hard-coded number (the parent’s number). “Jeff” will then vibrate and with the motors, move its head to signify to the child that he has successfully sent the message of love.

The parent abroad, upon receiving the message, can simply reply. The GSM shield will receive the text message and trigger a red LED to light up, indicating to the child that his parent has sent back his love.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

Daniel Shiffman, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Materials and Making Things by Hand, Mimi (Yue) Yin, Peter Menderson, Projects, Tom Igoe, Yifan Hu, Yingjie Bei

Moon Phases

Yingjie Bei, Yifan Hu

Moon Phases is a project in which users can input a date and they are able to see the moon’s phase of the date through a physical installation and computer screen, which is both educational and poetic.

http://www.yifanhunyc.com/?cat=1

Description

Moon Phases is a project in which users can input a date and they are able to see the moon’s phase of the date through a physical installation and computer screen, which is both educational and poetic.

The center of the installation is a 4’’ moon sphere made by cement. At the outer circle of the moon sphere, there is a flashlight connected with the gear under the surface, which affects the changing of the moon’s phase.

Users are able to see the corresponding moon phase while inputing the date through three knobs(which stands for year, month and day respectively) on the panel. Also, there is a row of 8×8 LED matrix that displays the date that was input.

On the surface of the project, there are laser etched related informations – lunar month and names of the moon phase.

We think the changing process of the moon phase is beautiful logically and aesthetically. It is not only reflected in the complicated astronomy system and the passage of time, but also in the interpretation of human beings. For example, in my country China, there are a lot Chinese ancient poems about moon and moon phases. We were thinking about adding some specific cultural meaning to it. But we decided to do without it, because we do not want to limit the context and the imagination of viewer, especially those who do not come from the culture we present.

We want to create a experience of crossing the time and space dimensions for viewers through a easy interaction(three knobs). At the same time, inspire the viewer to think of the time, the world and universe that we live in.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Materials and Making Things by Hand

Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis, Craig Pickard, Introduction to Physical Computing, Joseph Mango, Projects

Tilt

Craig Pickard, Joseph Mango

Tilt is a tactile digital gaming and puzzle interface.

http://www.craigwentdigital.com/2014/11/physcomp-final-project-proposal/

Description

Tilt is a tangible user interface (TUI) that combines the benefits of a digital gaming platform with the tactile experience of manipulating a physical object. By choosing Unity3D as the development environment, we're able to utilise the powerful built-in physics engine to deliver realistic and engaging gameplay. Combining a physical interface with a digital application has allowed us to create an extensible multi-layered gaming experience that is, for the time being at least, only limited by our experience with the Unity3D development environment.

The digital application is rear-projected onto the display surface from below. This conceals the hardware and allows the user to engage with the content, instead of focusing on the technology. Tilt's dual-gimbal mechanism provides two-degrees of freedom, allowing the user to tilt the surface around two axes simultaneously. A triple-axis accelerometer determines the surface's orientation and translates that into input variables for the Unity3D environment.

The application that was developed for this prototype has requires the user to navigate a rolling ball through a three-dimensional maze-like environment by tilting the surface of the interface; causing the ball to roll in much the same way a real ball would roll along an inclined plane.

Although the prototype does not boast the feature, for future iterations we aim to incorporate pattern recognition software that will allow the user to place physical objects onto the projection surface, thereby augmenting the gaming experience and allowing the digital and real-world entities to interact with one another.

Haptic and auditory feedback further enhance the gaming experience, creating an engaging and sustained interaction for the user. The gaming experience is designed to be intuitive in its use, and users are encouraged to learn the nuances of manipulating the interface through tutorial-like levels.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing