Preserve your balloons digitally
Michael Zhou
Description
After coming to the states, I was shocked and excited when I learned there are stores that sell and only sell balloons. For someone who will stop crying if he could get a double-layered balloon outside the hospital before seeing the doctor, that's like the best place in the world. Maybe after the shops only sell candies. Of course, when I still was a child, I don't cry before seeing a doctor now. I enjoyed the satisfaction of blowing a tiny rubber into a large ball. It felt great when you consider blowing a balloon as capturing air, the thing we cannot touch or see. However, a balloon pops and deflates. And you can't get all the colors you want; even you own a balloon shop. So I wanted to create a device that can provide the same physical sensation of blowing a balloon while providing countless colors and preserving each balloon made.
The physical device contains a pressure sensor and several RGB LEDs while connecting to a p5 sketch on the laptop. The size of the digital balloon reacts to the physical one in real-time. The user can press the button on the top to pick a color and then blow up the balloon through the device. To push the button again, users can release the digital balloon they just created.
Since each balloon is unique in size and color, the user who created the balloon will feel the balloon belongs to them; even it is only a digital one. They will be satisfied to see their balloon safely floating in the virtual space. Hence to the title, You can't touch my balloon.