Physical Computing

Physical Computing Projects and Journal

Spring 2001
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Cube Puzzle
Inspired by one of those tchotchkes you get at the dot-com fairs, my partner, the lovely Kim Martin, and I created the familiar cube puzzle (so familiar that I have no idea what this thing is really called) to demonstrate digital I/O. We used foam core to create eight (8) cubes. We then proceeded to cover and attach them using lots and lots of electrical tape. Then we created switches by exposing wire across four different cube sides. These switches are then connected to the breadboard with a red and a yellow LED. When one combination of the puzzle is created, it flashes the light pattern red-red-yellow, red-red-yellow. When another combination of the cubes are put together, they initiate a light pattern of yellow-yellow-red, yellow-yellow-red.

Light the Fire
We were feeling ambitious at the beginning of the semester and decided to create another project to demonstrate digital I/O. This one came to mind as the temperatures in the city drove us to constantly bundle up and look for warmth. A lovely winter combo of a black cotton/rayon blend, this ensemble of a winter hat, gloves and scarf isn't complete unless it's all put together. The hat has a pressure switch in the cuff that is set when the user puts it on. The scarf contains a wire running throughout the fabric that is exposed in two areas, requiring the user to cover up his/her neck by doubling over the fabric. The gloves have complementary switches in the palms, so the user has to rub his/her hands together. Once complete, the switches together set off a brilliant display of red and yellow LEDs, much like a nice fire by which the user could toast oneself after a long day in the chilly cold.

Music Box
To use analog I/O and serial connections, we decided to create a music box. The only music box I ever had was one given to me by my aunt when I turned nine. It had a beautifully lacquered cover with a ballerina that gently circled to a Brahms tune. Our music box is absolutely nothing like that. We started with a Star Wars lunchbox that I got from Odd Jobs for $3. We then drilled a hole in the side for a potentiometer. We then set the stage for our ballerina by placing a base of black foam core on the lower half of the lunch box, covering up the breadboard. We couldn't find a ballerina that would fit in our box, so we bought a little naked baby doll from the toy store down the street for a $1. It too was a rather tight fit (we couldn't shut the box with the baby upright), so we cut a hole in the foam core, making the baby appear as though it were halfway submerged in darkness. Circling around the baby, we put green, red and yellow LEDs. Off to the side of the stage, we inserted a photocell. The potentiometer controlled the speed of how fast the lights around the baby blinked. The photocell was, at first, controlling what emitted from a small piezo buzzer we attached to the box. The more light (i.e. the more the box was opened), the higher the frequency of the sound. No Brahms, but it was neat. Once we learned about serial connections, we had the photocell control a Director piece, otherwise known as the Dancing Baby. The more light the photocell receives, the faster the baby dances. The less light, the slower it dances. We do not plan on marketing this to small children.

Stupid Pet Trick
For our stupid pet trick, Kim and I researched voice recognition chips. We bought the chip kit at Jameco (Part No. 162691 Product No. SRC1) for $49.95. It's made by a company called Sensory and is called VoiceDirect. This particular kit comes with the chip, a microphone, a speaker, three push switches, two resistors and a fantastic guide. We had to solder three wires to the microphone and connect them to the first three pins on the voice recognition (VR) chip. The power source (in this case a battery) are connected to pins 4 and 5. The speaker is in 6 and 7. The "recognize" switch is on pin 10 and the "train" switch is on pin 11. The other end of these switches are connected to power. Training the chip was easy. We pushed down the "train" switch for a second and from the speaker we would hear, "Say word one." The beauty of this kit is the speaker and the clear spoken directions it emits. So, we said word one, "good dog," and it asked us, "repeat," and we repeated, "good dog." It then passed us on to word two, and we continued, "bad dog," "sit," "roll over," "stay" and "kill." Once we trained all the words we wanted our doggie (a $6.95 purchase from Toys R' Us in which we inserted the microphone) to know, we tested if it recognized the words by pushing the "recognize" switch for a second. The speaker prompted us and if we said, for example, "stay" it would respond "Word 5." Then, by using a serial connection, we connected our BX stamp to a Director piece for which I drew different animations for each command. Each command results in a different number (e.g. 244 for "good dog," 246 for "sit," etc.) and the animation is to respond to each number input. Unfortunately, there's something screwy going on with our serial connection, so we've only gotten our doggie to sit when we tell it to roll over. Our wonderful classmates have so far been incredibly encouraging, telling us that's what a real doggie would do anyway.

Rocky, the Bar Code Reading Lobster
This collaboration between Will O'Halloran, Andrew Milmoe, Todd Holoubek and myself is a demonstration of what a combination of hacking and silliness can accomplish. Rocky is a lobster that originally sang "Down by the River," and was purchased by Andrew at Bradlee's for $3. However, Rocky sings no more, now that we've cut out all his voice connections. Instead, we plan on making him sing a much different tune: bar codes. We went to Radio Shack and acquired a CueCat for free, took it apart and soldered a wire to two pins that would then decode whatever bar code the Cat swiped into plain and simple numbers, without any encryption. We then placed the innards of the CueCat in Rocky's head and figured out what motors controlled his tail, upper body and mouth. We now hope to use the numbers the CueCat gets and translate them to MAX, and have Rocky so some little dances to each sequence of numbers. We envision a lobster at every checkout counter by May of 2002.

Final Project
Public Restroom

Physical Computing Projects and Journal
Spring 2001 ________________

Cube Puzzle Inspired by one of those tchotchkes you get at the dot-com fairs, my partner, the lovely Kim Martin, and I created the familiar cube puzzle (so familiar that I have no idea what this thing is really called) to demonstrate digital I/O. We used foam core to create eight (8) cubes. We then proceeded to cover and attach them using lots and lots of electrical tape. Then we created switches by exposing wire across four different cube sides. These switches are then connected to the breadboard with a red and a yellow LED. When one combination of the puzzle is created, it flashes the light pattern red-red-yellow, red-red-yellow. When another combination of the cubes are put together, they initiate a light pattern of yellow-yellow-red, yellow-yellow-red.
	Light the Fire We were feeling ambitious at the beginning of the semester and decided to create another project to demonstrate digital I/O. This one came to mind as the temperatures in the city drove us to constantly bundle up and look for warmth. A lovely winter combo of a black cotton/rayon blend, this ensemble of a winter hat, gloves and scarf isn't complete unless it's all put together. The hat has a pressure switch in the cuff that is set when the user puts it on. The scarf contains a wire running throughout the fabric that is exposed in two areas, requiring the user to cover up his/her neck by doubling over the fabric. The gloves have complementary switches in the palms, so the user has to rub his/her hands together. Once complete, the switches together set off a brilliant display of red and yellow LEDs, much like a nice fire by which the user could toast oneself after a long day in the chilly cold.

Music Box To use analog I/O and serial connections, we decided to create a music box. The only music box I ever had was one given to me by my aunt when I turned nine. It had a beautifully lacquered cover with a ballerina that gently circled to a Brahms tune. Our music box is absolutely nothing like that. We started with a Star Wars lunchbox that I got from Odd Jobs for $3. We then drilled a hole in the side for a potentiometer. We then set the stage for our ballerina by placing a base of black foam core on the lower half of the lunch box, covering up the breadboard. We couldn't find a ballerina that would fit in our box, so we bought a little naked baby doll from the toy store down the street for a $1. It too was a rather tight fit (we couldn't shut the box with the baby upright), so we cut a hole in the foam core, making the baby appear as though it were halfway submerged in darkness. Circling around the baby, we put green, red and yellow LEDs. Off to the side of the stage, we inserted a photocell. The potentiometer controlled the speed of how fast the lights around the baby blinked. The photocell was, at first, controlling what emitted from a small piezo buzzer we attached to the box. The more light (i.e. the more the box was opened), the higher the frequency of the sound. No Brahms, but it was neat. Once we learned about serial connections, we had the photocell control a Director piece, otherwise known as the Dancing Baby. The more light the photocell receives, the faster the baby dances. The less light, the slower it dances. We do not plan on marketing this to small children.

Stupid Pet Trick For our stupid pet trick, Kim and I researched voice recognition chips. We bought the chip kit at Jameco (Part No. 162691 Product No. SRC1) for $49.95. It's made by a company called Sensory and is called VoiceDirect. This particular kit comes with the chip, a microphone, a speaker, three push switches, two resistors and a fantastic guide. We had to solder three wires to the microphone and connect them to the first three pins on the voice recognition (VR) chip. The power source (in this case a battery) are connected to pins 4 and 5. The speaker is in 6 and 7. The "recognize" switch is on pin 10 and the "train" switch is on pin 11. The other end of these switches are connected to power. Training the chip was easy. We pushed down the "train" switch for a second and from the speaker we would hear, "Say word one." The beauty of this kit is the speaker and the clear spoken directions it emits. So, we said word one, "good dog," and it asked us, "repeat," and we repeated, "good dog." It then passed us on to word two, and we continued, "bad dog," "sit," "roll over," "stay" and "kill." Once we trained all the words we wanted our doggie (a $6.95 purchase from Toys R' Us in which we inserted the microphone) to know, we tested if it recognized the words by pushing the "recognize" switch for a second. The speaker prompted us and if we said, for example, "stay" it would respond "Word 5." Then, by using a serial connection, we connected our BX stamp to a Director piece for which I drew different animations for each command. Each command results in a different number (e.g. 244 for "good dog," 246 for "sit," etc.) and the animation is to respond to each number input. Unfortunately, there's something screwy going on with our serial connection, so we've only gotten our doggie to sit when we tell it to roll over. Our wonderful classmates have so far been incredibly encouraging, telling us that's what a real doggie would do anyway.

Rocky, the Bar Code Reading Lobster This collaboration between Will O'Halloran, Andrew Milmoe, Todd Holoubek and myself is a demonstration of what a combination of hacking and silliness can accomplish. Rocky is a lobster that originally sang "Down by the River," and was purchased by Andrew at Bradlee's for $3. However, Rocky sings no more, now that we've cut out all his voice connections. Instead, we plan on making him sing a much different tune: bar codes. We went to Radio Shack and acquired a CueCat for free, took it apart and soldered a wire to two pins that would then decode whatever bar code the Cat swiped into plain and simple numbers, without any encryption. We then placed the innards of the CueCat in Rocky's head and figured out what motors controlled his tail, upper body and mouth. We now hope to use the numbers the CueCat gets and translate them to MAX, and have Rocky so some little dances to each sequence of numbers. We envision a lobster at every checkout counter by May of 2002.
Final Project Public Restroom