Noelle Darts  / PCOMP

Week 0: Rube Goldberg

My group got inspired by the cold weather so decided to make a scarf-wrapping device. We started out by brainstorming ways the energy needed to wrap the scarf around could be generated (weight, wind, heat) but we ended up deciding on animals because they could provide a burst of movement and are driven by food/toys. We brainstormed a dog chasing biscuits or a squirrel looking for acorns but got inspired by Nory’s cat instead. Because cats are driven by laser beams we decided to attach the cat to the scarf and then make a hat that points a laser beam for the cat to follow in the direction of the scarf. 

Because the group before us left us with a ball, we decided the ball could push a button which would turn the laser on. The group after us also needed a ball so we made the wind energy created by the scarf push the ball forwards.

In the future maybe we should think of a way to stop the cat from strangling the human :)
I’mmMG



Week 1: Switch Assignment  

I’m currently working on a series where I replicate all of the objects I use in my nightly routine in ceramics. Lately I’ve been feeling kind of exhausted with the routine so actually remaking all of the steps (lip balm, retainers, face wash, face cream, retainers, contact lenses (I wear them to sleep--OrthoK), sleep mask, hair rollers) makes me feel better in some weird way. The whole series is kind of about rituals but also how exhausting it can be to be a person (and a woman).

I wanted to see if I could get some sort of visual feedback from the routine. I set up a switch that requires three steps to be completed before the LED lights up. I attached some conductive tape to the top of my lip balm lid, and my hairclip conducts electricity. The last step of the routine is to gargle some salt water, as the water conducts electricity and completes the circuit.


Here’s the full circuit.

This is a sketch of my messy bedroom I did a few years ago  that demonstrates the same interest in routine/messiness/ritual/exhaustion.




I’ve been thinking about more types of liquids that can conduct electricity. I’m really interested in human-ness and girliness so maybe tears or make-up/beauty products. Last year for physical computing my switch turned on when you put lipstick on. If you guys have any feedback/ideas let me know! 


Week 2: Project Planning

1. Ideation:

• Interest in using visual output to assess whether measurement is correct
• E.g. LED lights up when plant has enough water, light turns on if it’s raining

2. Final Idea:

• Tea dimmer!

• How does it work?
• The arduino will control a temperature sensor which will control the dimmer on a light bulb. When the tea is hot, the light is bright and dims as the tea becomes cold.  A temperature sensor is pointed at the tea, the arduino uses the input to determine power given to LED

3. Inspirations:

• Slow Dimming Study: Rice Dimmer - Yeseul Song
• What happens if lights were controlled by forces rather than humans? Wind and rain controlled lights

4. Bill of Materials:

	desc	qty	Part #	Seller	Price (each unit)
	Non-Contact Infrared Temperature Sensor	1	GY-906 MLX90614	EC Buying	12.69
	Light bulb	1	Undecided	Undecided
	Relay	1		HiLetgo	7.39

5. System Diagram:

• Info on Temperature Sensor (Here)
• Contains a thermometer chip
• Non-contact sensor
• The temperature measured by the sensor is the average temperature of all objects in the field of view
• A relay will be used to allow the arduino to control a lightbulb rather than an LED (this will make the project more useful (LEDS don’t really emit that much light)

• Because the temperature sensor is non-contact, the sensor will instead be pointed at the tea cup instead of sitting underneath it
• Plan for plate that the cut rests on:
• Laser cut

				Installation Time

1. Boil tea
2. Pour into tea cup
3. Wait until cools down, light should dim

• Possible errors
• Hopefully the circuit doesn’t get damaged in transit 
• The tea needs to be hot enough for our presentation
• The tea will probably take a while to cool down, hopefully the light dims by the time we’re done discussing the project

Week 3: Project Planning (pt. 2)

This week we worked on developing our project. We got the temperature sensor to work by soldering it to wires and attaching it to the LED. The wiring was quite simple–the power connected to the sensor, then the LED, then to ground with a resistor. 

Circuit Diagram:



Video Documentation:


For the code, we mapped the temperature range to a LED brightness.

 int brightness = map(constrain(objectTemp, 30, 85), 30, 85, 0, 255);





Hardware:


We worked on a design that would contain the LED and breadboard. It is made up of several different parts: a surface where the cup would be placed, a layer that functions as a light box, a base where the Arduino would be held, and something to hold the temperature sensor over the cup.


We decided that we would use LED strips, which was more powerful than the LEDs we were using and transparent acrylic sheets to make a light box, so that it would be obvious to the user when the lights dimmed/brightened.