Demo 5: Trickster

The fifth and last of the demo assignments is to make a trickster. This is the most open-ended of the assignments; each pair will need to work out a single idea and work together on all aspects of the device.

The technical learning objective is to use one or more analog sensors in a continuous process. The process might involve creating a closed-loop system, a human sensory extension, a measuring instrument, or any other device involving continuous measurement, equilibrium, or control.

The creative learning objective is to build a deliberately deceptive system; a challenge will be to make the effect appear deliberate rather than defective.

As always, the management learning objective is to find a goal both commensurate with your skills and which addresses the prompts in an expedient way. E.g., if you choose to make a wearable, just use a power tether instead of batteries, we are still prototyping concepts not final products.

Some illustrative examples follow:

1. Picture Frame. A picture frame with an accelerometer and a hidden servo moving a counterweight which slyly unbalances itself every time someone levels it.
2. Guide Hat. A wearable device with two sonar sensors and two vibratory motors with proportional output. Ostensibly intended to guide a blindfolded person along a wall, it also faces the user into any corner. Or alternatively, with inertial sensing, leads the user in circles.
3. Roulette. A horizontal wheel with a direct-drive motor with sensing and control to counteract friction; once set in motion it will stay in motion unnaturally long.

As before, the primary deliverable is a live in-class demo at the start of class on the due date, along with a brief blog entry.

Objectives

1. work with a partner to develop a deception device
2. use one or more analog sensors
3. apply continuous signal processing

Deliverables

1. In-class demo at the start of class on the due date.
2. Brief blog entry including:
   • One or more embedded video clips of the device.
   • A brief paragraph outlining the intended behavior.
   • Original CAD files as a zipped attachment (please, no Google Drive links; SolidWorks preferred).
   • Arduino code (please use legible indentation and correct syntax highlighting).

Prompts

Calling it a trickster invokes many possible mythological archetypes; see Loki, Anansi, Pan, or many others. This can prompt many questions about your device:

1. Is it cunning? Clever? Self-interested?
2. Who benefits from the trick? Does the author expose an interest?
3. Whose authority is flouted?
4. What weakness does it exploit?
5. Can the deception be repeated?
6. Does it fully reveal itself? Or does it reveal a further fiction or misdirection?

Other references:

• Exercise: Resolution and Mapping
• Exercise: Input Hysteresis
• Exercise: MPU6050 IMU I2C Module
• Exercise: Read Ultrasonic Ranger
• Exercise: Read Analog Accelerometer
• doppler radar (part 0575, drawer B15-R3-C3)
• capacitive sensor (part 0580, drawer B16-R1-C1)

Criteria

1. The interpretation of ‘deception’ is left very open, but the device should participate in a process with an articulable principle of misdirection of some kind.
2. The key technical requirement is that the device incorporate an analog sensing process.
3. The sensor system must be coherently integrated with the form rather than presented as a user interface.
4. Other rules are the same as before: live demo in class; cite any sources; properly embed video; make links active; properly format inline code.