For this project I wanted to explore the possibility for using voice to text to control Max. After a lot of research and trial and error I found that speech processing is better suited to other programs, like Processing or Google APIs. So the project transformed in to small “performance” piece, where with a little behind the scenes magic, the user can ask to know their future.

Here is a demo video:

And some screenshots:

Gist:

I like taking digital mediums and making them more accessible for untrained artists. I think that everyone should be able to mess around with computers and make cool stuff. For this project, I decided to make a physical interface for the media lab control patch Jesse gave us.

insert photo of the arduino I forgot to take here

Arduino control code

// constants won’t change. They’re used here to set pin numbers:
const int buttonOnePin = 3; // the number of the redlight pushbutton pin
const int ledOnePin = 9; // the number of the LED pin
const int buttonTwoPin = 4; // the number of the yellowlight pushbutton pin
const int ledTwoPin = 10; // the number of the LED pin
const int buttonThreePin = 5; // the number of the bluelight pushbutton pin
const int ledThreePin = 8; // the number of the LED pin

// variable buttons
int buttonOneState = 0; // variable for reading the pushbutton status
int buttonTwoState = 0;
int buttonThreeState = 0;

//variables knob
const int potPin = 3; // select the input pin for the potentiometer
int potVal = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
int mappedPotVal = 0;

//variables slider
const int slidePin = 0;
int slideVal = 0;
int mappedSlideVal = 0;

//variables for ir detector
const int irPin = 5;
int irVal = 0;
int mappedIrVal = 0;

//joystick
const int swPin = 2; // digital pin connected to switch output
const int xPin = 2; // analog pin connected to X output
const int yPin = 1; // analog pin connected to Y output

int xState = 0;
int yState = 0;
int mappedXState = 0;
int mappedYState = 0;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
// initialize the LED pin as an output:
pinMode(ledOnePin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledTwoPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledThreePin, OUTPUT);
// initialize the pushbutton pin as an input:
pinMode(buttonOnePin, INPUT);
pinMode(buttonTwoPin, INPUT);
pinMode(buttonThreePin, INPUT);

}

void loop() {
// read the state of the pushbutton value:
buttonOneState = digitalRead(buttonOnePin);
buttonTwoState = digitalRead(buttonTwoPin);
buttonThreeState = digitalRead(buttonThreePin);

// check if the redlight pushbutton is pressed. If it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
if (buttonOneState == HIGH) {
// turn LED on:
digitalWrite(ledOnePin, HIGH);
} else {
// turn LED off:
digitalWrite(ledOnePin, LOW);
}

// check if the yellowlight pushbutton is pressed. If it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
if (buttonTwoState == HIGH) {
// turn LED on:
digitalWrite(ledTwoPin, HIGH);
} else {
// turn LED off:
digitalWrite(ledTwoPin, LOW);
}

// check if the bluelight pushbutton is pressed. If it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
if (buttonThreeState == HIGH) {
// turn LED on:
digitalWrite(ledThreePin, HIGH);
} else {
// turn LED off:
digitalWrite(ledThreePin, LOW);
}

//check the turn potentiometer values, map them to the bay range
potVal = analogRead(potPin); // read the value from the potentiometer
mappedPotVal = map(potVal, 0, 1023, 1, 9);

//check the slide potentiometer values, map them to the saturation range
slideVal = analogRead(slidePin);
mappedSlideVal = map(slideVal, 0, 1023, 0, 255);

//check switch
xState = analogRead(xPin);
yState = analogRead(yPin);
mappedXState = map(xState, 0, 1023, 0, 255);
mappedYState = map(yState, 0, 1023, 0, 255);

//check the ir values
irVal = analogRead(irPin);
mappedIrVal = map(irVal, 0, 550, 0, 8);

Serial.print(buttonOneState);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.print(buttonTwoState);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.print(buttonThreeState);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.print(mappedPotVal);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.print(mappedSlideVal);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.print(mappedXState);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.print(mappedYState);
Serial.print(” “);
Serial.println(mappedIrVal);
delay(50);
}

Control patch

bpatcher edits

video of working is too big sorry

heres the gist

For this assignment I decided to make a voice changer, I found a tutorial online for a robot voice, so I started there then I explored the [gizmo] object and added  speed and pitch shifter. Here’s the gist, if you have time, record your voice in and play around!

https://gist.github.com/alexesreed/0d02756669b748476983e9fff502652d.js

For funsies you can listen to Trevor Noah do a set as a speedy robot.

Mostly Screaming

As an interaction designer, interfacing the virtual world with the physical is super interesting to me. For this first project I would like to see how Max interacts with sensors and microprocessors like arduino.

I’ll be using physical inputs, like motion, light, buttons, poteniometers, etc. to “dj” a short piece. Kind of like an unnecessarily complicated midi board interface.

The system I selected was the information database, Wikipedia. I started with a simple search term, Signal, and followed what I thought were interesting links from page to page. Many times I have gone down the wormhole that is Wikipedia links, and ended up nowhere close to the topic I started off on.

This particular trip took me from internet history, to U.S governance, back to computer science, to Carnegie and Mellon, to golf, to horse shows, to obsessive compulsive disorders, to polio, to history, to math, to data, to film, to mythology, to national disasters, and finally currency.