For my final project, I will be making a “mechanical worm” in a cage that responds when someone taps the glass case around it.
My original idea was to make a geometric wood lamp shade that had the ability to “open up” or “collapse” that could be controlled using muscle wire or a motor. However, I wanted something with a bit of a better interaction, so the muscle wire and wood actuation will actually be quite similar still, just packaged in a different story.
I’m thinking for my form, the worm will be placed in a little enclosure as below that will either be filled with a mix of natural and plastic items to create this sense of a mechanical/artificial world.
Hardware:
Wood needed to make the worm
Some type of motor/muscle wire to actuate the worm
Arduino and external power supply
Some type of hand sensing (IR camera?)
Software:
Some software needed to use the body sensing hardware (perhaps, Max that sends signals over OSC to the Arduino)
Order of construction and testing:
- create the mechanical system of the worm
- actuate the lamp using dc motors or muscle wire for simple movement
- set up the “tap” sensing feature
- have the worm set up in the cage and create different interactions per type of tap, plus what the worm will be doing in its “normal state”
- have the worm tested in an environment with lots of people and see how it works
- work out any issues
- clean up the final form of the worm and tank