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Final Project Proposal: Transistor Prop

Project fundamentals

My final project can be a cosplay prop that uses phys comp fundamentals to bring the prop closer to functions/behaviors in its original work, enhance static features, and bring others to engage with the great works that these props come from.

Phys Comp Components: Light sensors, IR sensors, mp3 shields, momentary switches, LED light strips

Things that a prop can be modified to do: light up (different patterns of lighting, color, intensity), make sounds/play dialogue, change configuration (physical changes, like add/remove armor, Psychopass gun etc.)

Besides adding to the list of things the prop does, I also want to think more about making a meaningful interaction between user and prop, perhaps through symbolism, theme, addition of a custom mode/feature.

Transistor Sword:

Red’s sword has several tutorials that incorporate physical computing elements already. I really love this game, and it means a lot to me, so I would want to move forward with this project proposal, but understand if it’s already done well.  

Here’s one good example of tutorials to make the phys comp version of the Transistor Sword: http://chrixdesign.blogspot.com/2016/06/transistor-sword-closer-look-at.html

Chris’s version of the sword has two modes of glowing and is sound reactive. However, she doesn’t use an Arduino, and has hacked the project using circuits and components from OTHER devices.

Input = sound

Output = LED light states

Proposal:

Interaction 1:Install a pulse sensor to the handle, outline where a person’s hand should go.

Input = pulse sensor

Output = LED light strips PULSE in time with heartbeat detection

 

Interaction 2: Corrupt Mode via button

Input: Pressure downwards (press sword into ground)

Output: LED strip color change into corrupt mode (green is normal, red is corrupt), maybe pulse red

State machine would be able to recognize if the sensor or the switch is activated and change sword light color to show sword mode.

 

I will try to think of ways to make this more interactive, but the purpose of this project would be purely entertainment-focused as a cosplay prop. As a prop, its function can remain purely aesthetic as most props are created to replicate the original work’s as closely as possible and supplement a person’s cosplay project. Giving it the ability to respond to outside stimuli will bring it closer to its function in-game, further pushing it semblance with the original work.

 

Other Alternatives Considered:

Overwatch Heroes

League of Legend Heroes

Psychopass gun: Yes, lots of dremmel work

Assignment 5 Final: Twista-Wearable-Synth

I decided to make a crude version of a wearable synthesizer where capacitive touch sensors were placed without an obvious order relating to the notes. The idea was to have the user search for the notes often not knowing what the next note would be. I felt like this would lead to some unknown and interesting sounding tunes. Another feature of this system is that the scale that is played varies based on the amount of light in the environment. I envisioned a darker sounding harmonic minor sounder scale when it is night time and a happier major scale when it is day time.

This project used an Arduino Teensy because of it’s ease in creating capacitive touch sensors. I built the capacitive touch sensors using conductive tape made of Cu. A callibrated photodiode is used for measuring the amount of light in the environment.

Set Up

The form of the project is something I definitely needed to give more forethought. The long wires attached to the sensor were harder to incorporate into clothing than I had imagined. I definitely need to get better at envisioning how I want the project to look

Videos:

when there is light
when it is night

Assignment 5: Vampire’s Thrall

video:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EJIESAEm1SMStlUSgDwj8bMH1EtvPG-tGw/view?usp=sharing

 

code:

https://docs.google.com/a/andrew.cmu.edu/document/d/1ednE3JerYnec_6ge_S1oZaxNwHeQ6SDGRE5l3FL0DEA/edit?usp=sharing

 

The first thing I had for this project was a series of shrieking speakers that shrieked harmonically, the frequencies of which could be raised and lowered with a potentiometer.
I wanted to make a series of tentacles that vacuum pumps would undulate uncomfortably, and would scream when touched.  However, depression was kicking my ass this week and I could barely keep lucid enough to make sense of code at all.  I ended up working with a heart rate monitor because it required less extra steps to make something spooky, because awareness of your own blood running through you is inherently creepy.

I wanted to have a wide variety of subtle atmospheric effects surrounding an alter-like sculpture, which would raise to a more anxiety inducing crescendo if they were reading someone’s rapid heart-rate.  Blinking LED eyes were to be a single element, not the central ones, but this is what I ended up with.

Assignment 5 (final): Sound Form

Video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0lS0mmjvCWPd1NuczBJTm9RbUk/view?usp=sharing

To reiterate my idea:

Sound exists as sound wave but is only perceived by us through vibration of objects. In this project, I want to change the way we perceive and manipulate sound by emphasizing on the motion of sound waves.

As a violinist, I feel the music through the position of my fingers. When I first learned how to find the right finger positions  to play different notes, my perception of pitch carries a more physical form (location on finger board). I am inspired by this idea and want to present that experience through this project.

As the user move their hand across the strings, the tensity/deformation of strings varies. The users will then fine tune the instrument by finding the pattern of pitch change with respect to their finger position. The sound is really unstable, which adds emotion and interaction to this instrument.

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More problems I ran into/Things I fixed:
1. The IR sensor reading was really unstable. I first changed how often I take the data but the reading still fluctuate a lot. So I googled and found that I should add a 100 uF capacitor.

2. Servo almost did not work. After I fixed the IR reading and sound input, I could not start my servo. I played around with the range of servo input and double checked the wiring, and I did not find any error. Then I increased the current and voltage input and suddenly the servo was running. (the arduino god did not give up on me!!)

 

Tatyana Mustakos Assignment 5

I made a skeleton that dances when someone is close

 

I wanted to rig a sort of puppet so that it dances on its own.

I made a skeleton out of polymer clay, with a wire armature so that the limbs would be strong, and so that I could use wire to join the different pieces of the skeleton together so that they would all dangle from each other, and so that there was not much resistance or friction occurring, which allows it to move more fluidly and without as much restriction

After I made the form, I attached a string to the head, which controls the height of the skeleton, and one to each limb for individual arm and leg control.

In order to move them, I would string the string through the cardboard backing(visually separating the skeleton from the mechanisms) and use a servo motor to wind up the string and shorten it, causing the limb/head to rise or fall. I realized that since the servos only rotate up to 180 degrees, there was not enough circumference being used to wrap up a large enough amount of thread to really make a difference or let the skeleton dance, so I  attached sticks to the servo,s and tied the string to the end of them. This makes it so that the circumference that the knot is traveling is substantial enough to change the length of the thread sufficiently, and is less problematic(in terms of tangling) than winding up the cord.

 

Once I rigged the body up, I added the speaker, which plays a tune while the skeleton dances, and hooked up a sensor that detects when someone is nearby. When the sensor is triggered, the skeleton dances by moving his limbs a semi-random amount.

Assignment 5 zip

 

Piano (Assignment 5, Aditi Hebbar)

This is a makeshift wooden piano, with a solenoid that moves when a key is played to create rhythm.

I had originally intended to create a self playing piano, with the solenoids moving each key when required. However, that seemed to pose too many mechanical issues (the solenoid moved up and down too much, and required a lot of room to move etc) so I gave up and used a working solenoid to create some beats instead. 🙂

link to video and files:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDLW7cgDfWoSWZVX28tNUNTRlE/view?usp=sharing

Assignment 5 Final: Bryt: A music (albeit crude) music visualizer

For this assignment, I really wanted to explore the realm of music visualization. So I built a very simple a music visualizer that flashes an LED every time a new note occurs in a given piece of music. The music in the example is J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, aka the classic Dracula song for a little Halloween flavor.

My initial prototype just included 1 LED blinking every time the note changed but my final product now has different LEDs for each given note.

The biggest challenge that I had while working on this assignment was that I has to learn how to incorporate an external servo driver for all the LEDs I needed. The reason that I needed to use this driver was because the ardiuno board itself did not support more than 12 pins so more has to be added.

Below is the link to my project: (video is named: “PLAY ME.MOV”)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxAGrufmmWthV2MwZGlMTmtCVEk