Zeven Rodriguez's Blog

ChronoDot and Arduino 1.0

Recently I updated LadyAda’s RTC Library for Arduino 1.0 and older versions. In arduino 1.0 the wire library changed. It is now wire.read and wire.write. I also found that when you do use the write(0), Arduino would interpret the 0 as an integer. The new wire library does not. Because of this I had to explicitly say int i = 0;

The code can be found here https://github.com/adafruit/RTClib

The red wire power goes to 3.3v. Black goes to ground. SDA (Data), the green wire, goes to Analog Pin 4. SCL (Clock), the yellow wire, goes to Analog Pin 5.

2011: 11/15
CATEGORY: ITP Fellowship
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Sparkfun OpAmp Breakout LMV358

The LMV358/LMV324 are low voltage (2.7–5.5V) versions of the dual and quad op amps, LM358/LMV324, which currently operate at 5–30V. If you need to use a piezo as an analog sensor into the arduino, this is the chip and breakout board to use. Most OpAmp chips operate by looking at 2 voltages and amplifying the difference between them. The chip has a pot that lets you dial in the amplitude of that difference. One thing I noticed is that when I hit the piezo you get negative values. This can be fixed by using an absolute value function. This happens because in order to contain huge spikes in the voltage of a piezo(+30v), the breakout board uses a voltage divider which manages that voltage and sets the output of the OpAmp at 2.5 volts. Tom and I used an oscilloscope to verify this. This is important because the when you hit the piezo it spikes to +5 and to 0. This makes sure that we do not send too much positive voltage to the arduino and negative voltage which would fry it.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9816

2011: 10/18
CATEGORY: ITP Fellowship
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Adafruit Stepper Gear

This Adafruit Stepper Gear has a star shaped post which make is difficult to use in a gear. In inkscape you can go to Extensions > Render > Gear and use these settings to create the star shaped post:

Number of Teeth: 10

Circular Pitch: 6.4

Pressure angle: 10

2011: 04/06
CATEGORY: Stuff
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Commercial Gallery

I went to 2 galleries in the SoHo area. The first gallery I went to was called the Morrison Hotel. This was a rock and roll photography gallery. It was a very relaxed environment. It mostly focused on 60s and 70s photographs. It had all of the main players, Robert Plant, Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, The Stones, etc. It was a small square space with typical flood lighting. Most of the work was environmental black and white portraits with very simple frames. All of the prints are numbered and most where high numbered prints.

The Opera Gallery was the complete opposite. It was a modern art gallery. The top floor was used to show off a specific artist, while the downstairs was more of a general artist space. When you entered the gallery there was a small alcove on the left with a piece which would immediately draw your attention. The rest of the gallery went straight back and ended with a 2 small alcoves at the end on the left and right. The downstairs was a big room with a small partition which divided it into 2 spaces. The lighting was flood lighting which was spotty.

The main artist exhibiting was sas + colin. Who focused on these large fiberglass masks.

2011: 03/21
CATEGORY: Exhibits
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Moma: Abstract Expressionists

The MOMA is redesigning the entrances of there exhibits. The Abstract Expressionist exhibit is a clear example of the new visual style they are going for. They are using large type with high contrasting colors. In this case they flooded 2 walls with this design. I also found it interesting that the automatic doors add this barrier which helps you read the sign when you first get in.

The reorganization of the abstract expressionists had a good flow. The scale of the art and the sparsity makes it overwhelming enough. You still get the wow factor. The designers used the rooms to juxtapose the artists. Rothko and Newman are used as the calm rooms to give viewers a break from the Pollock paintings. One of the main breaks in the flow where the Robert Frank Photos by the staircase and the rest of the photography.

One of the biggest issues I had with the exhibit was the lighting. The lighting felt spotty. I made a weird gradation between the work. It made the art photograph ok, but the light was not enough to light the room evenly.

2011: 02/28
CATEGORY: Exhibits
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Prototype and Production

My thesis system is based on a simple structure. You have an input, it is interpreted and an output is produced. This system is a web application and uses javascript and ruby to create the interaction. For example, when a button or gesture is activated on a touchscreen, it turns on a light. This is how the system would interpret that: When the button is pressed, a message is fired to update the database, program that connect the microcontroller to the internet, is always checking the database for any change in the database. Since we pressed the button the state was changed. The light turns on. In order for this to happen, the user needs to complete a series of steps before this magic could happen. Users need to design, setup, and display their project. There are 3 tiers of interaction with system. There are a series of users that work with the system. The users have projects associated to them. Those projects have 4 points of interaction. The display, which is was the audience sees. The design, which is the place where the user creates the interface. The setup, which is the area that users setup the translation from gesture to hardware control. And finally, the output, which is what the microcontroller references to know what it should be doing, i.e. turning on a light.

Once users login, they will be taken to there projects area. Here are displayed all of the current projects. Users have quick access to view the 4 main areas: display, design, setup, and output. If the click on the actual project, an overview of the project would appear. There is also an deploy option, which sets the project live and ready for general consumption.

Areas of focus(What will be built out for thesis):

Everything except the general diagnostics

Once the user creates a project they now have the option to start designing or setting up the project. In this case we’ll start with design. In this area users will be able to upload code already written or add graphical elements. When a graphical element is placed on the screen the user can drag it around to place it or delete it if not being used.

Areas of focus:

Upload code (due to time constrains building an entire layout area is not feasible)

The setup section ties in the audiences interface with the output control. Here the user will add output components and the characteristics the control them. In this case we have a stepper. The stepper has certain attributes, like what pins its connected to, how many steps it has etc. The will also add the input controls which tells the system this button makes this stepper move 20 steps.

Area of focus:

The 2 loads I will focus on are steppers and LEDs
In the interaction type will be Gesture(being swipes, etc) and Button

The output area will actually be just so the program and find out its instruction(json). Either software can interpret the json or the actual networked hardware can read it. The user will be able to view this code to be able to create a better stream line interfacing with the microcontroller.

Area of focus:

This is a crucial step that needs to be done

Build for thesis:

Online Software (This should happen in the next 2 weeks)

2 displays use cases using gestures
User Main area
Stepper Form
Led Form
Gesture Form
Button Form
Input Interpreter
Output Interpreter

Hardware (Rest of the Semester)

Software to interpret information coming from online
Create 2 turntables
Collect information to put in the display cases ie Vase and Elements or Minerals

These are the 2 use cases:

One is a rotating vase that updates content based on how the user rotates it .

Microfind is an exhibit that that focuses on kids exploring common items under a microscope. The exhibit has 2 modes: a learning and exploration and a memory game. Under the learning and exploration kids can click on cells on the interface to move a microscope over the object selected. Interesting information about the objects and a live view the microscope is displayed on the interface. The second mode is a memory game where kids will have to match an image of an object under microscope. The interface will change into a touchpad which will let the kids move the microscope in any direction. Once they match the picture to the live view, it will advance to the next image.

2011: 02/24
CATEGORY: Thesis
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Forbidden City: MET

I felt the Forbidden City exhibit at the MET had an interesting flow. I think the first room and the projection were the most successful. I think I learned the most from these areas. They set the stage for what made the space interesting. The emperor was highly influenced by European art styles of perspective and visual trickery. This was not apparent if you did not read the placards but was emphasized in the video projection. The 3d models where really nice to see the overview of the space and how it would have looked. Image was used sparingly but I thought that its use could have been pushed further. In some instances like the left hand graphic, image was used in the background but the vases on the raised case made the presentation kind of awkward. This area of furnishing that communicated with the patio was nice because it brought in the natural light into the space. Images could have adorned some of the inner galleries where the furnishing is to give a sense of placement. Some of the placement was kind strange. There was an actual door next to a doorway in the forbidden city next to a throne. In the calligraphy portion the middle case talked about the restoration. This was interesting but seemed out of place when you had a room the contained more calligraphy tools. Over all the lighting was very nice. There was 2 lighting schemes. One was the natural light coming from the patio. The other was laid out similar to 19th century galleries, but with more visible spot lights. I felt that the space should have accommodated for hiding the spot light tracks. The spot lights were used very well highlighting table posts and other artifacts to really show there detail.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: Exhibits
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Traveling Exhibits

In the article, the author mentions traveling exhibits giving museums a possibility to refresh there space. Also mentioned is the fact that museums more and more are lending themselves to this sort of work. I think this might be vital to a museums strive to stay relevant. It helps strengthen collections of museums and provide the possibility of collaborating with other institutions help forge a stronger collection and ultimately a better exhibits.

The traveling exhibit besides attracting people to visit; it helps gauge community interest in subjects. I can also see it helping museums decide on what areas to invest more in. The traveling exhibits can inform museums about new interactions and styles that can help redesigning of there permanent exhibits. With larger museums, they have the opportunity of aiding smaller museums and being able to create a community of knowledge in areas that might not have the access that a larger museum might. Being able to show multiple collections and create stronger exhibits is great for museums because it shows patrons the very best. This helps museums retain a level of quality not possible on there own.

One of the interesting thing about the traveling exhibits is the design challenge they pose. Being able to make modular exhibits that retain logical order is an interesting challenge. When we talk about light design and construction having to decide what to sacrifice becomes a tough choice. What we give up in terms of functionality is a topic of much interest to me. As exhibits become more interactive, how we can automate and make this setup easier to run could lead to some changes on the hardware end of things. If this trend becomes more common place how spaces and the exhibit can transform to accommodate the changing layouts and people could lead to interesting studies on how these traveling exhibits are experienced.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: Exhibits
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Where I am at…..

Skip to how it works if you have read my previous thesis post

Zevensuy Rodriguez

Last semester I embark on creating a interactive art installation controlled by a mobile phone. The main thing I learned from that project was that people are not accustomed to using the phone to control installations. Touchscreens from phones to larger touch surfaces are all over the place. There is an underlying vocabulary(gestures) on how to use touchscreens. Yet, the vocabulary on how touchscreens can successfully work installations has yet to be fully explored.
Understanding how touchscreens and interactive installations can work effectively is the key. For my thesis, I will lay out the framework for use cases and best practices for touchscreens in interactive installation. I will make the interface builder and establishing the protocol by which to talk to the networked installations. By offering this service, designers could start thinking of how to make exhibits interaction with touchscreens more viable. This will create the dialogue between the users and the institutions that use the service.
The philosophy of the project is simplicity. I want users to be able to design, monitor, and simplify wiring of the projects. This allows for a quick turn around in the creating, testing, and implementation phase. When patrons use the system, logging user interactions can quantify what works and does not work in interface and the exhibit. By being able to iterate and collect data from projects, we can further the dialogue and ultimately create an exhibit or installation that fully conveys the designers intent.
What I would like to achieve with my project is be able to let designers tell a story through a user’s interaction with touchscreens and use that input to interact with an exhibit or art piece. For example, by using touch screens from a mobile device we can display information about an exhibit but we can also highlight important objects or parts of objects by letting users control the exhibit. By making interactive exhibits networked objects, we could make them more vibrant, up-to-date, and collect user interaction information.
The main goal is to let designers create an interface that will control an installation. The user will login to their project on the website. Then they will setup what the interface will control, i.e. motor, light, projection, etc. The program will supply you with the code to interface between the online interface and the micro controller. You will have to put to the circuits together and provide a touchscreen surface to display your interface. The site will offer approved hardware and tutorials as a guide. This is the ultimate goal for the project.

Questions to be asked:
What is your favorite interactive exhibit or art piece you’ve made?

What piece you’ve made has had the most sophisticated interaction?

What is your least successful interaction in an exhibit and why?

When do you use a touchscreen for interaction?

Have you used touchscreens to control physical objects?

Have you considered a phones touch screen as a method for interaction? Ie like a remote control

Given the chance and ease, would you redesign exhibit interfaces on a regular bases?

Is remote monitoring of an exhibit important to you?

How it works?
This project uses TCP/IP for communication between the input and output devices. There are 3 layers used project: input (touchscreen or interaction device and the web interface layout), processing(turning the input into output), and output(installation being controlled). All interactions with the system are logged into a database from clicking a button to LED brightness. This allows monitoring and fixing of issues that could arise in an installation. By making individual elements in the system networked object, we have the flexibility of changing interactions and diagnosing issues from a remote distance.

Input
One of the goals of this project is to simplify the interaction with physical objects. I am not interested in the creation of touchscreens, but in the interface that determines the interaction. The interface builder is a way to prototype and deploy the interaction for an exhibit. When you log on the your project, a general setup is required. Choosing the micro-controller, LEDs, motors, video, or any other software/hardware device will give the program an idea of how to setup the output. Setting up your buttons, sliders, or gestures involve you telling them what they will control. For example, BUTTON1 turns LED1 ON or OFF.

Processing
Once done with setting up and deploying your interface, we need to transfer your input into output. Every time an interaction is made, a message is sent out to update the database which then is translated into the output. Since this is a web based system, every interaction can be viewed as a click from a mouse. When BUTTON1 is pressed, it hits a web page which tells the database change the LED1 to ON. All this happens on the same page, thus making a smooth interactive experience.

In order to keep a simple yet modular communication we use a RESTian model. The reason to use this model is as the project grows it will make it easy to interface with other internet input and output devices. In our example, BUTTON1 turns LED1 ON or OFF, we said that it hits a web page that changes the database and subsequently turns on the LED. Normally a website would handle this with the query string: www.controllingsite.com/project/input.php?Button1=LED1&LED1=ON. This looks ugly and though legible makes it more difficult to create a standardized approach to access the system. Under a RESTian model the URL would look like this: www.controllingsite.com/project/input/BUTTON1/LED1/ON. This gives us a logical order and a simple pattern to work with. Virtually any internet device can be setup to control the led. This is because the led is linked to this adddress www.controllingsite.com/project/input/BUTTON1/LED1/ON. When you hit this link the LED would turn on.

Output
As inputs change state or value, they are update on the database. The web application would output an xml or json object. These are standardized formats that can easily be read in by hardware and software. The hardware or software constantly checks these files for changes and ultimately would change the interaction when the interface changes. They provide the blue print for seamless communication between the online interface and the exhibit.

Why touchscreens?
Touchscreens are displays with a layer capable of transferring touch into a location on the screen. Most touchscreens use either lcd or projector to display content. Touchscreen use either electronic or optical sensors to detect the position of the touch. There are a myriad of different technologies that can be used in touchscreens that range in price, sophistication, and size. This has helped propagate touchscreen virtually in all elements in our life.

The advantage of using touchscreens is the fact that because it is a display surface you can change. Being able to update content easily is crucial to the project. The system will give you a project overview. Designers can study usage patterns and update the user experience based on the overview.

Vocabulary
It is important to understand what kinds of interactions translate from a touchscreen to a physical object. Prior to the launch of the Iphone, touchscreens were a tool for corporations. Touchscreen interaction was limited to a stylus and simple finger clicks. Museums used touchscreens for basic interactions like clicking. The smartphone and more importantly the Iphone came into the market giving users a new interactive experience. The Iphone introduced to the masses a series of gesture, click and hold, flick, pinch in and out, slide, and rotate. Gestures is not a new concept. Early Palm devices used the stylus to make gestures. The Iphone increase our touchscreen vocabulary. More importantly it transferred us from the stylus to our finger. This makes us more connected to what we are controlling.

More and more gestures are being explored. Due to current web technology, multi-touch on the web is in its early stages. Understanding simple actions like click and slide effectively are important before we can start talking about multi-touch gestures.

Movies from Star Trek to Minority Report gave us ideas of possible large touchscreen interactions. The Iphone has sold millions of devices but we do not all have a Microsoft Surface in our apartments or offices. The expense of a large touchscreen is rather large. Luckily we live in an age where there is a strong DIY movement. Open hardware/software groups like the NUI Group have create resources and programs that have brought the price point of a large touchscreen from $10,000 to under a $1000. The question is how do we use touchscreens properly?

Understanding how and when to use a large touchscreen or mobile device in an installation is a difficult. Large touchscreens can add a community environment to an exhibit. People can gather around and share, collaborate, and learn from each other. Mobile phones can add a community to your exhibit. People are more introverted on their phones, but there is a possibility to add an infinite number of users with a given piece. Because these are soft interfaces on the web, the possibility arises to tailor and experience from a large touchscreen to a mobile phone.

Inspiration
TouchOSC

http://hexler.net/software/touchosc

TouchOSC is a remote control application that uses open sound control messages to control media. It runs on mobile devices like Iphone, Ipad, and Android devices. One device controls the other over a local wifi network. Open Sound Control or OSC is a standardized communication protocol. It takes a RESTian approach to interface with different programing languages and software. The model for the message looks like this: /servo/position 512. The program on the micro-controller or software can breakdown the message and your code can follow the instruction. Because touchOSC’s interface only outputs these osc messages, it does not have to deal with receiving the message. This puts the onus on the user to interpret the message in their program. TouchOSC offers an interface builder. The builder has a set number of interface modules and uses a specific esthetic. With the editor you can design your layout and load it on your device.
TouchOSC is meant to run on a mobile device and control software or hardware. Its use case is for controlling music software. So it is intended as a one to one communication. A local network is used to communicate from your mobile device to a computer. This requires additional setup which makes the end user experience a bit clunky.

Open Exhibits
Open exhibits is a Adobe Flash based touchscreen interface builder. The main audience is in the educational space, like museums and educational institutions. It uses and open API and a series of modules that help connect to social media sites and sites like youtube and flickr. This could be interesting because institutions can take advantage of there presence on these networks. They would be able to reuse content that has already be produced in there exhibit. It has capability of understanding gestures which makes it able to mimic similar interactions we are used to with our phones. Because it is flash based, you need to know flash to program it. This also makes it difficult to deploy in the mobile space. Because it is meant to interface with existing web content it is not suited to interface with hardware.

LemurTron

http://www.lemurbots.org/PressPhotos/Images/LEMURtron3_Evan_Cairo.jpg

http://www.lemurbots.org/PressPhotos/Images/LEMURtron4_Evan_Cairo.jpg

LemurTron is an robotic instrument orchestra controlled by physical user input. A series of robotic instruments are placed around the room. In the center is a projected interface that changes. A camera placed on top captures movement of the users on the interface. As the interface changes, the interaction with the instrument changes. What is interesting about this project is that the hardware stays the same, but the interactions can change. This makes for the user experience to always be fresh. By making the interfaces web based, more interfaces could be added and tested remotely.
At a talk that Eric Singer from the Lemur Group gave, he mentioned that diagnosing issues was a crucial part for this project since it was a traveling exhibit. He was able to monitor it by placing a webcam in the room and looking to see if the robots were working correctly. By making the robot networked object, one would be able to control the robots remotely. If sensors were added to the robot, you could check on there operation remotely with out a webcam setup.

Bibliography

Sheridan, Thomas B. Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1992. Print.
Kuniavsky, Mike. Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann, 2010. Print.
Geller, Matthew. From receiver to remote control: the TV set. New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1990. Print.
Goldberg, Ken, and Roland Siegwart. Beyond Webcams: an Introduction to Online Robots. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2002. Print.
Kintzig, Claude. Communicating with Smart Objects. London: Kogan Page Science, 2003. Print.

Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic, 2002. Print.

3quarksdaily. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. .

2011: 02/10
CATEGORY: Thesis
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Hall of Human Origins Amnh

The goal of this exhibit is to show the evolution of humans and the growth of human potential through time. The exhibit has a good flow that takes you through human evolution and its out come. The parts that were most interesting to me are: How we got to where we are? i.e. color sight, sound, etc. and The science of how we know these things. i.e. fossil recovery

The exhibit has this sorta laboratory feel to it. I think it it when you come in you have those 2 white glowing walls. I learned a lot about the origins of who we are and what made us how we are. I would have maybe liked this part explored more toward the end in the section that dealt with culture.

The use of touchscreens was pretty good in this exhibit but there were three areas that I saw poor use of space or not extremely interesting information.

At the begining of the installation, on glowing wall you have the tree of life section. The area is nicely designed, but the touchscreen was a little confusing. The graphic tried to explain the origins of life. The origin was not clear in the graphic. As you clicked on organisms on the tree, the flow between the screens was not evident at first. Also Compared to the other side, the family tree, which not loaded with information, there was a lot going on information wise in that portion of the exhibit.

Behind the skeletons in the front, the touchscreens are kinda lost there. I think there could have been an opportunity to project something behind the skeletons interacting with the skeletons.

There are 2 parts that I wish could have been put together. The Pepper’s ghost diorama and the touchscreen about where they found bones could have been intertwined alittle more. I think mostly because having 2 competing touchscreens and then the diorama makes for a bit of sonic confusion. A game element could have been nice for the fossil detective part. Especially cause the diorama has a good flow in the explanation, but I wanted to interact with it more.

The one game element there was was static and there it could have used a touchscreen. The round table with the bones was a perfect space to do a memory or bone comparison game. The game element was not evident either cause the gray on gray type was hard to read.

I never understood why this was blocked off, but now I see that to keep the flow and linearity of history in the round space, a physical barrier had to be put. Another barrier that was interesting was the brain part of the exhibit. The round brains case acted like a rotunda throwing toward the classroom area or towards the culture area.

This music game was really fun and interesting because you are able to experience different instruments from different cultures. I found it was a good touch to keep in the key that the style of music is written in. I liked this area of the exhibit because it explained the how we perceive culture and how we made it.

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