The Faux Shaux

I really responded to Juri’s idea of a surface that would let a user interact with someone who is far away.  As some of you know, my girlfriend is in Holland, and as great as video chatting may be, it lacks physicality – sometimes you just need an embrace, or more simply, a hand to hold.

The 3d pin model I’ve had as a kid is still impressive visually, and I’d love to figure out how to read in a 3d shape, process it and update one of these pin sculptures to the specifications of the original shape.

After asking around at ITP, it seems I found something everyone seemed very interested in, but also weary of at the same time.

I propose to first figure out a system that would render a matrix of cylinders by scanning across and updating each cylinder (this is a lower resolution version of the pin model).  This means I have to fabricate a machine that can pivot across two dimensions, and then modify the third.

I’m confident that the 3d representation of the data in processing would translate well to the resultant grid, but the actuation of the grid is still the problem.  Since this is a realtime activity, refresh rate is an important factor in making a plausible device but the quicker it is, the more costly it becomes.

Matt Parker, a 2nd year ITPer, has a similar vision for his final project last year, so he had much to say about pitfalls & servos.  As well as insight on the threaded z-axis shaft I was pondering how to implement.

There were also instructables on the graph pivoter that I was describing to my group members…

– More cool how to projects