A great milestone has passed – Processing & Arduino are finally on speaking terms. What does this mean? One can finally have something they physically constructed control software, and therefor control a computer, or have an intricate piece of software control something physical.
To graph the input voltage of a sensor, we change the type of serial communication from decimal to byte. While this renders the Arduino information useless, we get a much more useful graph in Processing.
this is your byte on drugs
Real-time graphs are much better at understanding your sensor
In this instance my ultrasonic sensor (essentially cheap sonar) isn’t giving me a very broad range of results, but we can always use the map() function for dem apples.
My intention was to use a servo motor to rattle a snake tail necklace that I have. I envisioned a shoe-box marked “DANGER” that hid an ultra-sonic sensor, which upon detecting the close proximity of a curious ITP student, would rattle the tail.
I couldn’t find my snake necklace, so I fashioned a rattle from some plastic tubing, lamp chain & wood scraps (oops, Sara I still have your green screwdriver). This fabrication took abnormally long since the screw for the servo attachments does not like to thread tightly, and after a very long series of trials and errors, I just hot-glued the dang thing.
shake it like a polaroid
Here is the code for the prototype with a potentiometer instead of the ultrasound.
int servoPin = 5; // Control pin for servo motor
int minPulse = 500; // Minimum servo position
int maxPulse = 2500; // Maximum servo position
int pulse = 0; // Amount to pulse the servo
long minValue;
long maxValue;
int midValue=1400;
// flag to determine if we should be constantly moving
long lastSensorReading = 0;
long lastPulse = 0; // the time in milliseconds of the last pulse
int refreshTime = 20; // the time needed in between pulses
int analogValue = 0; // the value returned from the analog sensor
int analogPin = 0; // the analog pin that the sensor's on
void setup() {
pinMode(servoPin, OUTPUT); // Set servo pin as an output pin
pulse = midValue; // Set the motor position value to the minimum
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
analogValue = analogRead(analogPin); // read the analog input
minValue = 1300 - ((700*analogValue)/1023);
maxValue = 1500 + ((700*analogValue)/1023);
Serial.print("minVal: ");
Serial.print(minValue, DEC);
Serial.print(" maxVal: ");
Serial.println(maxValue, DEC);
// pulse the servo again if the refresh time of 20 ms has passed:
if (millis() - lastPulse >= refreshTime) {
// check the force sensor every second
int accel = map(analogValue, 0, 1023, 100, 500);
if (millis() - lastSensorReading >= accel) { //SPEED
Serial.println(analogValue);
// if we are still reading a high value from the pressure sensor,
// determine the next position of the servo motor
// if (analogValue > 400) {
// if (pulse >= 2200)
// { pulse = 600; } // TWO POSITIONS
// else { pulse = 2200; }
if (pulse >= maxValue) { pulse = minValue; } // TWO POSITIONS
else { pulse = maxValue; }
// }
lastSensorReading = millis();
}
//Serial.println(pulse);
// tell the servo motor to move to it's new position
digitalWrite(servoPin, HIGH); // Turn the motor on
delayMicroseconds(pulse); // servo moves to new locale
digitalWrite(servoPin, LOW); // Turn the motor off
lastPulse = millis(); // save the time of the last pulse
While I found the majority of the reading pleonastic, there were certainly interesting comparisons made. Benjamin analyzes the effects technology has on art and, as inferred by the title, specifically how the ability to reproduce the piece augments its meaning, as well as varies the how we regard the medium. It is also briefly mentioned how the aesthetic can change to facilitate ease of reproduction.
Benjamin interprets the advancements in speed of reproduction as a change from the skilled artisan to the precise technician. With his comparison of painting and film, Benjamin describes this recent shift in paradigm.
He uses painting to represent the original work, with an “authenticity,” never obscured from its meaning, having a lineage of owners, a specific locale, etc. He explains that the reproduction, once considered fraudulent, lacks the aura of the original. Does not hold a legacy like that of the original.
He then quotes a handful of early film critiques who’d judged moving pictures to be anti-intellectual and ineffective. He goes on to point out that they were using an obsolete rubric for the new medium. He argues that the painting was to the cult appeal as the lens was to politics. I am not completely sure how to understand his use of the word political here. I want to say that a series of pictures establishes relationships among all the subject matter in a way that a still image does not impose. So I want to believe he just means establishing relationships, and not governmental philosophy, but then he again, he opens and closes his essay with communist references. But how could every film instill a philosophical ideal?
“(Mankind’s) self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism responds by politicizing art.” Proceeded by the “Fiat ars pereas mundus” (let art be created though the world may perish), is this really the Fascist ideal or is this the Futurist ideal? I feel like the better comparison should have been left between the Marxist vs. Homeric ideals.
To further impress basic electrical principles, we setup LEDs in series and parallel configurations on our breadboards and took measurements to understand how components share voltage. Upon hooking up three LEDs in series, I found that they didn’t light, so I assume the minimum voltage required was more than 1.6V. Another observation was that when they are in series, the 220K resistor isn’t needed since the second LED serves its purpose. One other observation was that the power supply I used said 9V, but supplied 12.8V, so the importance of having a regulator in-line is apparent. Don’t fry your components people!
The LEDs didn’t read the same voltage, but these voltages were fluctuating, so it was probably just my timing. Also, I feel that there would be a slightly higher average to the component directly connected to ground.
During Communications Lab, Marianne gave us an Xacti (cheap camera) and 30 minutes to shoot & edit a video. We then kicked back with some popcorn and the fresh vids.
Note: The punchline is “maybe we should have called Xerox”
Jerry, how could you just wake up one day with a pink moustache?
To better understand what makes an interface great, we were assigned to wander the city and observe all the interfaces already being used. Not just identifying the technology, but to analyze how the user interacts with the device and what motor skills are involved. Also, the amount of time spent using it, the intentions behind its use, and the number of people involved in the transaction.
On Monday, 9/15/08, Filippo and I walked west on Waverly St to 7th Avenue, and took West 4th Street northwest to one of my favorite coffee houses, S’nice, for people watching. After we filled the vegan wrap void, we hopped over to the Apple Store to see if the Genius Bar gurus were trying anything unorthodox with their iAppendages.
You Are Here
The stakeout was as follows:
3:46 pm – 4 NYU students – shooting a film on Waverly St & Mercer St. The DP was using a Panasonic mini-DV camera, shooting an actor & an actress, the fourth person bouncing light with a large piece of tin-foil. DP using his eyes to read his meters, make sure subject in focus, hands to adjust settings.
3:47 pm – 1 late-twenties female – on her cellular phone, unclear whether the discussion was important or not, but she seemed anchored to the cafe, suggesting she stepped away from a meal.
3:48 pm – Another cell walker+talker.
3:50 pm – Short bus passes us. Uses feet for gas and break. All senses to navigate and avoid collision.
3:50 pm – Cab passes filled with people navigating phones, possibly looking up their destination. Driver using meter. Video screen in back plotting cabbie’s route (to make sure they don’t drive in circles for sure).
3:52 pm – Cafe Univerity (University & Waverly) – Cashier using register to accept money and provide proper change.
3:55 pm – Washington Sq North – Student on the way to class, listening to iPod and text messaging friend on iPhone.
3:56 pm – Pedestrians adhere to cross-walk LED sign, or at least take initiative to check if it is safe to cross. Clearly not seasoned NYers, if they listen to those things!
3:58 pm – 5th Ave & Wash Sq North – Douche in khaki shorts yelling at his cell about how he’d been wronged.
4:02 pm – MacDougall Alley & Wash Sq No – Construction worker uses crane to transport heavy building supplies to the fourth story of a building under renovations. Using sight and co-workers’ cues while he pulls and pushes levers and buttons.
Hey Lenny, think fast!
4:04 pm – 6th Ave & Waverly – Cell user chatting next to an ATM and a lonley payphone, somehow relevant to the assignment.
4:10 – 8th Ave & Jane-ish – Oh no, S’nice is cash only, what is this, Brooklyn?
4:12 – 8th Ave – Convenience Store – Dueling with a hung-over ATM.
Card Read Error back atcha buddy, I’m gonna beat that $1.85 transaction fee out of you!
ATM screen of doom
4:15 – 4:45pm – S’Nice
So Nice at S'nice
Cafe staff tag-teaming appliances to keep the coyotes from nipping at their ribs. This includes sandwich press, coffee maker, milk steamer, cash register, blender, microwave, etc. Super-nice bunch, tip ’em!
Older man with a Macbook perched at the front table.
Woman responding to a worksheet, sits at her Macbook with USB-Internet device. Seriously S’nice, get some damn wi-fi!
Small tragedies of everyday life.
Filippo has troubles interfacing with his caffeine.
5 – 5:20 pm – The Apple Store: 14th Street
My least favorite of the three locations. Genius Bar using flatscreen displays to show waitlist for tech help. Most workers have a credit card swipe interface to allow customers to make purchases without going through line at register. Truly amazing for the customer experience.
My favorite of the day – Dude using a display copy of a 3G to make personal calls. My curiousity instantly sparked, I called my mother, yes it works. Called my girl in Holland, shot downm domestic only. 1 for 2.
Walter Ong loves to cite himself (talk about shameless self promotion). The first four chapters of Orality and Literacy anthropological account on the transition from oratory culture to that of chirographic or written culture. He distinguishes chirographic culture from use of pictograms or any other symbol based system. Essentially, his meaning of writing is concerned with the first alphabet in ancient Sumeria. Yes kitties, cogito ergo sumo.
In distinguishing the two cultures he addresses the contradiction that is “oral literature,” referring to storytelling. Literature, meaning writing, as per “litera” meaning “letter of the alphabet” is certainly a case of a literate culture describing another culture in terms of what it is not. A case of the landlocked describing the sea as the whale’s road.
The pre-literate or oral societies held the art of rhetoric in great importance. Not only was it a faux pas to recite a speech from a text, but the speaker was to reinterpret or ammend his performance to the reaction of his audience. This is certainly an insight as to how technology has completely swapped values from an outward, performance based society to one so tolerant of the isolated intellectual. It is profound that literacy has made public speaking uncomfortable. We having cultivated this separate identity based on the praise of the scholarly, subsequently enforcing a solipsistic ideal.
I don’t disparage literacy, as Ong explains, without writing, I would struggle to contemplate abstractions from my own reality, and more importantly, you, the reader, would not receive my message unless you were in my company.
Ong redefines adages as “not only used to simply store knowledge but to engage others in verbal and intellectual combat: utterance of one proverb or riddle challenges hearers to top it with a more apposite or a contradictory one.” He then aptly labels said conduct as “flyting,” where he draws parallels to the colloquial exchange we refer to as “disses.” “Nah, yo’ momma so po’ she can’t afford her no cheap laughs.”
The author goes on to define writing as a technology. This corroborates with his point that children are immersed in the more natural, oral culture, giving the example of a child correcting his version of The Three Little Pigs. His incidental (or intentional) comparison to fairy tales illuminates the pre-literates’ use of the hero. Ong states the use of extraordinary characters such as a brave Hercules or a cunning Odysseus were to keep the stories remembered, therefor retold and subsequently preserved through generations. He also notes numerology to aid in an audience’s memory, a cyclops instead of a two-eyed monster, or Cerebus instead of a single-headed dog. Fairy-tales are employing both of these tactics to instill morality into our pre-literate children (think of the gruesome punishment of wrong-doers in all of the Grimms’ tales).
Ong goes on to discuss the invention of the alphabet, and how it was only invented once. He attributes Hebrew’s consonant-based alphabet as its primary pitfall and contrasts Hebrew to the “vocalic” Greek alphabet, having vowels as separate letters. He neglects to differentiate the agendas of the Hebrews and that of the Greeks. The Hebrews are preserving what was given to them by their God, whereas the Greeks, a more secular, granted superstitious civilization, were cultivating an empire. The easiest way to coerce neighboring lands to join forces is to install your culture, which is only possible by first installing your language. It seems clear to me that it was a case of different agendas.
This four-part installation of waterfalls on the East River is brilliant. Oddly, I often find myself defending both their artistic integrity and beauty. They are simplistic structures, scaffolding and piping, maybe the critics wanted something more elaborate? I don’t think that anything would’ve pleased all of New York.
Though Eliasson has his purposes behind the structures, the refocusing NY to its rivers has much more connotation to locals. Certainly they draw attention to fervently discussed environmental issues as well as draw community to our public spaces. But the East River represents far more than your average metropolitan waterway. It represents new beginnings and foreign descent. It separates the 5 boroughs, preserving their uniquity. It also serves as a communal joke – the resting bed for snitches with cement shoes, or a present reminder to filter that tap water. It’s a funny juxtaposition to portray a geographic wonder that is comprised of water that no one would dare drink from and few would swim in.
Brooklyn Bridge's Waterfall
Visiting Brooklyn Bridge Park, you can get up close and personal with the free falling water. When there is a decent breeze, the water mists the entire park, quite a treat during the muggy days we’ve had lately. I’ve always been drawn to water. I find it comforting, always accompanied by a breeze, I find it’s periodicity conducive to deep thought and/or meditation.
While many find the scaffolding ugly or unnatural, I agreed with the consensus until I experienced the Pier 35 waterfall during the night. Driving up the FDR, I approached a front-lit, floating waterfall. It looked as if there were a seam in mid-air, where a weightless river spouted unto the river. The sight was surreal – serene and delicate, unlike the waterfall I encountered in the daylight. I regard each location differently, much like one would toward any natural waterfall in his land. They all have different emotional significance to me, and I love finding them during my no-longer-routine commute.
Originally, my first ITP-related post was an assignment to convey a message to our classmates with two dimensional shapes using Processing. I ended up using three dimensional shapes, using the box() command and the openGL engine.
My first ICM assignment
During this first week with Processing, I was amazed by its versatility, and essentially how little I had to code to get something tasty lookin’. I was especially looking forward to being mentored by Daniel Rozin, the artist behind the infamous Wooden Mirror in ITP foyer. But alas, the ease of ICM backfired.
Looking through the syllabus, I realized that I could teach myself the material with the text and website’s reference section. Let me clarify. I would love to have fun building cool looking interactive graphics, and I especially appreciate the flexibility of the assignments, but I cannot rationalize spending the 4 credits on lessons I’d learned in Mrs. Walther’s AP Comp Sci class, OB what what!
It’s ironic. I expected to drop Communications Lab – the requisite for the eTarded and web-illiterate, as well as soar in ICM. Instead I decided that I have no trouble investing time into projects, but self-promotion has never been a big priority to me. Times, they are a changin’… and there’s another important factor, my classmate and group partner, Karla, told me about the classes she opted into – “Materials and Building Strategies.” I’ve always wished I were a little more acquainted with all of the fun things in the Pearl Paint mega-store. Can-not-wait.
Transferring data from one site to another on the web isn’t so dissimilar to moving. I’ve been labelling all the folders, even found a theme for this site, but still reluctant to put in the time. 8 oz of motivation. Gosh I hate the line spacing on this theme. Eh, CSS mods yet to come. Okay, I’ll try to preserve some sort of chronology to these relocated posts. Feel free commenting on any language you don’t understand, I get accustomed to speaking with peers, especially in electronic format.
Since a potentiometer is just a variable resistor, you connect power and ground, and the third pin is the set voltage. I inserted the variable voltage into an analog input on the Arduino, which is read in as a value from 0-1023. I set a series of conditions that would check the voltage, and change brightness of two LEDs.
Here are the settings I used:
if (potPos < 300 && potPos > 100) //potPos is the value of the potentiometer
Finally had the time to check this board out. Having not touched the thing since class a week ago, I stepped in all the bear traps waiting for the new user. It was hilarious, I had no troubles with the breadboard, meanwhile forgetting to install the driver was the first time burner. Then not uploading to the board was the second mistake. Once Aaron & Maria called out my goober, I was good to go, and clicked my LEDs on/off.
The breadboard itself is old hat for me. I must say, this is a bit easier than getting the PIC programmer running. I’ll go ahead and recount anyway. Connecting the 5V to the (+) and GRD to the (-), gave the board power and a place to ground. Popped in an LED (long leg +) across the two leads, and viola, Rudolph.
Getting familiar with electron flow and the pins on the Arduino board, I used the 5V DC from the Arduino to power an LED on a breadboard.
Open Circuit
Closed Circuit
The next step was to connect a switch to the Arduino, that I would test its state (HIGH or LOW) with my code. If the switch was closed, it would send the 5V back to the Arduino and satisfy a test for HIGH. If the switch were open it would not return any voltage, and be set to LOW. In the code, I set up a conditional that if the switch was closed, light the yellow LED, otherwise, light the red LED.
Once I started using HIGH and LOW values in the Arduino program, the voltage came from the digital pin outs, in this case I used 2 for the switch, and 3 and 4 for LEDs, as per the class example. If the switch was pressed, I’d use the function digitalRead(#), # being the pin I’m listening to. Using a conditional statement, I used digitalWrite(#) to switch on LEDS with HIGH or off with LOW.
Working in the shop was a lot of fun, albeit super distracting. I think I helped troubleshoot four projects or so before even getting my basic Lab completed. Aaron & Maria were having a lot of fun behind me, working on a way to hook arrange Dominos as 3 or 4 sequence combination lock. The problem they were having was that they were sending separate pins to each domino, but they all had the common ground. I proposed they use the analog in on the Arduino. I searched on the Arduino site that the pin gives a digital value of the analog voltage between 0 and 1023, so I proposed that they should add a different amount of resistence to each domino, take readings and write if-statements correlating to the results.
