tur: blow - final presentation

This is a link to our final presentation

Video of the final product

process of the webpage

FINAL PRODUCT

Photographs by Signy

SIPER - final group brief!

The “SIPER” group has re-purposed parts from a computer mouse with the addition of turbine blades to create a wind driven installation.
We used a photo interrupter sensor to provide speed and direction data. It is combined with a small turbine, to detect the wind pressure from the user's breathing.
The reasoning for blowing input was, to let the user be able to give his energy into the work.

Environmental matrix
Content: Environment
Input Source :RSS
The wind driven installation is finished. We decided to use a black “grid box” and a copper wire to represent energy.

With regard to the Quartz Composer the final visual is designed to represent the turbine blades of a windmill. The mouse is interacting with the screen on the Y Axis by turning the blades of the windmill faster, the faster one interacts with the screen, which in turn is connected to the time-code of the movie. This visualization is designed to show viewers the strength of their personal wind energy, whilst concurrently illustrating the ease of wind energy generation in a wider aspect.

The make of the product

Photographs by Signy

Quartz Composer

Quartz Composer is, and I quote, “a node based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X v10.4 ‘Tiger’ for processing and rendering graphical data.”

Here is a link to this article

I really like those visuals and I think it represents energy, it might help our inspiration for the visuals!

Plain visuals

Imagine if you will a few hundred ribbons moving through space. Sometimes they move as a unit, sometimes alone. Each ribbon exudes a mist of black ink which descends slowly onto the paper below. Actually, perhaps black powder would make more sense, because if the ribbon descends low enough to touch the paper, it ends up wiping the powder away and re-exposing the white paper beneath. The higher the ribbon, the more spread out the mist, the lower the more concentrated.

Video version below, or you can watch the Quicktime for a different image here.

Those images are taken from flight 404. I think those images are beautiful and the 3rd one is very energized and strong. Those visuals make you suck deeply into them, I would like to see how they look like with 1 or 2 colors in them.

Work overview

The “SIPER” group is reproposing parts from a computer mouse with the addition of turbine blades to create a wind driven installation. We are using a photo interrupter sensor to provides speed and direction data. It is combined with a small turbine, to detect forced movements from user's breathing. We want the user to be able to give his energy into the work.

We have almost finished the wind driven installation, only need to refine the form. We decided to use a black “grid box” and a copperware to represent energy.

The interface is still under construction we are making an abstract city that lights up every time the user blows his energy into the work. We are working with Quartz composer and trying to find a java script to control the vertical remote.

w3Schools

I have been using help from w3schools for Javascript. We need a script that makes the mouse go from the top and down again, the mouse only goes in 1 direction with blowing on the fan.

Visual Ideas

How are these images made?

Occasionally people ask what kind of software I use or what kind of process I follow to make these images.

It's a little difficult to answer that questions for much of my fractal work -- the reality is that I fiddle with this and muck with that and then I look at it and I say "maybe if I changed the background more to something like that stuff I did in that other picture but more in a direction of that or, wait, maybe I should put another inflection point there and, hey that looks cool; maybe with some of that scaly texture on it...." and in the end I get something I kinda like.

Really a lot more perspiration than inspiration.


At the core, all of my images tend to use one of the fractal engines out there -- Ultrafractal (for much of my older stuff), flam3, Apophysis, Chaoscope ... the basic shape you see usually comes from an equation. The rest boils down to choices from location in the fractal landscape through things like light and color and shade to subtleties of composition and emphasis.

Then there's a bunch of self-created filters; mostly composed from the netpbm library, but I've also written the one or other ImageMagic-based tool. There is sometimes a certain amount of GIMP work that is put on top of it all.

Experimenting until I like it. A little math, a little art, a little idle play...

Now any one image in particular may adhere to this general description more-or-less closely. An image might, for example just simply come out of the fractal engine just perfectly the way I like it. That is rare, but happens. Luck. Or otherwise (much more often, I fear) I can spend days, sometimes weeks fiddling with some concept and never actually manage to get it where I'd like it to be.

Here is the link to his website!

photo interrupter sensors

Photo interruptors consist of an IR (infrared) LED and an IR detector aligned across a gap. When something is in the gap ("interrupts" the IR beam) the detector switch turns 'off' and when the IR beam hits the sensor, the switch turns on. By using a turbine, we could use the sensor to provide speed by blowing on it!

The photograph and information is from Cee Jay.

Experimentation

Those images are my first experimentation of Quartz Composer! I Composer! I really like those lines, they inspired me when we were thinking of the first idea of our visuals. We thought of having a city build up in lines.

Digital Voice Changer Kit

This DIY Digital Voice Changer Kit lets you mask the sound of your voice by playing with the pitch and vibrato of your speech. Just speak into the built-in microphone, adjust the pitch control, and you can sound like anything from a hostage taker to a mouse on speed.

The kit is just $12.95, but does require assembly, so you need to be electronically inclined. You’ll also need to connect either an external speaker or amplifier to hear your modified vocal stylings.

ULTRASONIC WIND SPEED METER

Using ultrasonic techniques, this solid-state design has no moving parts. This wind speed meter (anemometer) is intended for use in a variety of sports-type activities, such as track events, sailing, hang gliding, kite and model aircraft flying, to name but a few.

Specifications:

• L: 3-1/4" W: 2" H: 1"
• Power Supply: 9 to 12 volt dc (not included)
  (Need a Power Supply?)
• Display in Meters/second, Feet/second, kilo/hour and miles/hour.
• Resolution is to the nearest tenth of a meter per second from zero to 50mph.

Multivoicechanger

The Multi Voice Changer by Tech-Gear brings innovative fun and creativity to a young mind.

Thousands of sound combinations offer a variety of voices such as Alien, Robotic and many more! 10 different voice modifiers!

Children voice changer

Voice changer that once pointed in the direction of sound can change it in to child, animal or adult sound. Unique design with speaker and microphone, volume control and 6x finder scope with crosshair. Requires 4 AA batteries, not supplied. Age 8 and above.

Response to an article

What Puts the Design in Interaction Design?

This is a response to this article:

Is there a design school culture? in which the thread instigator contemplated the difference between designers who went to art/design school and those who did not. Yes you cant hardly compeer the thinking of people that are educated in business or are educated in art/design. Most of the business people are very narrow-minded while the designers are very open-minded and have learned to think out of the box.

Looking back, interaction design was for me a result of a process, not a pursuit of design. I agree with this statement, our blogs are showing our process and makes the final product.

What’s the magic and why should I use it? In other words, what puts the design in interaction design?

My design statement is:

“Design is a personal response to combination of function and beauty.”
” This combination makes a good design!”

Signý Björg Guðlaugsdóttir

“Furthermore, our pursuit through design is to create a good fit between form and context.”
Alexander

A mouse is the best example of this convergence. Designed to solve the problem of interaction with the virtual world, the mouse is one part handle and one part button.
* 1-D—words—which are interactions = our brief
* 2-D—visual representations—which include typography, diagrams, icons, and other graphics with which users interact = Quartz Composer visuals
* 3-D—physical objects or space—with which or within which users interact = our wind driven installation.
* 4-D—time—within which users interact—for example, content that changes over time such as sound, video, or animation = wind + quartz visuals
* 5-D—behavior—including action, or operation, and presentation, or reaction = website of our process and final outcome + video of the product interacting.

UNIVERSAL WALL ADAPTER POWER SUPPLY

This is a practical power supply for all your projects. It provides 6 different outputs between 6 and 20VDC @ 500mA. There are also 6 different size jacks to accommodate most projects and two alligator clips just in case there isn't a jack.

Note: This is not a kit, no assembly required.

Specifications:

• L: 3-3/4" W: 2-1/2" H: 2-1/2".
• Output Voltage: 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 or 20 VDC.
• Output Current: Up to 500 mA.
• Includes 6 different size jack connectors.
• Jack can be reversed from center positive to negative.
• Includes alligator clips for projects without power jack.
• Includes 9 volt snap type connector
• Input: 110VAC

Voice Changer

This kit is uses a Voice Modulator Chip. Change your voice from male to female or vice versa. Add a vibrato sound to voice like the sound used to protect witnesses or anonymous rats on TV. Also includes robot voice. A mic and speaker are included on the PC board, power with a 9V battery.

Specifications:

• L: 3-1/16" W: 1-15/16" H: 1/2".
• Requires 9 volt battery.
  (or Use this Power Supply instead of a Battery)
• User selectable outputs
• Includes Mic and Speaker.