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Waiting for components to arrive, Have churned through a bunch of the coding so when the components turn up will be able  to calibrate.

Looking forward to the tutorial tomorrow which will let this device be linked to the flash environment.

An abstract approach to the effect people have on there environment, where the environment is adversely effect the more the puppet is used.

By bending and pressing the puppet users are able to disrupt the tranquil rural scene on display.

Parts list include, bend sensors and pressure sensors.

Commenting on the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this concepts look as the clean up process of cleaning the oil off the ocean.

Users interact with the viral Gulf leak by pressing on the dirty areas of ocean as fast as they can, the longer they wait the worse the spill gets and the more damage is done to the virtual environment.

Parts list include, many 3mm blue leds in a matrix, several led push buttons.

A play on our desire for monetary rewards all from humble farm yard beginnings piggy banks begins to crave more an more money, and the more he gets the more he craves.

Users can interact with piggy banks by giving him money and by nudging him in the right direction or shaking up his world.

Parts list include photo interrupter, accelerometer and pressure sensors.

For the first project of tangible media we are tasked with creaking an interactive environment or character as well as the interface with which to interact with it.

To begin with I plan to go through the components I already have, as most of my course related costs is long gone now, and i have some experience using most of these components.

Controllers:
Arduino Duemilanove
Arduino Mega
Arduino Lillypad

Components:
WiFly Ethernet board
Ethernet Shield
7 Seg Display
4 digit 7 seg display
4 digit 7 seg display with controller
Slide resistor
buttons
Leds
accelerometer
Step motor
Step motor controller
12V battery
Resistors
Vibration sensor
Motors
Photodetector
Bread board

For this the first project for Telematics were to create a 3-5 second special effect shot of a face.

Initial brainstorming looking at going decomposing zombie, feline cat smile, something crawling beneath the skin, a really veiney drained face, texture transformation, rockey water etc or a glyph cover face.

Well handin day is upon us and what a journey its been, From the delays with customs, Scourowing op shops for shoes and finally getting our skates its definitely been a memorable project.

For our handin we were able to implement all the functions we set out to and a few extra more refined ones. Mid way through we decide to and an accelerometer to the shoe to compliment and drive our leds and vibration motors. This turned out to be a great choice as we used it to drive alot of our functions and a provide a more interactive experience.

Im really happy with the work I was able to do during this project and the team I was lucky enough to be a part of Niko and Amy were both really great to work with and we all had a good mix of really complimentary skills with Amy able to sew us innards for our shoes and solder really consistently. Niko and I both did a lot on the code though I focused on the electronic side of it a bit more, creating the circuit diagrams and planning that the regulators and resistors required to keep everything running smoothly. We all had a go In the workshop preparing the shoes so we could install all the required tech.

For future development of this shoe I would really like to implement a pair system which we weren’t able to do mostly due to the cost of components required. Also bringing  in extra functionality through more leds and possibly sounds could be quite effective and really add to the toy aesthetic.

For the presentations today we made a short add that shows off our shoes in action as it is unlikely that Niko will be able to safely reach the speed required to trigger many of our functions in the digital media lab.

So finally got around to trying to solder the IC today. Something we had been putting off for a while because of its size. Niko and I managed to get it working in the end, Till one of the legs snapped and we had to use a new IC. Luckly we brought spares this time after learning from last project.Turns out that sparkfun also does a breakout board for this, which would have made it much easier to solder too and attach in the circuit.

We were having a problem where by we couldn’t calibrate the battery charge level because it required the usb to be Pluged in and with the battery present at the same time this would have blown the lillypad.

By changing the layout of our circuit slightly and adding a on/off switch. This means that we can read the battery charge level without actually having it power the lillypad. So we can calibrate the battery’s charge range and therefore give a more accurate read out of its charge level to the wearer.

Took the shoes down to the workshop to drill out the rubber area to mount the lillypad. This space should help hold the lillypad firmly so that it wont be damaged by the wearer jumping about in the skates and should also make it easier to attach all the components to.