Response: Chapter 10: Logic and Switches

Similar to the chapter entitled Gates (Not Bill) on Code, this chapter deals about how logic gates work. The only difference is that on this one you get a little history of the origins of logical thinking, and how this process became practical for electrical usage. It goes from Socrates's point of view in logic to Boole's discoveries on gates.

One thing I didn't like about this reading is how the writer uses cats as elements on his gate examples so often. Don't get me wrong, I like cats (or at least have learned how not to hate them), but it got to a point in which it became kind of annoying.

One thing I DID like and applaud is how easy he makes logic gates understandable. His illustrations are pretty simple and easy to follow. Perhaps it is that these schematics are much easier to understand than the ones from the other book, or simply it is better explained.

Or maybe I'm just whack.

Response: Chapter 7: Interactive Feedback by Ken Rinaldo

Reading this chapter gave me even more reasons why to love LEDs. Here are a few (most were mentioned in the readings):

Custom LED Dresses by Heidi Kumao.


Lady Dover 2001 by Ellen Grevey


Engineered for Empathy by Amy Young

Cyber Squeeks by Ken Rinaldo

Note to self: Learn how Electroluminescent wires work.

(I will look cooler than this dude)
-------------------------------------------------
Things I needs to remember:
Ohm's Law is V (volts) =I (current in amps) X R (resistance)

Response: Chapter 6: Basic Stamp 2 by Ken Rinaldo

Nothing much to say about this, except that it's a definitely good guide to keep around with your basic stamp.

Response: Zeros + Ones by Sadie Plant

It's nice to catch up on the history of computation.

I particularly enjoyed reading the different A.I. iterations made throughout the years made to fool people trying to distinguish who is the real person and who is the computer, in order to see if computers could actually get to the point of fooling men. It reminded me of the fear most people have of being replaced someday by computers.

At one point, Sadie even talks about Bladerunner, one of the best movies out there related to this topic. The movie clearly depicts how technology can get to a point in which we can't distinguish who is human and who is not, so humans ban androids to another planet out of fear of being replaced.



Ever since I read this, I've felt like watching it again. Its definitely one of the best movies out there.

Response: Gates (Not Bill)

It's good to refresh my mind from my computer science days. In theory, I used to understand how all of these electronics worked back in the day, but nowadays I see the same schematics, and I try to visualize how would I actually build these circuits on my breadboard, and I get confused. At one point the reading got a little bit tedious. I read the whole chapter, and I hope I didn't miss some important concept somewhere along the way. All I know is:

AND is always 0 unless both gates are 1
OR is always 1 unless both gates are 0
NAND is always 1 unless both gates are 1
NOR is always 0 unless both gates are 0

Solid State Relays

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_4/chpt_5/5.html

I'm so Jealous

LED Throwies!!

Where was I when this happened 3 weeks ago?? I know some of the people throwing those beautiful LED's...

Concept exercise :: "traversed space". The Sequel

After having some time to ponder on the previous post, I've come up with some ideas on how to alter the Fresh Tortillas "mexinese" restaurant to make it a cooler place in order to have a different experience.

1) Artificial Smells



Even though their food is freshly good, the smell of the place is terrible. I guess its part of it being an old building. Having artificial scent masks on the entrance would enhance the experience. Picture it, you open the door, have a taste of the awful smell, then put on one of those masks and breathe the exquisite aroma of fresh gardens, or an actual good mexinese restaurant.

2) Table Intercoms



Isn't the idea of having actual table intercoms neat? You just sit down and press that button. You will be able to tell the cooks exactly what you want, and maybe even hear them talk about the gross things they're making back in the kitchen.

3) Conveyor Belt Floors



You enter the restaurant, stand on the automatic moving floor, and it'll move you from the door right up to the counter. You can get on and off according to needed. The idea is for it to move similar to the supermarket ones, so if there's a queue, people don't really need to move, but the belt will move them forward automatically.

Concept exercise :: "traversed space"

Place: Fresh Tortillas
6th avenue between 13th and 14th streets (right across the street from Chipotle).




After a few days of pondering on where to do this homework, I was still undecided until a few minutes ago. I was eating in Fresh Tortillas and I thought "Hey, why not? After all, I spend a lot of time eating here...". So let's start by analyzing the location, and the general flow of people:



If you follow the lines according to the order from the legend, you get a good idea of the area traveled by the general hungry customer. It's kinda cool that the behaviour of the people, when analyzed, resembles a triangle (with a repetition of one of its sides). I never would've thought about actually making some kind of generic shape out of the behaviour of starving people. Its basically like a circuit with electricity flowing through the board. When people come in, its similar to hitting a switch and letting flow of electricity move into the board.

If people actually realized this behaviour, they might be curious to try it to see if it's true, but after a while it might be a little bit confusing or tedious to execute. What if the behaviour was similar to another shape instead of a triangle? Would it make the eating process more fun? Tedious?

Square Shape



Shell Shape

Myron Krueger

One of the pioneers of Virtual Reality. Click here to learn more.

Mercy, Please...

As a side note to the regular posting, here are the pictures for this past weekend's DT Ski Trip 06. If you look at them closely, you will see a certain narrative (especially those involving sleeping dudes with pieces of ice around them, or guys in their undies).

Directing the Flow

Trying to think of an example of flow, I realized I've seen this for the last couple of weeks. Whenever I have a breadboard in my hands, I add an input to it, which is electricity (5 to 9 volts). The output depends on the type of circuit that I've been building: sometimes it makes noises, sometimes it lights up, sometimes nothing happens (mostly due to the fact that I connected something incorrectly), and sometimes I even burn LEDs.

It's really cool to know I have so much control on what the output or result will be depending on some insignificant thing, such as if I connected a resistor in the right line of the breadboard, or if my battery still has charge left.

Thinking in a more abstract way, we could see an example of direction of flow in real life almost anywhere we look. For instance, imagine that we are throwing a party. If we advertise its gonna be fun and that no alcohol is permitted, the party will probably lack a nice number of attendees. On the other hand, if we advertise there's gonna be free alcohol all night long, it'll probably be a party really difficult to forget.

Another example would be restroom signs. While the restrooms are occupied, switch the signs, sit down nearby, and watch what happens when people start getting confused because those coming out are not the same sex.

The flow is affected by adding an input, and the outcome will depend on this.

Mindmap

(or something similar)

Eureka!

First: LEDs






Soon: Servos
Not too distant Future: Crazy Robots

Response: Chapter 2: Electrostatic Glue

I can't remember when was the last time I actually read and studied the topics covered in this chapter. It talks about the atom and its components, among other things. Of course, as scientists point out "much is left to discover and confirm". It's pretty interesting to read about this up-to-date material nowadays, because I can compare it to what I learned in High School and the first years of my BFA, and see the progression of technology and science. I mean, not that I never heard the term "quark" before (not to be confused by the Star Trek character of the same name), but it felt like new material to me. Or maybe it simply comes down to how much attention I payed to my High School science teacher.



But on a more serious note, it's good to refresh my memory on these subjects by reading about the most fundamentalistic aspects of life. I found this chapter quite interesting, and it amazed me how I don't see the topics discussed as something purely theoretical that I will never use. In fact I could actually visualize the flow of electricity in our breadboards and other stuff used in class as a current flow (the free movement of electrons through a conductor).

The chapter also has a nice timeline on lots of scientists and their discoveries. Alessandro Volta (1745-1827),Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836), Charles Coulomb (1736-1806), John Dalton (1766-1844), Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), Neils Bohr (1885-1962), Louis de Broglie (1892-1987), etc.

As a final note, this chapter made me think on possible ways that maybe artists and designers will eventually find a way to make their works and new forms of expression by using tools to interact with the sub-atomic molecular level. This would be something nice to see, but we still have a long way to go, and lots of discoveries ahead of us.

Response: Chapter 1: Connections (Ken Rinaldo)

One of the reasons I joined the Design and Technology department was because I wanted to somehow merge my scientific knowledge on computers with things that I love in life: passions, hobbies, feelings, random moments. In my opinion, this chapter is about this, particularly about the people who probably felt similar to how I do now.

There is a passage of this chapter which I've given it thought to a lot before, and it is when Ken Rinaldo compares us to cyborgs. Not that we're becoming killing machines no longer in control of our surroundings, but from the point of view that we're surrounded by technology up to a point in which we take it for granted. We interact with technology all the time and we're not even conscious about it, from the pressing of an elevator button up to the process of blogging this message. Sometimes I stand in the streets of NY, look around, and can't stop to be fascinated by how far humanity has come in terms of achievements and technology. Miles and miles of buildings, lights, circuits, pipes, cables, traffic, etc. An average NY building has hundreds of offices, and each office has a few computers, telephones, electricity, desks, and so on. Each one of these things has its order, a process and a reason for being there. And that's only a building.

One topic that catched my attention was when Rinaldo talked about Haptics, which is the science of using computers with sensors to give humans the sense that they can touch and feel things. Before reading this article, I had no idea this was an official science. I've always been interested in these interfaces, especially when I think on how it would enhance your experience when watching a movie or playing a game. Who knows, this might be the area I'll explore in the following weeks.

I particularly liked reading about Amy Youngs's project "Rearming the Spineless Opuntia", which consists of a hybrid cactus connected to a metal armor filled with spikes which protect it from anyone around it. The plant itself has been genetically altered to not have a defense mechanism of its own, thus depending on the armor to survive. More information on this project can be found here. Click here to see all of her projects.

Hopefully before I'm done with my MFA, I'll build a robot for the department that might do some weird cool things like greet people who pass him by. Or a droid like R2D2, and then I'll program him to repeat a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi over and over. There goes the first Star Wars refence... but hey, at least I'm having fun!

Observing the world around me

If I had the power to control and/or manipulate the world around me, these are a few things I would do:

1) Subway Flow: Maybe its one of my pet peeves but I can't stand it when a subway train stops and a multitude of people get in front of the door, blocking any space for those passengers who want to get off. I know I know, people want to get good seats, and it's a race against the other door "team". But what this does is annoy the people trying to get off the train, and make the whole process slower and more tedious.

My Solution: Set up a door for entering the train, and another one for exiting. This would create a nice flow (if people would actually play along).

Sci-fi Solution: Build a forcefield where the yellow lines are drawn on the platform floor. They would only get deactivated after all the passengers in the train have gotten off. This way people won't fall off to the tracks, they won't throw trash, and will leave some space between the train doors and the platform so that passengers might get off with some space.


2) Intelligent Elevator: Has it ever happened to you that you press an elevator button, and then decide we won't get into the elevator after all? There's no way of telling the elevator not to stop. Sometimes this annoys people who are anxious to get to their floor, and have to wait while the elevator stops in a floor with no one waiting.

My Solution:
a) Make the elevator button act as an on/off switch, so that you can actually cancel the action of going to a floor.
b) Build a device to know if people are standing outside the elevator (motion capture, infrared, etc).


3) The Truman Show Experience: Sometimes I feel like life is a big Sitcom. Maybe I've watched a lot of movies, or maybe I have a really big imagination. So thinking about this, it makes me wonder how could I change life to make it more sitcom-ish. Here's a small list:

a) everyone has a catchy phrase whenever they enter a room
b) whacky neighbor
c) someone has a BIG problem every day
d) someone has a personal dance people love
e) no matter how lame a joke is, you hear laughs everywhere
f) everyone is hot and sexy
etc...