Inside My Head :: Parsons School of Design (NY): March 2006

Final Project Phases:

Phase 1:
-Figure out hot to connect LOTS of LEDs using a 9volt battery
-Make ideas more concrete (too many "how-why's")

Phase 2:
-Alter LED behaviour with a joystick

Phase 3:
-Implement character into LED pattern
-Program different perceptions and movements

Phase 4:
-Game?

Final Project Proposal

Title: How to control an LED Robot

Background Questions:
a. What do I want to do with this new acquired physical computing knowledge?
b. How technical do I want to get?
c. How can I combine the multiple elements that interest me into one single massive project?
d. Are these items really necessary for me, or will they help society somehow?

Project Concept:
Control a character displayed in an LED panel by using a joystic.

Concept Research:
Domains: Interactive/Computation/Visual

Summary:
The user will interact with the LED display by using a joystic. Depending on the direction in which he moves the joystic, the LEDs will turn on or off and cause a simulation of movement.

Technicality:
The project consists of an LED display panel which portrays a robot. The idea is for the user to be able to control the robot's basic movements (left, right, up, down) with a joystic. The way this is going to work is by programming certain LED blinking patterns into a pic chip, which are going to be activated depending on the movement of the joystic. For example: if the user wants the robot to walk left, he would move the joystic to the left for as long as he want.

The main idea that needs to be accomplished is the fact that the user feels he/she is in control of the robot in a specific environment. The path in which the robot will walk can have certain obstacles, for which the user will need to control the character in specific ways. Let's say there's a block in the middle of the road. The user would need to move the joystick up, in order to make the robot jump the block and walk forward. This would help the user to feel more in control, while at the same time providing fun and entertainment to the user. Picture this as an interactive mini-game experience.

Electronics:
These are the main electronic components needed for this project (this list will probably change and grow as the weeks go by).

a. Multicolored LEDs (200+)
b. Joystick (1)
c. Breadboard (2+)
d. PIC or BS2 (3+)
e. Shift Registers (10+)
d. Other electronic components such as cables, soldering equipment, and batteriest

Most of these products can be acquired on mouser.com

Precedents:
Although this project resembles most of the classic Arcades and Video Games from the early videogame era, here are some of the precedents that somehow inspired me to create this project.

Super Mario Bros, produced by Nintendo in 1985.
The main character is always positioned in the middle of the screen. Depending on the directional pad, the character will react in a certain way, and the background will change, while triggering certain events. This type of game is called a side-scrolling game.

The Disco Bar, by David Worden.
Implemented a set of 128 RGB LED's, 250 feet of cable, and a computer controlled environment to the top of a bar table. The result is a beautiful display of preprogrammed imagery.

LED-FLEX!

Didn't have the slightest idea these LED-FLEX existed! I'm gonna think of possible ways to use it for my final project.

Here's an example of it being used.

Rafa

Rafa
Originally uploaded by Rafael Mejia.

If there is anyone out there reading this, I just wanted to say hi. I hope you're having a great time. As you can see, I am. :)

It's my 26th birthday!

Wait, why am I even online posting this??

Panasonic's Interactive and Intelligent Table

Click me

Instructables Contest.

A proposal to my fellow computation friends from Major Studio

Instructables is having a project contest for March. What do you think if we submit our Chain Reaction project? I'm sure we'll definitely win!

Click here for details

Anyone interested?

Post Traumatic Shock Reflection (4 Questions Revisited)

After sitting down with Tina and discussing a little bit about my final project for Major Studio, I can say I like the direction I might start to take during the next few weeks.

The plan: Build a robot.
How: Baby steps (that means I'll do it by small parts, and eventually have a big finished product).

It worries me a little bit, cause even though I love the idea, I still feel like there's something missing. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I definitely need to think a little bit more and pitch ideas in class. I certainly want to work with LEDs. Make something really cool like the PacMan LED display (see it here).

I'll give it some thought and keep you posted on ideas.

4 Questions

Here is where I shall try to describe what drives me towards making my thesis on a project based on computation and physical computing:

- All my life I've always had a passion towards filmmaking. Even though I never studied how to be an actual filmmaker, I've tried to learn all the theory behind it on my own. I have a few amateurish films adventure, horror, and sci-fi films that I did with some friends back in the day. It didn't really matter if I ended up being an actor, a director, a cgi artist or animator, or a special effects techie, as long as I was somehow involved. Whenever I saw animatronics, robotics, and related things in the movie making process I always thought to myself "It would be so awesome to do that, if I only knew how to do so". Funny thing is, with the little knowledge I have on electronics and computation, I'm sure I can pull it off now.

Basically, when I came to Parsons, I came because I felt it was the right place to be since the program I'm currently in involves technology and programming (which is my background), and special effects and animation (which is part of this ongoing life dream). Once I got here, I took a class which showed me a little bit of what physical computing was about. I immediately loved it, for I saw that I could actually use the background programming knowledge I possessed to create really cool stuff. And that's when I discovered that, right now, physical computing and computation in general matters more for me than the filmmaking process ever did. Don't get me wrong, I love to watch movies, and I can easily recite endless quotes and useless facts about movies in general, I love to hear a good story, and might even some day try to write a screenplay. But physical computing feels much more right to me.

I've been thinking about what exactly I want to do in the physical computing field, but I just can't decide. So much cool stuff to do, I just want to do it all. Let me try to narrow it down to the things that are most appealing to me, in the forms of questions.

Technical

a. What do I want to do with this new acquired physical computing knowledge?

I want to be able to fix damaged electronics.
I want to make toys.
I want to build cool things.
I want to build sci-fi movie props and models.
I want to make robots.

As you can see, I have a serious case of indecision. But let me try and narrow it down to 2.
I want to build sci-fi movie props and models.
I want to make robots.

I really would like to make a thesis project involving any of these two qualities, since they are things that personally appeal to me. In a way, I'd be working with projects that have always been interesting to me, and I believe to be challenging enough to do.

b. How technical do I want to get?

Being sci-fi movie models, these projects mostly involve robotics and some sort of artificial intelligence. I would need to plan the project, test the best materials for it, figure out the circuitry and funcitonality, come up with a nice AI for it, build it, test and troubleshoot over and over. So in other words, really technical.

Abstract

a. Why do I want to do this for my thesis, instead of doing this as a Hobby?

Computation and physical computing ARE current hobbies. So by doing my final for this semester and thesis on these, I'll definitely work on it a lot more while enjoying it. Hence, i'll be more motivated and proud.

b. Are these items really necessary for me, or will they help society somehow?

Well, I can say lots of people that I know love sci-fi and robots, so maybe when they see the work that I've done they'll be motivated enough to do their own stuff. In addition, who knows, maybe I'll come up with a nice new breed of robots that will help society someday.