#28

Cakes!

#27

I haven’t updated this in so long. I guess I’ll give an update.

The Interactive Dollhouses are now at the Dallas Museum of Art in the Center for Creative Connections as of July 17th, 2009. Here is the museum’s article about the show: http://dallasmuseumofart.org/View/WhatsNew/index.htm

Today, I gave a demo at the C3 space on how I created the physical dollhouses.  The demo was part of an ongoing First Tuesday event held by the museum, and themes for this event vary by the month. This month’s theme was Home Sweet Home.  My demo was geared toward children, so I showed them how I made the dollhouses look the way they do. Electronic components were left out of this demo due to the very young age of the group.

I am continuing to develop the ideas that make this project what it is. I want to expand and make an entire town with several different types of sensing capabilities.  A recently expanded workspace has inspired me to go all out.

In addition to the dollhouses, I have also been working on custom cakes.  This is something I have been very passionate about getting into for a while, as I enjoy baking as much as I do art. Fusing the two together only seemed natural.  I will post pictures from my cake portfolio very soon.

Music has been going well. I picked up my guitar again about 2 months ago, and I have been playing every day. I’ve been playing a lot of 7/8 time signature on my accordion. I’m really into Romanian, Balkan, and Klezmer music, specifically the geamparle rhythms. Terrible accordion covers of popular songs are always on the agenda. That’s a given.

As far as making a living goes, I am working at a new restaurant. I love it very much, and I plan on staying for a while. I will be living in Denton for at least another year in order to gain some valuable work experience, as well as to save up some money so that I can do some traveling next summer.

Speaking of work…

#26

Alright…I’m feeling so blah about my ideas that I decided to switch them up.  Actually I’m just going to abandon them for now.  Instead, I’m taking one of Adam’s ideas as well as the Physical Gmail Notifier project and adapting it to something I can call my own.

Adam’s idea was to create a system of high fives that could be shared regardless of location.  As an avid high fiver, Adam often felt limited in expressing victory when collaborating with a graphic artist located in Scotland.  In an attempt to keep up the morale of the project, as well as set up a physical means of conveying a message of partnership despite the obvious geographical challenge, Adam began thinking up the high five machine.  Several experiments with ballistics gel later, the physical aspects of the project were coming together.  However, the mechanical and programming details were left underdeveloped.

Today, I started brainstorming about a new project.  Normally, I try to think of non-physical concepts that I’d like to explore.  What came to mind was the satisfaction gained from emails, messages, comments, page views, etc.  Many people check their stuff often in hopes that they’ll have new feedback, but many skip that step altogether and just have their Facebook, Myspace, etc. automatically email them when they receive a friend request, new message, comment, or picture tag.  Furthermore with the progression of mobile technology, we now link these types of things to our phones. Myspace and Facebook both have phone applications that cost money.  Even I currently have all of my email accounts automatically forwarded to my phone.

The Physical Gmail Notifier project uses this technology of email forwarding to physically notify the user by utilizing an arduino, some python script, and a light fixture.  With the high five project I plan to build (I think I’m going to name it “Hooray, you’re popular!”), I’m taking this idea a bit further.  I want to play up the satisfaction felt upon receiving comments, emails, and other feedback.

I am going to obtain a rubber hand and rig it with pressure sensors.  The hand will be covering a stiff spring that is connected to a sturdy base so that it may sit atop a desk. There will be a piezo buzzer inside of the hand, as well as a system of multi-colored LED’s.  A bit of python script (obtained from the Physical Gmail Notifier project) that can be set to run upon booting your computer will be accessed, and a bit of code for the arduino to organize the functions for the lights, buzzers, and sensors will be uploaded to the board.  Upon receiving an email, the hand will light up, the buzzer will sound, and in order to make it stop, you must high five the hand to activate the pressure sensor.  The lights will change colors and blink violently upon the pressure sensor’s activation, and the piezo buzzer will play a specifically programmed victorious melody. Then the noise and lights will stop.

It will be completely ridiculous, just like everything else I make. I can’t wait. Now I just have to order a realistic hand over the internet without feeling too creepy about it…

#25

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, but a new semester always brings about the need for documentation. I’m holding off on the GPS for a while (AT&T GoPhones get expensive after a while!), however I am still manually tracking all of my locations. 5 months and going strong with no signs of stopping soon…haha. So if you ever wanna be a creepy asshole, check out my site and you can see every location I’ve been every single day for 5 months. I have also been revamping an old project.  I am expanding and redoing animation for my dollhouse project, which consists of a dollhouse rigged up with photocell sensors attatched to a USB keyboard microcontroller which triggers Flash animation upon being illuminated.  The photocells are in the windows of the dollhouse, and users interacting with the dollhouse are encouraged to “peer” into the windows using a small flashlight.  Anyway, I originally did this series of really shitty looking animations using raster images, and since then, I’ve become quite experienced in Illustrator’s pen tool.  So I felt it was something that I had to do. That, and my solder job on the microcontroller is flat out embarassing. I’ll be reworking the project for those reasons as well. I feel like it’s a good, solid project that really gives a good look into the kind of work I usually do, so I’m hoping to get it complete in order to show it or use it as a portfolio piece.

In addition to reworking old stuff, I’ve been thinking of some new projects.  Right now I’m working on another microcontroller project involving the shells of old keyboards gutted from past projects.  I have a few ideas regarding the keyboard shells.  One, I’d like to redefine the functionality and usability of a keyboard. I would like to create a slider board (kind of like a mixer board) that, when the letter is slid to the end, it types the letter.  It would be very rudimentary, and reminiscent of children’s toys and education materials.

Kind of like one of these

…combined with one of these.

Another idea I had would involve the same controller, but instead of outputting text, I could output images, sounds, etc. to create a layered, psychadelic kind of audiovisual experience. It would also be an interesting way to play a narrative. Instead of it all being one piece of video or animation, I could create something in sections that would then be played in sequence with the use of the controller. I could literally cue the music at the certain parts of the narrative with the push of a button (www.sadtrombone.com, www.instantrimshot.com, lol). I was also thinking of creating an interactive dog with this same controller and functionality. Bark, jump, fetch, etc. could all be controlled by this controller.

In addition to this controller idea, I also have a toy accordion that I’ve been meaning to put to use…

#24

I broke down and decided that the only way to get this done right now would be to go the way of the spreadsheet. So I did. Now it works. That, and Sean and I wired a plug in power source for my cigarette lighter in my car. Now when I’m driving, I can plug in that bad boy and let it track my entire route.

Three things I need to get this thing 100% fully automated:

• AVR programmer for the ATTINY84 to customize the text string output by the GPS
• Alternate portable power source to support auto track mode
• Better Gmail filters for mail-to-blog forwarding

Right now the text string varies and screws up the spreadsheet, the batteries do not hold up long enough to track more that 2 locations in auto track mode, and my Gmail account is sending “GPS TIMED OUT” messages to the blog no matter what kind of filters I put on forwarded mail, and it is screwing up the spreadsheet.  I can customize the ATTINY84 code to send out a more predictable string of text for the spreadsheet to read with the AVR programmer, Sean and I are coming up with a more portable power source, and I’m hitting the forums (because I’ve almost accepted defeat, but not quite) for the Blogger site and Gmail filter problem. So after that, it’s in the bag.

#23

After a few frustrating days of reading about spreadsheets, I’ve decided that I want something a little less complicated and a little more streamlined than what the Mail-to-Map guy is using. I feel like I’m so close to finding something that works, but for now, I’m stuck.

Here’s what I need:

• Alternate power source for automatic track mode -OR- a system that automatically sends locate commands via Gmail to the tracker via email-to-SMS address
• Something that will automatically check the message sent back from the tracker
• Something that will take just the coordinates out of the message (as shown boxed in red)

• Something that will plot and save the coordinates on Google Maps

Currently, Google Maps will let you import map data through a KML, KMZ, GeoRSS, or url. This method still seems a bit too messy for complete automation. Sigh.

#22

I’m steadily working on phase two of the project. What I’ve found in my search for pre-existing technology of this sort is this guy who developed a Mail-to-Map software involving a blog, Google Spreadsheet, Google Maps, and KML files. He uses the configuration to track deer, and the results are shown on a map that refreshes automatically. Here is the finished product.

I’ve been setting this up all day, and I have created a separate blog just for coordinates from which the spreadsheet may grab information. I’ve set up my email that receives the command executions from the GPS to automatically forward all emails to the blog, and when the blog updates, the spreadsheet updates. The spreadsheet is then linked to Google maps through settings. I can take the url of the published spreadsheet and get Google maps to import map data from that url.

So basically, it’s supposed to go like this:

Sending/Input/Commanding:
Commander (email) to phone
Phone to GPS
GPS to satellite

Receiving/Output/Mapping:
Satellite to GPS
GPS to phone
Phone to commander (email)
Commander (email) to blog
Blog to spreadsheet
Spreadsheet to map

So far, I know I’m going to have to tweak some things for the blog-to-spreadsheet step. The spreadsheet needs to give the map usable information with which points may be mapped. Currently, my GPS is timing out and giving me grief, so it’s not giving the spreadsheet any usable information.

After I get the spreadsheet mapping on its own, the next step will be automating the locate commands.

#21

I finished the enclosure for the GPS device (with a ton of help from Sean at gibography.com), which completes phase 1 of the project. I currently have the GPS tracking when I command it to do so from my cell phone. For now, I still have to physically copy and paste coordinates from the message and paste them into Google maps in order to track my location and document it. Phase 2 will be figuring out how to automate this process through code.

Some benefits of automating my project:

• I won’t risk wrecking my car trying to send locate commands to my GPS
• I won’t be distracted by my robot in social situations
• Nature walks won’t be tainted by the conscious and continuous use of portable electronic gadgets
• I want to be able to draw something with the GPS’s points plotted on a map as I’m moving

#20

Yeeeeeeaaaah what?!

The GPS is currently working! It tracked it’s first location today while I was in my apartment. Sunday I built it with the help of Sean (gibography.com), set up an email for it to communicate with, and today it’s completely working and ready to be customized for this project. I’m beyond excited.

#19

I’ve set up my mobile device and I’m going to start construction tonight. I am really excited that this is coming together so well.

One thing I’ve noticed on STATUS’s page is that only the first page of the map shows up. Tracking for only a week of my routes is visible unless the “View Larger Map” link is clicked. At that point, you are redirected to the permalink Google map. This is where archiving becomes important. I’ve noticed that the map makes a new page just about every 7 days. I might just have to make a separate map for every week and change out the link on the site as I archive the old map. I will create links for old maps so that the viewer can navigate through those.

So that’s all for now. I will probably be implementing this system within the next 2 days or so.