2010 Fall, Thesis Studio

Wish We Were Here

By Ryan | Published August 30, 2010

As part of preparations for Thesis, this summer we were asked to put together 10 projects that explored concepts and interests we have. This piece was one of a few I did, and you can see a full set of Thesis Projects here.

The goals for this project are to provide misinformation in regards to a recent pervasive mobile device, the iPhone 4, encourage people to think beyond what is provided, and begin to ask for more environmentally responsible updates to their daily consumables. The means of accomplishing this is through video, sound, and an accompanying website.

By providing an “instructable-based” tutorial on how to charge an iPhone using this new renewable energy technique as well as a description of why this is important, the hope is that consumers of energy will understand making small changes like this will make a large impact on general energy consumption. With over 4.1 billion global mobile subscribers (Guardian), makers of these mobile devices need to begin considering the impact they can make with simple renewable energy considerations in their designs, their choices, and their manufacturing.

In this video, there are several demonstrations of how to charge an iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS by shaking or spinning it. Similar to self-winding watches, the video shows the user of this phone able to charge it with motion.

With responses such as this from the Youtube posting, I feel that the project has been successful in providing misinformation in such a way that people are thinking beyond what is provided, but the jury is still out as to whether or not the viewers are thinking about environmental issues and how they apply to their mobile devices.


I also created an accompanying website, called wishwewerehere.org. Using a variation of the Pink Floyd album and its imagery, I am hoping to make a positive introduction of how I see our current situation and where our current choices may lead us. This video is the first of a series of “consciousness” pieces that will describe how I would like to see the design community address our growing need to be environmentally aware in our projects.

Tagged | Leave a comment
2010 Summer, China

China!

By Ryan | Published July 5, 2010

Just back from my travels in China, and I have to say that if you are able in this lifetime to see what is going on over there, go buy your tickets now and get over there. I’ll be doing a number of posts in the coming week with updates on the work that I did while I was there as well as my own personal experiences, but in the meantime, you can check out a full set of photos here.

Hope everyone had a safe 4th of July!

Tagged , | Leave a comment
2010 Spring, Visual Music Studio

Visual Music Studio – Final Project

By Ryan | Published May 10, 2010

Ryan Raffa, Visuals and Sound Editing
Spencer Snyder, Composer
Mark Lev

Through the manipulation of public domain film and sound composition, we are investigating the meaning and use of gesture as it relates to human interaction. By using film from the late 1940′s and 1950′s, which often times contain exaggerated movements from the actors to express a point, the element of memory and nostalgia become ways of describing these gestures.

I are using the interaction between a man and woman from the film D.O.A. (1950) to represent a progression of emotions, from happy/content, introducing instability, full-blown psychosis, and ending with a sustained calm.

Tagged , | Leave a comment
2010 Spring, Design and Education

21st Century Skills

By Ryan | Published May 10, 2010

For Design and Education, we were asked to identify what we felt were important skills that should be encouraged and reinforced for students to succeed in the 21st Century. I put together a non-exclusive list of skills I feel need to be addressed by all areas of education (from children to adults) at the local, national, and international levels if we are all to succeed in the 21st Century, ensuring a prosperous and humane world for generations to come. These skills are collaboration, participation, synthesis, and reinvention.

Each of these skills go hand-in-hand, so I did my best not to segregate them into unique, cult-silos of personality but instead will illustrate how they are all intertwined.

Here is a copy of my final paper, and here are the slides of the presentation I gave in class.

Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
2010 Spring, MSC2010

FrontlineSMS – Saving to a database

By Ryan | Published April 29, 2010

For our Major Studio Red Cross project, I continued with setting up the FrontlineSMS system, and we are now successfully saving the received messages to our database using HTTP commands calling to a PHP file on our server.

I put together a quick tutorial on how to set-up FrontlineSMS to save the information you receive to a database, so here we go:

1. Set-up your database and table.
I created a mySQL database, and then made the following table using phpMyAdmin:

`id` int(50) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, PRIMARY KEY
`name` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL
`number` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL
`keyword` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL
`content` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL
`date` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL
`cur_timestamp` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

These table values all relate back to information that FrontlineSMS can send. For instance, ‘name’ will be the name of the contact you receive a message from. If you don’t have the particular person in your contacts, Frontline will send the phone number associated with the message received. The ‘content’ element is the message content Frontline receives, and it stores this information without the ‘Keyword’ included in the message content.

2. Place your PHP files on a server where you can access it via a URL.
I created two sample files (click here) that you can use and load with your own information. One, called index.php, is the PHP file that you’re going to call within FrontlineSMS, and the other, called results.php, is a simple HTML page that displays your table information.

The index.php file sets up a few variables which allows the file to access your database table, so you’ll need to update phrases like “your_db_name” with your actual info. This index file will access your database and then save the information it receives from Frontline. The results.php will also need to be updated with your information.

3. Within Frontline, create a Keyword and then set-up the External HTTP command within the “Advanced Settings”.
For my example, I used the word “Test”, but you can use any word that you wish to be the trigger to send information to your database. Frontline provides a few reference buttons that will automatically drop in the appropriate code for the information you would like, but the important part is that you first provide the location of your PHP file, and then set up the matching variables that are in your PHP file.


For this example, I am including a generic website address, so my HTTP command will look a little something like this:

I included this text in a comment at the top of the index.php file.

And that’s basically it. There is a lot more that you can do, but as a general overview of how we setup Frontline to save to our database, this is the basic functionality.

A special thanks to Gayatri at Eureka Child (India) for all of the posts on the FrontlineSMS Forum. I wouldn’t have been able to set this up without your insightful posts.

Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments
2010 Spring, Physical Computing 2

Interactive Architecture – Chair

By Ryan | Published April 27, 2010

Zane Murray and I finished up our prototype for our interactive architecture collaboration, and we’re happy with the steps we’ve made toward our vision.

After our initial prototype, I thought more about what we wanted the interaction to be, and so we decided to use sensors as a way to interface with the piece. The presence of a simple hand gesture directs each side of the device. Here is a short video demonstration:

We envision environments that are not made up of static objects, but fluid and dynamic systems that respond to simple gestures, taking various desired forms. In addition to floors, woven materials made of flexible metal and reusable/recycled components could be embedded with intelligent technology within walls, ceilings, and other surrounding spaces that provide a full feedback loop of true interaction.




The programming for this project was done with two Ardweeny chips running an Arduino program that I wrote making use of the Servo library (see comments for code). These chips were placed on to two separate pc boards attached to 10 full-rotation servo motors as well as 2 sensors (Ultrasonic Range Finder – Maxbotix LV-EZ1) and 10 reed switches. The reed switches were placed at the end of each row and magnets were used to consistently calibrate the location of the wheeled carts guiding the nitinol.

Tagged , , , | 2 Comments
2010 Spring, Physical Computing 2

Reed Switches and Angry Robots

By Ryan | Published April 21, 2010

For Physical Computing 2, we’ve been discussing robots, so for an exercise we each built a robot kit to get a better understanding of how they are set-up. I put together “Herbie the Mousebot” from Solarbotics.

Herbie responds and chases light and also knows when it runs into things (because of the sensors on its tail and whiskers). Pretty quick exercise to build in class.


Using this as a starting point and using inspiration from the story of horses chasing carrots, I built a first prototype of my magnet chasing robot. I first did a drawing illustrating 2 full-rotation servo motors mounted to a PC board with a reed switch at the front.

I used an Ardweeny as the on-board microcontroller, wrote code in Arduino, and attached a breadboard to the cart for easy prototyping.


Here is a video demonstration of the robot responding to a magnet as well as a recent “angry” robot, both done during class time:

For the next class-time iteration, I shifted gears a little bit, and as opposed to doing another magnet-chasing-robot, I went with the “angry” robot. I cut the front corners of a perf board off to make two triangles, attached those pieces to two servos zip tied to the front. I then programmed an Ardweeny, bread boarded it, and zip tied a regulated 9-volt battery to the robots back.

Both of these robots were made in under 3 hours.

Tagged , , , | Leave a comment
2010 Spring, Physical Computing 2

ICFF – Submission is in!

By Ryan | Published April 19, 2010

Zane Murray and I collaborated on a piece, called Transformium, that we submitted to the New School judging committee to hopefully be selected to participate in the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) happening here in New York City.

I was heavily influenced by the book, Interactive Architecture, by Michael Fox and Miles Kemp, so I jumped at the opportunity to work with Zane on this project.

For our piece, instead of rooms of static objects, our vision is a space that interacts with movements and actions, providing consistant feedback between the space and those who occupy it. For the actual piece we submitted, we looked to demonstrate how that space might operate.



Our project is a series of rods made out of titanium alloy that can be bent in many shapes or forms with the use of motors and a rolling cart mechanism. These rods can be flat when the room does not require any object of use. If a person needs a table or a chair, the rods would be pushed and pulled into the appropriate formation. Instead of stiff metal, the titanium rods are actually somewhat malleable and respond to pressure in a subtle way.

Zane and I met several times to brainstorm, do a series of sketches, and run a set of tests. Using an Arduino, 10 servo motors and wooden cars that ran along a set of guiding rails, we stepped through a series of formations, moving the rodds in different shapes and forms.


Here is a part of the time-lapse video documentation we did of the preparations:

This was such a rewarding project. This experience pushed me well beyond anything I had done before in terms of complexity and code-based interaction projects, and I truly hope we are selected so Zane and I can continue working on our piece to prepare it for the ICFF.

Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
2010 Spring, Design and Education

Prototype Playtest – Participation Culture

By Ryan | Published April 12, 2010

For Design and Education, we were asked to prepare a testable/playable prototype of an activity based on one of topics/weeks listed in our class syllabus. I chose week 4 from my course, Participation Culture, which was focused on the Situationist International, forms of investigation/research, and Psychogeography.

In brief, my prototype will have students interacting with their surrounding neighborhood in two different ways, one physically and one digitally. After being provided a brief description of the underlying concepts, students will be split into groups and sent into the streets outside the school. Each group will be asked to walk around an entire city block (the direction determined by the group of students), with students detailing the experiences on the materials supplied.

Students will return to the classroom, turn on their computers, and reenact the walk using the street-view of Google maps. Clicking through the street-view frame by frame, students will experience their previous walk in digital form. The exercise will culminate in a group discussion.

Here is a link to the full-writeup:

Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
2010 Spring, MSC2010

FrontlineSMS and Sierra 885 – Successful setup

By Ryan | Published April 8, 2010

For the Red Cross project that 6 of us from my Major Studio is tackling, I asked to be assigned to the SMS receiving and database management portion of the project.

Based on other NGO’s success with FrontlineSMS in similar types of projects in different areas in Africa, I began working on setting that up first (a special thanks to Andrea Bradshaw for bringing the program to the attention of the class). Through a good amount of research on forums, etc, I selected an unlocked Sierra Wireless 885 Aircard (also called Sierra Wireless USBConnect Mercury) as my modem of choice. I also purchased an AT&T “Pay-as-you-go” data plan SIM card (unlimited text and data, $0.25/minute calls) since I will only be using it for text messages.

When setting this up make sure you follow the directions included in the FrontlineSMS download. There are some files that need to get copied over and some Terminal information that needs to be executed. Do that first, and follow their directions carefully.

I spent a number of days troubleshooting why my Mac (running Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6.3) was not able to connect to the Sierra 885. There are a lot of forum posts and write-ups out there about the best way to get the device to work that I found to be incorrect, so here are the steps that I took to get my Sierra 885 to be recognized by the system. Please note the name listed on the back of your device because there is a difference on the Sierra website between the 885 and USBMercury Connect:

  1. Go to System/Library/Extensions and erase the 4 files that exist in that drive that start with the word “Sierra”.
  2. Download this Firmware updater.
  3. Download this Native Driver installer.
  4. Download this 3G watcher.
  5. Plug in your Sierra 885. Ignore the default true-install that pops up from the device (just eject it).
  6. Run the Driver installer that you just downloaded. Don’t restart yet. Just leave the window there asking if you want to restart.
  7. Run the Firmware Updater you just downloaded. Install the new firmware if it shows you need an update. If not, you’re good to proceed to the next step.
  8. Run the 3G Watcher installer you just downloaded. Don’t restart yet. Just leave the window there asking if you want to restart.
  9. Remove the Sierra 885 from you computer.
  10. Restart your machine.
  11. Most likely the 3G watcher will start up when the computer gets running. If not, just go to your applications and run the program.
  12. Insert your Sierra 885.
  13. Wait a few seconds, and you should see it initialized by the 3G Watcher.
  14. Turn on Frontline SMS and wait a minute or two while it connects for the first time.

If you ever need to check to see if more up-to-date software is available for your device, check the Sierra Wireless download support section for you device. Another key point is if your Mac does not recognize your Sierra 885 when trying to update the firmware, try updating the firmware on a PC first. I was successful getting this setup on Windows XP using these same steps.

Thanks to Ken, Tom, and Morgan for their responses to my post on the FrontlineSMS forum. You guys were a big help.

Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments