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.

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.

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.

I am currently using a bit mask to shift through each of the digits sent serially to to the Arduino. Here is a link to my code that displays a single digit serially (code).