Monday, May 16, 2011

VendO- Energy Charging!

VendO Wheel generating Energy

Power VendO -- Stripped... and Back Again.

Stripped Gears...

Fixing Gear...




The Making of Power VendO








Power VendO Cont...

Power VendO wheel with Gear and Dynamo

As the wheel spins, the dynamo is activated. The red light on the circuit board indicates the battery being charged.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Wednesday, May 11, 2011



Power vendO








EAT: Parc. Bench


Parc. Bench is essentially a green parcel in the urban environment, potentially as small as a single tile in the sidewalk. Surrounding and enclosing the parcel is an object that is basically a piece of urban furniture; together they serve to nurture and protect both the human life in the city and the plant life contained within.


In its normal state, the object serves as a neutral protector, both of the plant life within and the people outside. The arms open and adjust themselves to nurture the plants, while still shielding them from their surroundings. Light sensors tell the object when to provide shade where it's needed. The gentle movement of the arms creates a sense of urban vibrancy, attracting people and letting them know that the area is safe.

When proximity sensors detect someone approaching, the object closes its arms, enclosing the plants and providing comfortable seating for pedestrians. When they leave, it opens again, ensuring that the green parcel is not suffocated by the urban life it is meant to protect.

Particulate, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and radiation sensors constantly monitor the quality of the nearby environment; when the surroundings become unsafe, the arms open completely in every direction, creating a zone around the parcel that people can not enter and signaling to people that they're in danger. The arms remain open until the environment becomes safe to enter; if the environment remains unsafe for people over a long period, the plants begin to grow and spread along the arms, essentially enlarging the green parcel in the process.

MediCom Final









Tuesday, May 10, 2011

EAT.2 (pollution visualization and neutralizatrion)

EAT.2 (pollution visualization and neutralizatrion)







Everyday in the city we are exposed to invisible pollution. As the concrete jungle expands ever onward into the suburbs, our opportunities for this pollution to be nullified slowly disappear. The delicate balance is quickly ceasing to be.

This project is halfway between a lesson and a solution. It senses the solution we do not see and demands attention, showing us the harm we do ourselves by simply walking ourselves or our children down the street.

At the same time an object that warns is no match for indifference, so it acts upon its acquired data. There are two states of this project 1) urban furniture, and 2) a garden. It can be one or the other depending on which holds the greatest importance in the environment in which it is placed.

In an environment with little co2 measured, it is a stool. Sitting along the sidewalk for people waiting for the bus or weary from their city stroll.

In an environment with much co2 it is a garden; taking advantage of the co2 to feed its plants which sit below the machine. When it opens out and allows the garden, the plants prosper. When it is closed as a stool the plants sit dormant; their growth stunted by the few nutrients and little sun. Like grass growing beneath a rock; the plants would be albino and small.

Every hour the decision is made, open or closed? Light or shade? seat or obstacle? All along the sidewalk they sit. Closed and respectful or open and expanded, taking up sidewalk space to nurture their inhabitants and to save those who grumble as they walk around.

Would you grumble? Yes it's in your way, but because it's in your way that means the air you breathe is toxic, and its trying to help. So maybe you stop mid-grumble and decide to write to your senator, or go to the beach this weekend, or boycott the factory down the road.

Imagine them, in LA, sprawling out on the sidewalks with all sorts of plants growing feet high and birds visiting, because the structure never closes. Or in San Diego, with the ocean breeze howling around the barren robots, posed to seat you at your whim. Maybe you would never know what they would be otherwise.

The city would change because it needed to change, and that active response would point out to us that we need to change too.

ParkPixel

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

FAB: ParkPixel - Rover


Here is the base "rover" for the ParkPixel. It will be initiated by a lack of sunlight and turn on. it avoids hitting walls in front of it via a proximity sensor.

FAB: ParkPixel - Humidity Register



The following LED strip registers and represents the relative humidity of the soil in the potted plant within the ParkPixel

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

POWER VENDO






























Power VendO - in progress

Mya generating Energy 2




"Off the grid" or rather "off the 9V battery" VendO wheel.

One of many compelling stories of VendO is its mobility, fostering and promoting an independent spirit. The beauty of the wheel form lends itself to movement and consequently, generation of kinetic energy. This creates an opportunity to harness this energy for a completely autonomous mobile unit that no longer depends on the power system.

The first test uses a hand crank dynamo to charge a NiMH rechargeable battery that powers the arduino microprocessor and LED lights. Parts extracted from an off-the-shelf hand crank flash light were used for this initial test.

pollution visualization and neutralization (EAT)


Pollution in the city is something that people often think of as an abstract idea, rather than something that directly and immediately affects them. While many urban dwellers become greatly concerned about certain toxins, or worry about the larger effects of pollution on the planet, they will often expose themselves to potentially deadly levels of pollution on a daily basis without giving it much thought. Diesel powered buses, for example, leave a
cloud of particulate matter and toxic gasses in their wake; people walking down a sidewalk or waiting at a bus stop might be put off by the smell, but not consider that they are breathing air that would kill them if it didn't
drift away.

This project is a response to these local, everyday exposures to pollution in the city. A number of objects are scattered throughout the city, along sidewalks and in public parks. Conspicuous but innocuous looking, they house sensors that track the level of pollution at their location. When the sensors in one of these objects senses that the environment has become too polluted - say from a passing car - they take action. The machine opens and
spreads out over the sidewalk, exposing a surface of CO2-removing greenery concealed within, symbolically cleaning the air. Audible warnings and flashing lights let people know that the air is unsafe to breath, while the spreading legs force people to walk around the site, or wait for the air to clear before entering. By providing a conspicuous signal to passerbys that something is wrong, the project raises awareness of the levels of pollution exposure within the urban environment. With numerous devices spread throughout the city, moving sources of heavy pollution can be tracked and mapped in real space, and differences between neighborhoods can potentially
be mapped in real time.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Monday, March 07, 2011

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Kiosk interacting bracelet


When bracelet is brought up against kiosk, the kiosk will output information specific to the user (hypothetically)

Proximity sensing interactive wall




Using Arduino, servo, and proximity sensor to push and pull a surface based on proximity of objects to sensor


Noisy Sponges

Com:2 Processing in Grasshopper



A reactive surface based on inputs from a pixilated image in contrast of that image. Using Processing, Grasshopper, 5 servos, leds

Wii Joystick controls Cube

Wii Joystick controls Cube

Kiosk Interacting Bracelet

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sponge Field



Here we opperate on a field of lines. Manipulation of an attractor that deforms a regular field is controlled through the interaction with a sponge - because squeezing sponges is fun!

Asymmetrical Symmetry Drawing



Here we play an endless drawing game. The graphical production can be seen as a blind diagram or representation of the interaction of the players throughout the "match".

A-MAZE-ING



through arduino and firefly, we were able to create a maze based game where 1 or 2 users must control the intensity of their squeeze on a sponge in order to direct and point and draw a line through a simple maze. This game utilize the discovery, intuitive, and exploratory qualities of successful games.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Eyewriter

Check this out! Bunch of hackers used PS3's camera to track human eye movement to help out their artist friend who is completely paralyzed. He is now able to draw with his eyes -- the end of the video shows his drawing projected on to a side of a building.

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Light Aperture




Team: Mike Vargas, Salar Safaei








DisPROX (dispersed POV)


This week we took the camera assembly which was the end of our first week process and placed it on a head piece so as to allow for dipersal of the human point of view. We suplimented the camera with a "screen"/shield that would project the video feed to the wearer when there is no motion picked up by a passive infared sensor, effectively crowdsourcing their eyesight.

BioDisco light screen

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

DisPROX



Assembling Dispersed Proximity

A security device using two servos (tilt and pan), a webcam, and a photosensor that senses motion. The use of a Photosensor senses proximity and outputs a signal to the web. LEDs are signaled on a wearable bracelet allowing the wearer to know the proximity of whatever is in motion.

Kinetic sculpture at the BMW Museum





light aperture - pressure sensitive

we wanted to create an aperture that opens and closes and lets more/less light out-
so we used a pressure sensor that as you push more on it could let out/block light

Salar Safaei
Mike Vargas

Monday, January 31, 2011

POW:Neural Sky

Neural Sky is a massive networked nodal structure that connects people with it through lightening fast bolts of light. When a person is close to any one of the legs where the network meets the ground an ultrasonic sensor detects the position of this person and shoots lights from that person to another person there in 3-d through the nodal structure.

POW: Bubbles-Open-air Interactive Exhibit at the Materials and Application Gallery

Bubbles is an adaptable spatial pneumatic installation at an urban scale. The installation will consist of large pneumatic volumes that inflate and deflate in reaction to the visitors coming to the site.
http://robotecture.com/bubble/




Electro-acoustic dresses


Benoît Maubrey is the director of DIE AUDIO GRUPPE a Berlin-based art group that build and perform with electronic clothes. Basically these are electro-acoustic clothes and dresses (equipped with amplifiers and loudspeakers) that make sounds by interacting thematically and acoustically with their environment.

An interactive architectural mapping


Fete des Lumieres / Lyon / France / 2010. A mapping by 1024 Architecture, projected on the facade of former Lyrical theater the "Celestins". The building deformations and figures were controlled by the audience, using a microphone and an audio analysis algorythm.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Mud Tub


The mud tracks movement to control computer (new form of a mouse). It gets people away from a purely technological world and brings them back to nature.

Interactive landscape


Interactive landscape that reacts to people walking by with sound, light and movement.

rAndom International -- Swarm Light

Swarm Light from rAndom International is a light installation that responds to, records and displays a user's audible presence.

Snow Bells


This game uses a camera to visualize users in a space and then allows them to nock these snowflakes. each user produces a unique sound when they pop a snow flake. Merry Christmas!

Beat-Box Pin-Ball


This multitouch table top allows multiple players to fabricate music through the manipulation of disruptive elements in a pinball-like space

Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space


This is a video my brother made for the new MOCA exhibit entitled Suprasensorial. Although it is not directly utilizing new responsive and interactive technologies, I feel that these pieces do embody the spatial and experiential qualities that our projects will strive to embody. These projects aren't complete until users and actively interacting with them.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Urban Visual Recording Machine [3 of 3]

This is a visualization along with the audio of the NYC Art parade.

The Urban Visual Recording Machine [2 of 3]

This is a short on how the urban recording machine works.

The Urban Visual Recording Machine [1 of 3]

This is a mobile recording device that records various conditions like ambient sound, weather, and visual surround and abstracts them for a print format.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

email counting tshirt

Urban Speaker

Interaction Grass - Project by Frits Stam

Festo - InteractiveWall

Yelp KegMate, COM, data, record, filter, images

New Facebook app give cash saving deals: wpri.com

Evan Grant - Cymatics

Dexter

Big Dog

Aeroponic system for urban agriculture

The world's deepest bin - Thefuntheory.com - Rolighetsteorin.se

More is More: 4D Product Design for the Everyday

High res 25 min FULL ABSTRACT of MORE is MORE 2 Event. from Alec Robertson on Vimeo.

Prospero: Robotic Farmer


The interesting piece for this robot is its ability to detect a seed already planted in the ground and bypassing the area as a result. Wondering what type of sensor is used to detect the seed (or what logic is used to emulate the presence of the seed).

Light Nucleus


Augmented Reality that detects motions and adds visual graphics via Processing according to your movement in the space. He has a version that is also sound activated.

Garduino Geek Gardening


Love to garden but don't have time? Let the Arduino help you with that....

POW : Haptic Sound



Although this project does not harvest energy, I can imagine something like this in tandem with the energy harvesting dance floor, at which point the entire experience would be user-generated.

Past/ Potential Urban Interventions


I've come across plenty of videos about linking plants to networks so they can tell you when they need watering, but this project goes far beyond that.

This project from a few years ago addresses urban issues and also provides an interactive solution.

Illah Nourbakhsh Lecture: Ethics in Robotics


Though not directly relevant to class, a great talk about ethics in robotics. Something to chew on while we dabble in the cyber world.

Robots with a mind of their own

AMANDA PARKES: Phrases of the Kinetic: Organicism and Transformation fro...


Harnessing bodily energy... through fashion. Robotics is no longer just for geeky boys with pocket protectors! Mmmm... wearable algae, who knew?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Networked Buoyant Individuals / Piezoelectrical Generation

Taken as a combined proposal, I think these two videos create a phylogenetic field of possiblity.





A dense cloud of floating piezoelectrical generators could capture the waste energy of East span Bay Bridge pile driving, for example, at the same time alleviating construction-related noise pollution; a network of intelligent photovoltaic balloons could not only follow sunbursts from one side of the city to the other but shade festival-goers in Golden Gate park.
//J Austin

Arduino THE MOVIE

Responsive Kinematics


Responsive Kinematics Video - From Robotic Ecologies Fall 2009