Posts from April 2010.

touch me – section 2 lab

This is a touch interface for controlling sound and video.

A capacitive proximity sensor made out of tinfoil is placed underneath a fuzzy fabric and attached to a max patch. In its dormant state the patch creates a quite low tone. As one reaches out to touch the fabric the frequency of the sound changes and video effects intensify. The change in frequency and intensity of video effects varies with the distance of one’s hand from the actual sensor. Thus by rubbing the fabric the user becomes conscious of his/her control of the sound and video and is able to creatively interact with the fabric.

Capacitive Sensor: two wires from pin 8 and 9 with a 1M resistor between them; another wire connected to pin 9 running to the strip of aluminum foil. Code and sensor design were acquired from the following arduino forum thread: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1171076259

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the fabric hiding the sensor:

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max patch:

Screen shot 2010-04-19 at 12.35.22 AM

illuminator – section 1 lab

this is a simple device that will successively light a series of leds depending on how dark/light it is in the room

plenty of light, no leds are on:

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some light is blocked, 2 leds are light up:

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almost all light is blocked and 5 out of 6 leds light up:

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possible applications: illumination of light switches – as darkness sets it, the light switches are illuminated more and more making them easier to find and switch on.

further development ideas: incorporating some sort of calibration mechanism to accommodate a greater variety of light settings.