Making continued

18-11

Further with making the handles, result below. More drawings were made to think of other handles. Of this I made a some decisions based on criteria. I wanted to keep the mystery of the object, as this creates a more magical and unique experience.

Weekend 19-11 and 20-11

Trial and error with the looks of my new showcase. Eventually I came up with a style, made as a home page. The other menu is something I need to think about more. Results:

Monday, technoday!?

14-11


Projectmonday. Its hard to chose between aesthetics and the technology. One moment I want to work on the aesthetics and the other on the technology. I decided to work on the technology part of the project and get myself a pressure sensor at the e-lab. They gave me a piezoelectric film; made from a material which resistance changes when pressure is increased on the object.


After researching on the internet for circuits and not finding them, I asked Jelmer if he knew how to connect this, as I knew he has a better understanding of electronics then I have got at the moment. He told me to make use of a voltage divider; I used the set-up below. The 1M ohm resistor was chosen as every forum talking about the piezo used this.

Unfortunately it did not work. In hindsight it was a loose contact on the piezo. If only I had thought of using a multimeter first to read the resistance. This would have saved me a lot of time.

I also participated in another EduCie meeting, in which we kind of found out how we are going to plan the workshops and other activities we want to execute during this semester.

In the afternoon I got to experience how it feels like when having colleges; the first academic development session started. Other people (who have already experienced session of the academic development) that it would be really boring. Actually, it was kind of interesting! The goal of the academic development is to understand when something is science and when it is psuedo-science (or in between). It has this philosophic way of approaching the subject which I really like.

It was also time to finish my Dutch Design Week video. I made this as an inspirational video, without using the kind of interactive and intelligent systems created at Industrial Design. So here it is!

Last week Thursday: Lustrumday

It was the lustrum day, the tenth anniversary of Industrial Design at the TU/e. I started, knowing that this day would not be the most productive. At twelve their was an presentation and photo of the department and free cake! At 18:00 there was the Bring your own Dinner-dinner, for which I still had to cook.

Even thought, I made another exploration. I wanted to look into other things people relate to conscious actions which can be associated with light. Therefore I made the exploration below. It showed me that it is really hard to think of a new interaction for my concept, without changing though behind it. I think that the shape of the concept is too unique in that sense to be 'replaced' by something else. I decided to keep the concept as it is and working it out more thoroughly; looking at the things which are missing and which can be left out.

Project continued! (Midterm Exhibition)

The SDL-weeks are over! Time to start where I stopped; the midterm. I will first discuss the last preparations of this before I start typing about this week.

My concept at this time was a bowl, which one could fill with water to enable the lighting in the room. This conscious action of switching the light on would be ideally causing people to think more about the (extraordinary) things which have become too normal. (i.e. switching on the light, getting water from the tap). In a coach meeting we discussed the possibilities to think of a very functional feature for the concept, not only being playful. When I started to think about this, I though of the possibility to be able to control the light with the same bowl. This is exactly what I included in the midterm. 

The midterm provided me with a challenge, how was I supposed to control the lighting in the room? Of course, I did not do this, but I did figure out a way to dim the light in the bowl itself. This also gives the entire object a mysterious look. Considering the little time I had left I choose look for a solution which allowed me to control some LED's with a potentiometer. The Arduino Libraries already have a standard code for this, so all I had to do is connecting and soldering the different parts. Some pictures of my creation here:

I explored the possibilities to get a good mixture to diffuse the light properly. The mixtures I used are water with milk, water with Brinta (porridge) and plain water. As you can see in the pictures below, the milk and water provides the nicest mystery and diffuses the best. I also experimented with a see-through bowl and a sandblasted one. In combination with the see-through bowl. this gave a really nice picture. 

The midterm itself is was okay, I did not get too much feedback which I could really use. I have the following list to look into. This is exactly where I started after the SDL weeks.

I first made a list in the program OneNote. Mariette mentioned this program, as Word was not doing what I wanted it to do. It gave me an easy way to paste text for conducting research and writing/drawing next to it (with a tablet). 

The list of feedback I wrote down was:

- Working with the properties of water (i.e. the turbulence of water is connected to the turbulence in the room.

- Look at magnetic fluids

- Look at the amount of water which needs to be poured into the bowl. How much does it need to be?

I wanted to explore new options, so I started to look at the magnetic fluids. How does it work, how well can they be influenced, how toxic are they? This turned into a really nice exploration I think, I have written down the references, looked/read them, looked at the theory and looked at options which lay close to it. The latter are combining sound with water and looking at non-Newtonian fluids. These are a mixture of Maizena (cornstarch) and water. If they have been mixed in the right ratio they are liquid when left alone, but solid when pounded on with a particular force. 

In the end, the OneNote document looked like you can see on the picture above, also with more details on the non-Newtonian fluids as well as the sound plus water underneath the ferrofluid (which can be seen there).