Ideation: Some alternative ideas...The presentation

a.k.a "some alternative ideas"

#1....

lots of people watching movies / music on laptop, sub-optimal conditions...

why on earth would we bother???

a solution using head tracking.... and consumer parts

-failed because it was before its time, proprietary equipment and hideously expensive..

Reclaim the lanes festival... bringing it all together with radio transmitters/recievers.... communities as community..

idea #2...... 

the concepts of neuro-feedback - real designer drugs!

The technical.... NeuroSky headset~ 300$us

the possibilities.... (see original paper for references)

So its not all about the beer ;)

Preliminary Construction Sketches (will be revisited and refined)

How on earth to track a human?

Improving on a classic design? by having a large conveyor surface area the machine could go anywhere!

Grounding Research: Delving into the archives..

Hmm, so i'm going to try collate the various images ideas and research (with regards to the tracked-base) i have so far over the next few posts... Bear with me as i shake the bookmarks and text files into a shape fit for public consumption ;)

The basic idea is (as previously mentioned) to create a high-payload tracked mobility platform that can (for the moment) be controlled via remote or wii nunchuck...

[you can read that last paragraph as: tank base]...

Initial ideas of lasercutting a slick chassis and parts out of aluminium were dashed when i discovered at school we don't lasercut much but ultrathin perspex and timber laminates :(

There goes the hopes of upscaling my little Tamiya track kit in 3d CAD and printing parts....



So, in keeping with my passion for recycled and low budget, we are going to hack one up at home.  First port of call was downloading the VEX inventors guide and reading cover to cover the engineering notes - especially the really valuable theory on structure, motion, control, power and sensors... i really learnt a lot from this, so will save the discourse for another post...
Another great site for beginners mechanics and engineering is Rob Ives...

From here i managed to find a number of really interesting (and not-so-interesting) war and tank-specific documentaries (probably copyright, so i won't link them here), which i devoured in a sunny afternoon... One of the main points i took from this was the different approaches and pros and cons of the historical decisions made. For example, the beautifully engineered German Tiger tanks cost so much and took so long to build - rapidly got destroyed by the cheaper, faster and much more plentiful Russian T34's due to sheer numbers!  Just goes to show there's nothing wrong with a functional backyard job !

the over-engineered German Tiger

The quick-and-lethal Russian

 vs


Seeing these documentaries and the historical development of the tank over the years, I started to delve into the various track systems, and even contemplated making a 3d CAD model to perhaps try lasercut in rubber...

One design stood out amongst the crowd of DIY... the 'plagiarism tank' ... This is exactly the chassis design i had in mind, simplicity plus.  Here is something i can build at home, with minimal tools and time...It will be made to the dimensions of the esky...

The track system and power train is still under research, however i got lucky the other day and scored 2 Ford Laser wiper motors for $10 out west.  These beauties have a low rpm (~40 by my rough count)...and options for a few different wiring schemes affording different voltage/torque/rpm's depending on which of the 5 pins are used.

Another entirely monstrous score from the west (thanks for the hint, Andy ;) was the purchase of a 12v/240v portable fridge! and better than the crappy peltier element that i was thinking about, this Rig has the old-skool, much more efficient compressor... only issue i can see with it is it 's slightly larger than i hoped, and slightly more top heavy (due to the compressor and circuitry mounted in the lid...... Upside is, it's nice and wide, so the centre of gravity should still sit quite low, especially when loaded with cold beers :)

 

Grounding Research: An alternative proposition...

Listening to the class' great ideas today i was inspired... Of special note here is Luke's bio-feedback mood lamp.

This got me thinking about an old idea i had a few years ago... a presentation i called "Getting High on Your Own Supply".

The basic premise of this idea began with a simple neurofeedback loop between a generative music algorithm ('the machine') and the user (via e.e.g.)... the idea is that after entrainment, and using a bio-feedback loop, the machine should be able to recursively hone in on the sounds / environs makes the user 'happy' or 'content'... whilst moving further and further away from those combinations of sounds that do not...

This is effectively leading to the point where the user effortlessly is tailoring the auditory environment to his or her taste, and hopefully eventually towards stimulation of the musically responsive reward centers in the brain to release dopamine and serotonin and other endorphins.

Here is a link to the paper i wrote back in 2009.... and the associated keynote... have to dl&unzip the archive... sorry if its a little dry and technical, but i think it explains the ideas and a bit of history better than i can do here...


With the cost of these low-channel count e.e.g's falling dramatically recently, it stands that the units with a reasonable channel count should not be far behind... This would enable this idea to be developed further, and perhaps even realised? 

check out Emotiv Systems for details of such a unit, and the incredible  Tan Le on ted.com for a (rather dated now) demonstration...

Grounding Research: Rethinking communications..

Stumbled across this beautiful paper as part of the University of California - Irvine project "Digital Voices" the other day... It's talking about the pervasiveness of digital communications in this day and age, and about the beauty (or lack of) that is contained in these transmissions (remember the old-school acoustic modems?).

The pertinent idea presented here is that the digital transmissions (especially in Ubiquitous Computing applications) need not be aesthetically displeasing; and in fact could be quite musical with the relevant information encoded within.  Some example schemes for audible-range encoding are presented within the paper...

The beauty here is that no new technology or hardware is required, many devices around the home already have the required speaker/mic for audible range transmissions.

An interesting fundamental component of this 'acoustic modem' idea is that there is inherently a trade-off between data rate and aesthetic - the faster the transfer the more likely the sounds are to be 'annoying'...

Perhaps most interesting though, is the opening of the data-communications fields to sound designers, composers and HCi developers, creating a new form of art and expression. Quite possibly, the digital communications could be encoded in a form that also, as the authors suggest, 'leaks' some of the information to people - allowing a two way communication channel to develop with our machines....

Grounding Research: Beautiful Interactions pt. II...

OMG.

this is The Greatest Thing In The World!  Check this out.....

So this is a beautiful integration of all the things i love... robotics, autonomy, sampling, drums, music, interactions, open source.... The little machine is sooooo human, especially with the little moving rangefinder... and the ability to find the tempo after a few foot-stamps and join in.... well... it's simple stuff, but the interactive fun would be endless!

Love the aesthetic too, the hot-glue-and-recycled-junk ethos....

Most of all though, i love that its open source.... for around $120US...

here's the step-by-step instructions for all your robotic drumming glory!

Grounding Research: the 'Listening Post'

Sitting in the coffee shop today i am reminded of the way things were only a decade ago... the incessant murmur of conversations, communications, ideas being transmitted between humans in a form that has been around for as long as humans themselves...

Surrounded by this beautiful, primitive communication, i reach out through my laptop's screen and keyboard to the unimaginable database beyond, in search of a beautiful interactive installation i remember reading about a few years ago...  Mark Hansen & Ben Rubin's "Listening Post".

In essence, the installation, seen to the right, is scanning online chat rooms for certain phrases and converting them to algorithmic music.  The beauty is in the immediacy, and the scope of the data, with every word in the system being typed only seconds before by someone, somewhere in the world.

In their own words - "Anyone who types a message in a chat room and hits 'send' is calling out for a response - Listening Post is our response [...] a sensual encounter with that data, rendered at the human scale."

There is for me a very warm, comforting atmosphere generated by the piece (even though it is a purely digital dynamic composition): similar to the reason i hang out in this coffee shop for the anonymous presence of others - there is a certain pleasure in the company of other humans.  I wonder if this is how dogs might feel with regards to their owners?

On that note, i think i would like the major project to be like my little pet, a little puppy....