Cool Gadgets for the Raspberry Pi

Here are some awesome new gadgets I found over the break

Small 4.3" Monitor
Great for prototyping
Small portable screen for the Raspberry Pi
NTSC

10000mAh battery
5V, 9V, and 12V Battery Pack
2 USB ports for charging

5200mAh
5V Portable Battery Pack
1 USB for charging external devices
1 Micro USB for charging the battery
It powered my Raspberry Pi streaming 1080p video for 4+ hours

Safety Shell

By exaggerating (or reiterating) the need to communicate with others through this shell device, it becomes a parody of communication and the need to understand.  Clearly we do not walk around every day needing some sort of visual communication device to indicate to others that we are turning left, or right, or braking when we are on foot.  We typically use these signals while we are in some kind of vehicle which is an extension of our body but does not allow us to communicate with body language (which would indicate which way we are turning, or if we are going to stop somewhere).  Additionally, of course, we use those signals on vehicles to prevent damage because a collision that occurs between metal vehicles is much more severe than a collision occurring between two bodies.  Nevertheless, the art piece is activated because the Safety Shell references that method of communication used with vehicles and transplants it directly onto the body (with no vehicular mediator).  It raises questions about how we communicate with one another, and why we communicate in the ways we do, or why we don't communicate using methods other than the ones we use.  What is this need to communicate and what is the best way to interact with one another?  All these questions and more are asked but not answered in this project.      

Project Progress

Safety Shell Progress

Crit Post

I thought crit went just as well as it could considering the circumstances with the weather. Everyones projects turned out great and I really had a lot of fun with them. It would have been way more exciting if we could have lead the class from FAC to the GradHouse instead of just aimlessly walking around the first floor of FAD. Most people mentioned the overall shape of the object and the size of it. Many people said they liked the largeness of the object and that it helped emphasize the concept. It was divided amongst people who said they think we should have added extra gadgets and safety objects to the device. I think the device would have standed better as a piece if it was a little bit more ridiculous. Like bright colors for the object and additional sensors such as the gas sensor and the carbon monoxide sensor. Maybe this project can see the light of day again next semester.

All of the code in each of its stages are visible on my GitHub:
https://github.com/tgreena/Sensors/tree/master/SensorsProject2

The Fritzing Diagrams are available for download on my GitHub:
https://github.com/tgreena/Sensors/tree/master/SensorsProject2/Fritzing


In the works


Example


Wearing it

I am going to have work with my internship emailed to you tonight.

The pre-pre-final post. (Get it?)

I am going to write mostly in this post and we are going to post all of our pictures and videos tomorrow. The first thing I have to say is, I wish we had more time to work on this project… You were so right about this project's end coming quickly!

I really can't think of a better way to sum up the concept other than, 'in the name of safety, where does it stop?'

We come up with laws (most specifically the 'click it or ticket' seatbelt law) that are meant to protect people, but ultimately we arent really protecting anyone and offenders of these laws are guilty of victimless crimes and have to go through the stress of going to court and/or have to pay fines. It just doesn't make sense to me that we would penalize people for these things. If someone doesn't wear their seatbelt when they are driving and they get into a wreck, the joke is on them. Laws should protect people from other people.

 I really don't know what to refer to the piece as, I want to call it a shell, and I love the idea of it being a shell because that really goes along with the concept very well so from now on I am going to refer to it as a shell.

I really enjoyed watching the Star Trek episode about metaphors. I am trying to figure out the difference between what a metaphor and what an analogy is, and I just haven't gotten that 'eureka' moment with them yet. I know for a fact that I think in analogies. Like for a lot of things. Is that a weird thing to know? A metaphor is literal comparative description, while an analogy is just a comparative description? I think of this project as an analogy of the current day seatbelt and drug laws, but in an overly exaggerated way. This shell is like these laws in the sense that it is there for you to protect you, to keep you safe, but is it really protecting you from anything? Are these laws really protecting you from anything? This shell is LIKE the laws. The like makes it an analogy. How can I make this a metaphor? "This shell is the laws". Well thats how, but that doesn't make sense to me.

The piece consists of a 'shell' that one would wear on their back. The shell is equipped with left and right blinkers, brake lights, and a horn. The features are operated by buttons held in both hands.  I am going to talk about the project how it is now.  My hesitation with calling it a shell is simply because, well, I just don't think it looks enough like a shell that it will be identifiable to viewers as a shell. Looking at it now, I think that black was not a good choice for it. If safety was really the objective, I think making the shell a more visible color would have benefited it not only in a safety sense, but in a  shell sense as well. I am thinking of a more super mario style red or green shell.

I am interested in taking this project further. I mentioned to Amy about me possibly continuing on with this project next semester, but that is still up in the air. I really would like to have had Amy in my group to continue with the project because she had really great ideas, but she won't be in our class next semester. There is still a possibility, but not until further discussion with her. We mentioned a lot of extra features being added to the shell such as gas sensors, carbon monoxide sensors, etc. This is where I am stuck, I want this shell to be an item that is farfetched, but plausible. Plausible in the sense that, in one parallel universe, everyone wears them because if you didn't wear one you would get a ticket for putting yourself in danger by not wearing your shell. How do you balance getting your point across by making it ridiculous, but keeping it seemingly realistic enough that one could see it in some future.

Now to see what people think in crit.
ps I dont think there is anything to get.

Raspberry Pi Presentation

I am making the post available here, but it has formatting issues. Please view the original post on my website HERE: http://jasonraimondi.com/blog/raspberry-pi/

Perhaps I wrote too much for this... Huge Huge updated posts for the final project are coming Monday Night or tuesday!! But for now... I am going to bed. See you in 5 hours :)

Nope not that. Raspberry Pi

 Identify the components

   

How to start using your Raspberry Pi

  Some items that you are going to need initially -Micro USB for power -SD card (larger than 2GB) to run the OS -HDMI or RCA cable for Video   Since all that comes with the Raspberry Pi is the computer without an operating system, the first thing you are going to need to do to get your Raspberry Pi operational is download an operating system for the Raspberry Pi to install on your SD Card. The first OS you should probably start with is called Raspbian. It is available for download via torrent or html here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads Once you download the OS you are going to need to unzip the file to get the iso of the OS. Follow this guide for mounting your OS: http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup   Now for the initial boot. If everything goes according to plan, you should see the Raspi-config screen [caption id="attachment_279" align="alignnone" width="899"] Raspi-Config[/caption] This gives you a few initial setup options to configure.

• expand_root - Expand the install to fill the entire SD card (if there is extra room available)
• overscan - Configure the overscan of the picture on your monitor or television
• change_pass - change the password for the user 'pi' (default user is 'pi' and password is 'raspberry'
• overclock - over clock the raspberry pi from 700mHz to 1000mHz and it doesn't void the warranty
• ssh - enable ssh access to the Raspberry Pi via terminal
• boot_behavior - default is to boot to terminal, you can enable auto boot to desktop
• update - definitely update always, make sure you are connected to the internet

When you finish, it will put you back to the terminal. To access your desktop type 'startx' Explore around.It looks like Windows wrapped in a new UI. Raspbian is based off KDE, KDE is a UI variation of linux that has a very similar look, but much more elegant in my opinion, than windows. You can install programs via the LXTerminal on your desktop. To download the Arduino IDE the code is: sudo apt-get install ardunio To get the chromium web browser (open source Chrome), the command is sudo apt-get install chromium   Here are a few links for new users to Raspbian and Linux http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4751 http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=15123   Elinux.org has great beginner guides for the Raspberry Pi http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Hub#Beginners_Guide   Adafruit has made a really great web interactive developer environment that you can install on your raspberry pi. It was made for people to learn how to program Python. http://learn.adafruit.com/webide/installation   If you want to remote desktop to your Raspberry Pi, you will want to check out Raspberry Pi VNC Server. This will let you control your Raspberry Pi's desktop through your computer. http://elinux.org/RPi_VNC_Server" title="http://elinux.org/RPi_VNC_Server   Cambridge University released a course on building a Raspberry Pi operating system online for free. The course is available here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/freshers/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/ The course is called "Baking Pi" and it is meant to help incoming freshmen get familiar with basic computer science before starting school, but it is available for everyone. A brief introduction to the course: Throughout the course, you are learning to write in assembly code. Assembly code is very close to what the computer actually understands, what it actually understands is Binary Code. Assembly code is a translation of binary into human readable text. Binary Code --> Assembly Code --> Programming Code --> Application --> User When programming normally, the programmer writes code in languages such as C++, C#, Java, and Python, and then a program called the compiler translates what the programmer wrote into assembly code, which is then later translated into binary.

Raspberry Pi Artworks

I have a message for you… Art Project http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1773 http://www.outputarts.com/projects/message-for-you All of the Art Installations on the raspberry pi website http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/tag/art-installation

Raspberry Pi Projects

xbox media center avaialbe for raspberry pi raspbmc.com

Raspberry Pi synth

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/1/3283340/watch-this-raspberry-pi-synth   Raspberry Pi DSLR battery Grip http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/20/3254925/raspberry-pi-dslr-battery-grip http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/wjj7q/pi_camera_module_am_i_doing_it_right/   Brew Beer http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2129   AmbiPi - home made ambiPi consists of a custom XBMC with modifications to capture the screen and send a data stream to a RaspberryPi running my modified version PixelPi to drive 104 RGB LEDs via the RaspberryPi's SPI bus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP2fJgS-b8g   Raspberry Pi Micro Arcade Cabinet http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5npkz0xY1fo   Fishpi http://fishpi.org/proof.html# Want to demonstrate that the raspberry pi can be used to maintain long term autonomous operations on water. The vessel will be battery powered and only run the bare essentials needed for navigation. The Raspberry Pi will run the Electronic Speed Controller that manages the Motor and rutter, taking GPS positioning information for navigation. The vehicle will take photographs and or video during its mission.   Stepper Motor Raspberry pi http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/ybe4n/driving_a_stepper_motor_using_a_pi_and_python/ http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1182 Driving a stepper motor using raspberry pi and python What is it for? Control 2 stepper motors for a DSLR pan/tilt system. Since it is python and on a network, you can easily control software via the web   Quadcopter using a Raspberry Pi http://www.instructables.com/id/Picopter/ http://www.botched.co.uk/picopters-maiden-flight/ Gyroscope and accelerometer for stabilization. All of the on board processing is handled by the Raspberry Pi. "This initially seems rather counter intuitive, as time sliced operating systems like Linux are not as predictable in their execution time as a simple real-time microcontroller program, but I've found in practice preemption allows the main control loop to run at a very reliable frequency."

• Runs an SSH interface to your laptop via a wireless adapter.
• Log data to the on board SD card
• Potential for complex route mapping and real-time integration into Google Maps

GoPro & PiCopter on Vimeo   Explaining this at the airport should be interesting… http://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/xjivr/explaining_this_at_the_airport_should_be/   Beer Can Keyboard http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/16/beer-keyboard-combines-arduino-and-raspberry-pi-and-beer/ MaKey MaKey Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabs/makey-makey-an-invention-kit-for-everyone    

Raspberry Pi & Arduino

Why would you need an arduino then if you have a raspberry pi? Well the microprocessor in the arduino makes it great for quick processes and on the fly tasks. It is good for very quick, but somewhat basic calculations in real time. The raspberry pi is capable of doing on the fly tasks, the has the extra task of having to process the whole Operating system through the chip, and can get laggy quickly. Raspberry Pi and Arduino http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1171

Raspberry Pi and Arduino team up to make a php web interface http://hackaday.com/2012/08/31/what-you-can-do-when-a-raspberry-pi-teams-up-with-an-arduino/   Raspberry Pi + Arduino + SPI http://mitchtech.net/raspberry-pi-arduino-spi/   Arduino and Raspberry pi Serial Communication http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/04/raspberry-pi-and-arduino.html http://codeandlife.com/2012/07/29/arduino-and-raspberry-pi-serial-communication/   Arduino 8x8 LED Matrix RASPI http://kimondo.co.uk/raspberry-pi-arduino-8x8-led-matrix/ Use With Arduino-control an 8x8 led matrix-have a program running on the computer, then it can verify and post messages to the matrix   Arduino LCD RASPI http://tech2077.blogspot.com/2012/06/running-hd44780-lcd-over-i2c-on.html   ArduinoPi Python Library http://www.fritz-hut.com/arduinopi-v1-6-and-release-of-arduinopi-python/   Raspberry Pi Bluetooth Connection http://www.fritz-hut.com/raspberry-pi-bluetooth-connection-with-bluesmirf/

In the name of safety, where does it stop.

So we have come up with a proposal for exactly what we are going to be doing for our final project. We have decided that we are going to make a vest/harness/bookbag attachment that one would wear that is fixed with a left and right blinker, as well as a brake light. The left and right blinkers will be made of either (hopefully) two LoL matrices of LED's (if that is not possible because it is too late, we are going to improvise. We were thinking that the left and right blinker will be activated with buttons. I was even thinking… if at all possible, maybe accelerometers? I'm not sure if that would really work though, buttons is probably the safest bet.

I am going to talk about conceptually what this project means to me because I think both of our ideas conceptually were a little different although we are totally on the same track. Here is my side:

To me, he device is intended to be worn as a user walks, runs, bikes, skateboards, pretty much all the time, and it is intended to, well, make them safer. I kind of want to show the device as if it was a serious product, actually intended to save people from injury. Coming up with ridiculous stats about the object

-reduces the number of human to human collisions by more than 80%
-saves people walking from injury by letting others around them know which way you are going
-proven effective safety device in several scientific studies*
-increases life expectancy by over 10 years
-if you don't wear this vest you are going to die!
*not actually scientists

My favorite thing about this piece is how it can be taken as a complete joke, or as a totally serious product depending on how you put the spin on it. I want to maybe even like make an advertisement or something for the product we could display next to it. If time permits of course.

I think this piece can really mock laws in society that are intended and publicized as if they protect us. Every offender of this law is charged with a crime that had absolutely no victim. Other crimes such as speeding or drunk driving actually do have a victim, society, the person that they accidentally killed when they lost control of their car because they were going too fast. By not wearing your seatbelt, the only person you have put in danger is yourself. I always wear my seatbelt, but I don't wear it because they told me to, I wear it because I don't want to die in a car accident. I think the whole reason they have the 'seatbelt law' is so they can profile people and pull them over with little to no reason, and if the person asks for a reason, all they have to say is they looked like they weren't wearing a seatbelt. I don't know. Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm right.

Back to the harness/vest: to me this device poses the question:

'In the name of safety, where does it stop?
'In the name of safety, when does it stop?
'In the name of safety, when will it stop?
'In the name of safety, when will they stop?
'In the name of safety, where will they stop?

I'm not really sure which way is the best way to word it.




This article is sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving

sd card

we had some problems . . .

Ketchup.

Catch up.
I am going to keep updating this post, I will make an edit when it is finished. Next hour or so.

EDIT: I am finished updating this post. I have posted links to the following below-
lady ada 5 and 6
graphite resistor
Chapter 3 Project 6
Chapter 5 Project 15
Fritzing Diagram of Midterm

I was not able to find any videos I had with the ITP Projects from 9-14. I remember doing them, and I even had the right voltage resistors with me, but I don't have the 10k ohm potentiometer with me and I cant find the old videos of it.  I am pretty sure we even did this one in class.

And the touch screen number pad project I don't believe we ever got working so I dont have any videos of it.



Lady Ada
Project 5
http://youtu.be/dtg7PvEZnsI


Lady Ada
Project 5 Part 2
http://youtu.be/fqjX8baEpeU


Lady Ada
Project 6
http://youtu.be/JLaqwjLD0Qs


Graphite Pencil Resistor
http://youtu.be/1pCgk-BStrc


Beginning Arduino
Chapter 3 Project 6
LED Chase
http://youtu.be/iOh28Jm9WOg


Beginning Arduino
Chapter 5 Project 6
Motor with potentiometer
I updated the link of the previous post and I am also posting it again here.




Here is the Fritzing diagram for our midterm project

I found these photos of our final project when I was going through my phone.

Hmm...

Ive been struggling with this idea of concept for what seems like months now. I tried looking it up in the dictionary but all I got was 'an abstract idea' which seems very vague to me.

Jack had us read the 'Realtime Art Manifesto' by Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn [link: http://tale-of-tales.com/tales/RAM.html] and while I found the entire manifesto interesting, I was really intrigued by section 8, 'Reject Conceptualism'

Here are a few snippets from the section that I really loved:

Make art for people, not for documentation.
Make art to experience and not to read about.
Put the artistry back in Art.

So much can be said about each one of these lines. Sometimes the concept is so heavily emphasized here that I feel like the aspect of art and craft gets lost. I hear all to often that the concept is the art, but I disagree. I do not think the definition of art is not something that can be pinpointed to one specific type of art. Conceptual art is an art form, and art that lacks concept can still be art. This idea has been driving me crazy for far too long. Make art for people, not for documentation. I want to make art for people!

Honestly, I really do love making and experiencing conceptual art, for the most part. Some I don't like, but hey, thats everything. If I am going to make conceptual art, I would like my concept to be something that I am actually really passionate about.  I am not interested in making conceptual art for the sake of my art having a concept. I completely understand that we are in a Fine Arts college and if it is conceptual art that I need to make to graduate, well then, conceptual art is what I am going to make.  I imagine that it is your hopes that I would want to make conceptual art rather than me making it just because I have to. This is totally true, I do want to make conceptual art, but sometimes for projects I feel like we are just pumping out concept for the sake of saying we can make art with concept. It is more important that it has a concept rather than that concept

I hope you don't think that you have failed me as a student because I think this way. I know I want to make a difference in the world through my art wether it be some huge conceptual piece of mine, or a stupid little drawing, animation, game, or dare I say, commercial, hollywood-style movie and/or game. So I am going to try to start right now and make something that I really care about. I am really interested in making a conceptual piece of art that mocks the entire aspect of concept. I am not sure how I am going to be able to expand upon this for this final project using the arduino and sensors. (And if at all possible, the raspberry pi).

Something along the lines of… oh i don't know, this is literally the first thing I thought of, but what about if I had some sort of random image or LED array of matrix made (on that LoL shield), and then underneath on an LCD screen a randomly generated written out concept shows up for that 'piece of art' and only when someone looks at the 'piece of art' (the randomly generated LED array) using a distance sensor, make someone have to be close up for a significant amount of time. Then it will change and move on to another random array and random generated concept. This was literally the first thing I thought of as an idea for this project and it doesn't have to be anything like this.

Maybe this whole idea is something that I can build upon for my senior project instead of this final project? Not really sure what the requirements of senior project are.  I still need to let this stew for a little bit so I am not really sure if this is suitable for the final project. I would rather really successfully execute this idea rather than rush it and it turn out just meh.

I am interested in hearing what you think about this. I hope that this can be a starting point for a very fun project.

Partners… I am totally down to be in a group, and if anyone thinks they can help out and/or has good ideas that will build onto this thought I would love to work together

Temperature Sensors

Temperature Sensor
Project 36



Temperature Sensor
Project 37
Part 1


Temperature Sensor
Project 37
Part 2

Pressure sensor hooked up to the LCD screen

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y2DRi5Alvgs


Pressure sensor hooked up to the LCD screen

Project 1 Reflection

I thought our project turned out really well considering all of the bumps in the road we had along the way. I really enjoyed working with the LED matrix's, even though at first I thought they were going to be a nightmare.

Some things we need to think about further with this project are the interface of the 'box' and our word choice for the LED. For the interface of the box, would you know to talk into it? The text was helpful, but I still think the interface of the box needs help. I think the only reason why everyone in the class knew to go up and speak into it was because they knew what our project was and saw us doing it. An actual microphone could be an option. Another option that was mentioned was the interface of an old style telephone you would talk into.

Another response that I heard often was that it seemed to be a kind of insult box. The initial display text definitely needed some work. The whole time we thought we were going to be limited to a max of like… 50 characters total amongst all our words because of the limitation with the code and the arduino's memory. Sunday night I had a breakthrough with the code and I was able to alter it so we could use pretty much as many words and sayings as we wanted. Monday morning before the critique we were thinking of all the extra words to say, so that was kind of on the fly. We could have definitely put more thought into the words being displayed.

Our grammar was also mentioned, why we didn't use periods. Well honestly, our grammar wasn't considered at the time, but I think it is really something that we should have looked at. The way it turned out, we didn't have any periods on our sentences, and honestly I liked how that mistakenly turned out. I think it left the viewer waiting for more, for the end.

People seemed to use the device as more of a 'yell box' or scream box rather than actually speaking words into it. I think this goes back to the interface of the box. If the interface was more inviting of words rather than screams or yells. I am not sure if I am more interested in a scream device or a communication device, I have heard of scream boxes before that you are supposed to vent frustration into. Scream boxes seem kind of cliché. It is interesting to think of a scream box that would respond to your levels of screams with insults. They are definitely something worth expanding upon.

Project Working

Pressure Sensor / LCD Screen

Thermistor

Liquid Crystal

autoscroll
http://youtu.be/rU2tpc1qztA
blink
http://youtu.be/4uvgpUBayXc
cursor
http://youtu.be/V6YQK9f2RA4
display
http://youtu.be/5aD8pbkmXWE
helloworld
http://youtu.be/Xj5OC8trb6k
scroll
http://youtu.be/oVYtGR2ZORA
serialdisplay
http://youtu.be/ZCvScpasNAc
setcursor
http://youtu.be/JxTfnyxFpEw
textdirection
http://youtu.be/feyjVBNFzzo

Codes and Stuff

I have all of the code available here in all of the stages
View it as follows, LEDPractice is first, then archive0 is oldest, highest number is most recent archive, current is current.
https://github.com/tgreena/Sensors/tree/master/SensorsProject1-LED
Here is another backup I did, I forget at which point this was though... http://pastebin.com/5ThjKNBd

I figured out a way to display words on the LED without having to use those large obnoxious matrices of 1's and 0's how we had it earlier https://github.com/tgreena/Sensors/tree/master/SensorsProject1-LED
What was happening with the matrices was if you tried to display too many characters in a row or have too many words totally on on the board, the arduino would run out of memory and wouldn't display anything. The work around for this was to find an alternative way to display characters on the arduino, because the large matrices weren't cutting it. Luckily I had been browsing arduino and raspberry pi forums and I came across this post http://kimondo.co.uk/raspberry-pi-arduino-8x8-led-matrix/ about using an arduino and a raspberry pi to control an 8x8 LED matrix with Python. I literally thought to myself "jackpot!" I seriously found the post Saturday. I looked and saw they were using an interesting way of converting hexadecimals into keyboard characters. I was able to cut out and rearrange the code into the code I was working with to replaced all those matrices with nice hexadecimal codes for all the characters. Another thing was I went around from if statements with conditionals to the random number generator to pick a random string. At first I was using the arduino random(int,int) function. It totally sucks because it picks the same numbers every time in the same order. So much for random… Well I got a library that does true random and added it in there.

The last problem was the microphone sample happened so fast that unless you are talking at that exact moment of the sample, it wouldn't catch it. What I did was I made the microphone sample the volume several times very quickly, and each time it sampled it it would keep the loudest value. It ended up working really well because it gives the viewer an opportunity for their voice to be heard.


On a side note
http://codeandlife.com/2012/07/29/arduino-and-raspberry-pi-serial-communication/
I started looking into it more and I found a guide on using the Arduino and the raspberry pi with serial communication in addition to the 8x8 LED matrix with the arduino and raspberry pi. I am interested in doing a tutorial for the class once I figure it out.

Skycraft Pictures

http://imgur.com/a/y2EH7#12

Thoughts

I wanted to take some time to write this post, it usually takes me a while to write down my thoughts and a half hour just wasn't enough.

Reading through our older posts, it is pretty obvious that this project has taken lots of turns. At first we were thinking of having some sort of infinity mirror reflection kaleidoscope looking light bright box, with a front facing camera recording the viewer and LED's displaying a very pixelated image of the viewer inside the box. Switching to a microphone instead of the camera was a great idea and necessary for the success of the project. We are going to try and get verbal interaction from people through the display of text on a LED matrix. We've had a few different thoughts on what the text is going to display. We all were thinking that our project can represent society, in that society tends to praise and idolize the loud people. We could have our project represent society in a way by having it give positive and negative feedback to the user based on their 'loudness'.

This was what I was thinking just before we spoke to you. This is what I was beginning to write.
I wanted to think of our project as an example of individuals in society. Very rarely does a wall flower make it to the limelight. It seems those who are the loudest, are often the ones speaking the most nonsense. I keep thinking of people like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, they talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and very rarely is anything of value. In fact most of it is just fluff covered shit; they dress it up really nicely, but ultimately, it is still crap. Sorry about the wording, I really don't know how else to put it.
I was thinking our project could give visual of the nonsense that all these people can't seem to stop talking by giving the loudest people feedback in words that seems positive to someone naive, but really is a pretty negative and or derogatory term. The quietest people would receive no feedback, but constantly be encouraged to speak up. And the people who speak in the middle range would receive a random mix of completely obviously negative or obviously positive feedback. Good job. You suck. Keep up the good work! Worst I've heard in years.

At this point our project is going to be similar to what I was thinking, but slightly altered. Instead of thinking of obnoxious people, we are just going to generalize it down to introverts and extroverts. We are going to reward the extroverts with praise, no matter what they are saying. The introverts are going to be encouraged to speak up through encouraging words. Those people who are more outgoing and loud will reap the rewards of praise first, while the introverts hopefully eventually speaking up.