FINAL PROJECT: Mixed Signals - Jen Herrera

-MIXED SIGNALS-

Photos:

       

Video Documentation:

Description:
This piece is about interspecies communication/human-animal communication. The interface is a handmade cat plush with an LED matrix head. Inside the head is where the arduino/protoshield is housed, and a long-life battery is housed in the body in a hidden zipper pouch. Embroidered into the plush's back are rows of conductive thread that serve as one big capacitive touch sensor to trigger the matrix. At first I thought of programming the matrix with 'faces' or recognizable symbols like letters or numbers, but then decided it might be too cliche and too embedded in human communication to be animal communication. I chose to instead create abstract compositions that would be displayed when the cat was touched, the thinking being that they would invite interpretation by the viewer, just as animal communication invites interpretation. In critique, one of the first things my classmates began discussing was whether one reaction was a 'good' reaction or a 'bad' reaction, so I was really pleased with that! This lends to my concept being that whatever the animal's intention behind it's communication, we only take away our human interpretation of it.

Process Posts:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Code (through 'read more'):

12/11 - Semester Project Process post #8 - Jen Herrera

The interface(plush) is currently being built! It's about 60% there I would say. The overall project I would estimate at 80% finished, with a few days left to go.

The housing for the LED matrix and the arduino:

The hidden zipper compartment for the extended life battery:

Embroidered 'touch' area made of conductive thread:
(seen from behind)

As for the content of it, I decided to follow through with my last concept iteration, in which I decided that the matrix should not display any recognizable words or symbols, but should be made of abstract compositions that might invite interpretation. In this way, even if the viewer gathers meaning from the 'cat''s reaction, it is merely the human interpretation of animal thoughts, just like in real life.

Since I wrote about that concept, I have put together 4 compositions that will be displayed on the matrix, one each time that the cat's back is pet.

Compositions:

I think I'm doing well with the time that's left. I just have to keep on sewing and get this thing assembled! :)

12/3 - Semester Project Process Post #7 - Jen Herrera

I spent almost three hours soldering this protoshield for myself. My LED matrix previously had 16 jumper wires dangling out of it, and it was causing problems when they came loose. SO now that I have this thing all set up, it's basically plug-and-play. It kinda limits my arduino to this project only when it's on, but that's alright. (shouldn't have put headers in all the pins I wasn't using or should have soldered more slots for wires...oh well. )

Anyways, it works!

One thing I had a huge problem with today was trying to figure out how to make the images on my matrix randomized when the sensor is touched... I really want to make 3-5 compositions, and have the code randomly select one to show when the plush is touched. I'm still currently struggling with this as my biggest obstacle. I'm hoping to have the plush body interface finished this weekend, so then all I should have to do is figure out the random images.

11/30 - Semester Project Process post #6 - Jen Herrera

At this point in time, I'm into the making of my project.
The plush's body is a work-in-progress; the body pattern is drafted and the head pattern will be finished soon.

More important than the physical is the electrical; I have all the pieces I need now. My usb power supply arrived today:

It's pretty large, so I need to make sure that I leave room for it in the final design. I'm looking forward to the fact that my project will be self-contained though! For the matrix, I just need to solder up a protoshield with its various connections so that it will be a plug-and-play sort of function. I have the protoshield in my mailbox and found a tutorial on soldering it for the matrix:
https://learn.adafruit.com/32x16-32x32-rgb-led-matrix/connecting-using-a-proto-shield

For my concept, the content of the matrix when the plush is touched is the most important thing. Last mini-crit, it was suggested that I look into animal communication research and I thought that maybe I would find some imagery to use in there. After researching, I found that the most interesting part of the articles were sections that said 'The cat was very concerned with the owner's emotions, researcher said.' In the end, we can observe interspecies communications all day long, but we are still making conclusions about them as humans, and are never able to fully understand how another animal is interpreting the situation.

Using this idea, I decided I'm going to simplify things and use the mechanics of the matrix to my advantage. It draws shapes very much like processing does, so it will be easy for me to draw various compositions of line and shape. Like abstract painting, it will be up to the viewer to try and interpret the shapes; or otherwise not try to interpret them. These composed reactions will be randomized in the order they show up, how long they last, and whether or not they blink. The 'emotions' of the 'animal' will remain a mystery, even if the viewer thinks that they have figured it out. 

11/18 Semester Project Process post #5 - Jen Herrera

After our prototype crit the general consensus was that my plush should be more realistic to better communicate interspecies communication. For this, I ordered some faux fur fabric to construct the toy out of. My main concern with using long fur was that a patch of conductive fabric, like I meant to use with short plush fur, would look like an ugly bald spot in the middle of the plush.

That's why for my second mini project I was investigating using the conductive thread for capacitive touch. My theory was that if I could sew rows into the fur, parting it where I sewed and then brushing the fur back over it, that I could get capacitive touch action that was nearly undetectable to the eye.

My fur came in this week and I got to work testing; good news, with a very low threshold (to make up for the lack of direct contact due to the fur) it works!

Video:

I'm super thrilled about this. I think it will look SO much better than the short pile fabric with patches of rough, unpleasant conductive thread. Concept wise, I love that the signal comes from just touching the fur of the 'animal' with no visible interface. It'll be so much closer to petting a cat and getting a reaction out of it!

I also found a free-to-use cat pattern in the general shape I was going to design one in. So I'm going to save myself a little time and just tweak that pattern since it's nearly an exact image of what I want.

Mini Project 2: Impact

Impact --||

My second mini project, a metaphor for human impact on an environment and how intervening in one area can can cause a chain reaction throughout an ecosystem. This project is composed of hand-crocheted flowers laced with conductive thread, a plush fabric landscape, and a lilypad arduino. When the first flower is touched, it 'dies', the light in it's center going out and causing a chain reaction throughout the other flowers.

Video of the project in action:

Code (Under Read More):

11/16 - Fritzing - Jen Herrera

I created the circuit that I used in my prototype and will use for my final project:

Mini Project 2, Process 3 - Jen Herrera

 A very process-oriented post, documenting the many steps I've taken to try and make this mini-project work.

The first thing I did was take the capacitive touch knowledge that I gathered from building my LED Matrix prototype, and use that to try and make one of my crochet flowers into a capacitive touch sensor. When touched, it's supposed to turn the light off!
Like in my prototype, using only one sensor, it works perfectly!

 

So then, using a tutorial for making a capacitive touch piano, I sketched up what my wiring/ sewing circuit should look like. It gets really confusing when you add more sensors and have to translate all the wires into stitches that can't overlap..

And then I began sewing them in.

When put together, all of the lights work!

My only problem is that the capacitive touch can behave erratically, sometimes not turning off and then turning off after a long delay. Individual flowers don't usually turn off but work in a chain reaction from the first or second flower. I need to go back over everything and maybe look further into my code.

Mini Project 2, Process post 2 - Jen Herrera

After some thought and reading, I decided I'm going to make my second mini project about touch and consequence. Often we are compelled to touch things, a flower, animal, object, artwork that perhaps we shouldn't, but we act on the need anyways. For this project I will make a small textile piece with crochet flowers and LEDs. The soft, fuzzy, colorful flowers should invite the viewer to touch them. This will send a signal through the conductive thread that will be woven into the petals (acting as a capacitive touch sensor), and turn off the LED that was lit up in the flower's center. So by touching it, you have 'killed' the flower. Trying to touch it again to bring it back will not yield a result, as once the damage is done, it cannot be undone. After a while (?) of no interaction, the flowers will reset for another person to interact with.

Concept sketch:

Test crochet, and test of conductive thread crochet (hint: it doesn't work. Yarn it is!)

Mini Project 2, Process post 1 - Jen Herrera

I'm still trying to pull together an idea for my second mini project. I think that because my final project is focusing on touch and communication, that I'd like to explore these topics further in my second mini project.

For touch, I really want to examine the idea of being allowed to touch, or whether or not we should touch something. This could go beyond physical touch perhaps and be connected with the idea of intervention; whether or not your unsolicited touch/intervention is required in a certain situation. If something invites us to touch it, does that mean that we should?

For communication, I would specifically start further research on inter-species communication. I'm not sure how that would evolve into a small project yet since I'd have to see what I find interesting first.

Overall, I want to use one of the lilypads and make another soft circuit. I like regular arduino uno work, but I really enjoy sewing the circuits like I did in my first project. This is especially fitting for projects dealing with touch, as textile have an inherent textile invitation to the viewer. As for the medium to invite the touch, I'm thinking I will most likely sew something simple or do a little bit of crochet. I'm always up for adding craft in to my artwork.

Liquid Crystal Library - Jen Herrera

Because I apparently only did the listings and forgot to do the whole library.

Autoscroll:

Blink:

Cursor:

Custom Character:

Display:

Hello World:

Scroll:

Serial Display:

Set Cursor:

Text Direction:

Proximity Sensor and Wave Shield - Jen Herrera

No pumpkin body and LEDs... Might have to make a turkey with it instead at this point. :(

Adafruit WaveHC Library - Jen Herrera

SD Read Test:

DAPHC:

openByIndex:

I kept trying but the fill files wouldn't paste into the root directory... if I copied them all inside the fill folder it would work. Then if I tried to drag them out, it would claim not enough space. REALLY FRUSTRATING. So I'm skipping it. :(

PiSpeakHC:

(Bonus if you're a LOST fan like me..)

SampleRateHC:
Errors.

11/9 - Semester project Process #4 with Protoype

My first go at a prototype:

In this test I got both the LED Matrix to work, as well as a conductive fabric capacitive touch sensor. It took a lot of research just to hook up the fabric, and once it was done I had to mash a bunch of code together. I ended up finding some code on how to make a capacitive touch piano out of tin foil. I also took the code to draw on the matrix from the library that I downloaded for it (It's looking surprisingly like drawing shapes in processing!). I cut up the two codes and mashed them together so that instead of playing a note when the 'key' is hit, it draws to the matrix.

Some concerns of mine are that this is definitely an arduino uno project and there are a ton of wires flopping around, sometimes getting loose and being unpredictable. I believe I'll have to put together a proto shield or something like that to make running the matrix more stable. As for the fabric sensors, I still want them to be sewn in with conductive thread, so I will have to experiment with securely fastening resistors into the thread and a way to turn the thread into a 'wire' at the end... maybe some sort of tie-in plug or pin for when it comes to attaching the arduino.

There's a lot of problem solving to do yet, but I'm happy with my progress so far.
I still need to ponder further the meaning or content of what will show up on the matrix, but I just wanted to get it working first!

11/8 - Semester Project Process post #3- Jen Herrera

I got my LED Matrix up and running! It definitely has to be driven off of the Arduino Uno, so I'm re-thinking my setup for my project. I really want to use the lilypad for the conductive fabric and thread, but now I'm not sure how the two arduinos will be able to talk to one another. I might have to look into making the fabric work with the Uno instead.

Either way, I want the project to be self-contained in the plush toy, which leads me to the power source realization. For my smaller lilypad projects, I was using the 3V battery that came with the protosnap set. The LED matrix definitely needs a 5v power supply that can draw up to 2A. There are regular battery packs that can accomodate this, but I'm worried about the life of them. My 3v battery died surprisingly fast with just my small blink LEDs for mini project 1. I found a battery pack meant for powering tablets and pis that I think will do the job.

Now to finish up my prototype!

11/6- Exploring Arduino Chapter 8 and Chapter 10 - Jen Herrera

8-1:

8-2:

8-3:

10-1:

10-2:

10-3:

Jen's Catch-up Work

All work under read more >>

10/16 - Skycraft Scavenger Hunt - Jen and Madeline

Skycraft Scavenger Hunt                                Jen Herrera and Madeline Morales

Please take a picture of each item on the scavenger hunt using your phone. You may work in pairs. You need also to take some notes getting serial numbers and label text so that you can learn more about the item and its specs when you get home. Post small sized pictures and text describing objects on blog. I need enough information to know what it is. Have fun!

Post is super long so page break: (click read more to see post, or this post will eat the whole front page)

10/21- Exploring Arduino Ch 7 (7-1 to 7-3) and Adafruit Ex - Jen Herrera

7-1:

7-2:

7-3:

Adafruit:

10/21 - Exploring Arduino Chapter 6 (6-1 to 6-9) - Jen Herrera

6-1:

6-2:

 

6-3:

 

6-4: