Mini-Project 1 thoughts, Post #1 - Jen Herrera

For the first mini-project, I definitely want to explore using conductive thread so that I can get some experience with it before the final project.

Signal is an interesting theme to think about. It's obviously an important element to electronics, but signal has definitions outside of that. To signal is to transmit information through gesture, action, or sound. Signals have the connotation of understandings and agreements, as to be recognized, a signal has to be agreed upon. A signal might not be recognized and could go unnoticed. Electrical signals are related in that depending on what they are, they are not perceivable by the human senses until there is some sort of reaction.

I'm thinking on this, and how I could possibly relate it to thread, textiles, embroidery or sewing. To use the conductive thread, there has to be some sort of physical interface to be the sort of substrate for the thread. I don't want to get too caught up in the construction of a garment or item of clothing for the mini-project... I may try to make an accessory or something small, or alternatively decorative piece like an embroidery hoop that can hang on the wall and perform its function.

Some small thoughts on accessories:
-Sunglasses as a signal themselves (Don't talk to me)
-Headband
-Bracelet
-Scarf(more conducive to thread obviously)
-Some kind of crochet/knitted hat

I definitely want the signal to be meaningful and possibly related to interpersonal interaction, or intrapersonal thoughts.

Project Brainstorm 9/14

Flowers.

I want to make virtual plants that are powered by solar electricity and the regard of sentient beings.

I would like to place them outside, or near a window, that are hooked up to solar panels and a battery. Their rate of growth would depend on both the amount of solar power that they receive and how much people talk to them. The more that people talk to them, the more they grow and the bigger they end up. If no one talks to them, they die of loneliness.

http://www.adafruit.com/search?q=solar&b=1

Enterface Prototyping

Built a couple of very simplified prototypes in GML using ASEPRITE for an 8-bit resolution.

Freud would have something to say about the shape of that wiggling hallway, but he can suck a cigar.

The first just shows directional correspondence with keyboard arrows (up, down, left, right)

Secondly I turned the simple directional frames into a crude animated hallway of corridors. This required slightly more sophisticated coding to create transitions that behaved naturally from a turning-in-place and moving forward first-person-view.

The prototype is aesthetically crude, but the principle of the visual interface programming is there. Just match the keyboard presses to EOG sensors and you've got a real working prototype.


I ordered some of these sleeping gel masks while thinking about application for the sensors. These objects alone are inspiring a divergent body of work. Looking into how one with my facilities might produce similar "enterfaces".

Enterface

Tribal masks ritualized to reverse aging. Wrapped around the face extending the skin through a prosthetic barrier. 

Faces of mythology enter sleep with a cool bravado warding away decay, the passage of time. 

Seeing feeling. 

So what the hell is that liquid? It's a "dry gel" that turns to the jelly consistency you know and love when you add water. I found the MSDS sheet on it and bulk bags for $25 and under.

http://www.axizz.com/msds/MSDS-Temtro-Dry-Gel.html

I'm now wondering how difficult it would be to fabricate a custom plate to create original masks. Judging by the look of these tools available from a company called TOSS Heat Seal, they're nothing short of a thin plate metal shaped for different curves and effects. With some trial and error I think I could make some "molds" of my own cutting the plates using the water jet at the Fabrication Laboratory.

Project Brainstorm

My background disposes me to think of the senses and their "sensability" during sleep state. Given the types of sensors I am aware of available to us, my most immediate conclusion is to utilized an EOG sensor attached to the sleeper's eyes for feedback as they navigate the dreamscape.

I know that the technology exists having read but a few accounts of studies done where a sleep study subject's eye-directions during REM sleep were corresponded with descriptions of their dreams -- or in the case of a disorder study paired with the actual physical direction they moved their head during sleep.

If I can find the means to capture the signal, the direction of eyes moving under eyelids, then this action during sleep could be paired with directional "button-presses" as if on a gamepad. This gamepad would control a first-person view of an isometric pixel based dungeon in the style of older games in the genre.

The interface then becomes a visual extension of the sleeper's ocular exploration "behind closed eyes".  The graphic assets in this interface are fairly underwhelming since they largely repeat themselves. You could go as far down that rabbit hole as you pleased with adding elements, like visual "encounters" during different types of registered electric activity in the body, but the focus here is purely on directional eye movement during sleep.

As an additional feature, I'd like to incorporate a mini-map that reveals and records the "area" in which the sleeper is exploring. I was thinking that a certain level of electrical pulse in a direction would procedurally generate the "possible pathway in that direction" but the "button press" would happen at a more extreme signal indicated in a direction. At the end you should have a visual map of where the sleeper "went" and "paths considered".

The alternative to receiving signals directly from a sleeper would be to turn polysomnograph data into values which performed the same function, but in a pre-generated way, rather than a "live performance", the ultimate goal.

Fortunately, I have a coding professional in my friend circle that already produces very similar work for a neurofeedback software company that produces games "played" by electrical signals in the brain. My needs would be a more concise, less demanding piece of software.

Also in my favor is the fact that this is not a piece of medical equipment, so the exactness of the EOG reading needs only to correspond within the gameworld in a "sensible" way.

The decision to design the "game" using pixel graphics is mostly one of convenience, but also of relevance to my background and skillset. A more modern design would simply be more demanding and distract from the real purpose of the piece. Also, the arduino is already an 8-bit device. Whether or not this means it could run something Nintendo Entertainment System code (6502 Assembly) or not remains to be known.

Challenges:
1. Securing the technology.
2. Find funding, possibly clinical backing. The more excitement generated over the project, the better it can be. Funds can be used to pay the software engineer, and for the equipment needed to detect directional movement in EOG.
3. Design a "set" for the "performance" (if it is to be live; in the case the software is fed a "script" this can exist purely as a self contained object)
4. Running an 8-bit visual with arduino may be difficult (or impossible). Arduino may, instead, have to serve as the controller to an externally hosted emulator. (or poo on all that and use RaspberryPi)

Benefits
1. A visual study of rapid eye movement. New patterns may emerge by recoding the visualization from a polysomnograph recording which is unwieldy to the trained eye, and meaningless to the laymen.
2.  A foot forward in the understanding of the "performance of sleep". By giving the electrical signals of the sleeping brain a performing body to act them out we can come to understand and appreciate this dimension of all life.
3. An entry to "video game art" transcending the purpose and manner of video games. (I strongly believe the conventions of video games are very powerful tools in digital media and there needs to be a redefinition of this toolset in artmaking practices. The words "video game" conjure up kind of a dirty feeling and also isn't entirely accurate to these applications.Maybe this has already happened and I missed the memo.)

Steps
Hardware
EOG sensors (directional, eyelids closed)
Arduino or RaspberryPi
sleeping mask...or some such nonsense
output monitor
"bed" (maybe a blackened, comfortable space)
"performer"

Software
6502 Assembly (or substitute, just needs to run an 8-bit visual)
convert EOG to directional "button presses"

Game Design Doc
Assets:
Every "screen" can contain the HUD, Minimap, floor, wall, and ceiling tiles.
We only need wall variations:
Wall (Left, Right, Face, can be identical)
One-Way Corner (mirror)
Two-Way Corner
Three-Way Corner
HUD(or not)
Minimap:
tiles indicating path shape
left, right corridors (horizontal)
forward, backward corridors (vertical)
"L" shape (rotatable)
"+" shape
Position Marker

Controls 
Input by electrical signal from eye movement. There will be two levels of tolerance: gen (generate), and step).
gen"Up" <generate forward path>
gen"Up" <if wall is present, ignore input>
step"Up" <step forward>


To be continued... (but feel free to comment anytime...this is brainstorming, yo)

Project Ideas

I have a bunch of ideas for my semester project. My favorite ideas deal with make a life size, real life game.

1. Recreate the game Simon, in doing so I would like to incorporate sound and the use of a sensor and timer.

2. A real-life operation game where I would wear a suit and people will try to detach things from my body without touching me, if they touch me a sensor will be activated and a loud noise or shock will occur.

My other ideas aren't game related....

1. Placing "trip wires" in a hallway and once it has been tripped a series of images will occur in the hallway. As the person moves the images or videos will appear.

2. Creating condoms with sensors in them, haven't really developed this idea but I thought it'd be pretty fun and cool


Cool things to use:

1. Dial Keypad
2. Touch Screen
3. Fingerprint Scanner
4. Card Scanner
5. Joysticks

9/2 project 1 ideas

for this project I'd like to continue with the theme of 'Solarpunk' that I was playing with last semester.

I'd like to create something that runs on solar or wind, or some sort of crank. I'd like to gave a screen that grows a digital plant in realtime depemdimg on the amount of energy supplied by solar/wind etc. I'd like to make it interactive, like a whole mini-garden of digital plants that are self-sustaining or don't need batteries or to be plugged in.