P005 → Interwoven
- Date: January 2025 — June 2025
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Course: VIS 160A & B Senior Project in Computing Arts
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Arduino, LCD Screen, Servo Motor, Ping Ultrasonic Range Finder, String, 3D Print
An interactive installation, where a mechanical hand tied to several screens with strings. It looks like the hand is controlling the screens, but the screens are also influencing the hands because they are tied to each other. To bring the audiences into this interchanging relationship, an Ultrasonic Range Finder is used to detect the presence of the audiences. When the audience comes closer to the installation, the servo motors will be activated to drive the movement of the hand and the string.
Envision
TIMELINE
Week 1 - 4
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Research appropriate sensors for detecting string movements (e.g., tension or motion sensors).
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Finalize material choices: test yarn for weaving and visual effects.
- Order all necessary materials, including projector, sensors, strings, motor, and screens.
Week 5 Midterm
- Test on the hardwares, like motion sensor, motors, and screens
- Begin writing basic code for sensors to detect movement and relay data to Arduino.
- Develop initial prototypes of the hand (3D printed or using readymade objects).
- Show functional interaction between string movement and sensor feedback.
- Watch and learn tutorials on how to use and code for the motor
- Having a working prototype that connects the sensor and the motor.
- Demonstrate partial hand prototype and string moving.
- Test the responsiveness of the sensors with movements.
A Finger Prototype made with Cardboard and Rubber Band
Week 8
- Fabricate the hand parts and the spool
- Integrate hand model and strings into the physical setup.
Week 9 Final
- Put all parts of the finger together and test on the mechanism
Week 10
- Test the geared dc motor
Week 11
- Modify the hand model and print them out
- Test on the new hand model
Week 12
- Decide to swtich from multiple small screens to a big screen with a cover board
- Connect the fingers with the hand palm
- Finish the mechanism of the moving hand
Week 13
- Deciding the formats of the visuals
- Using p5.js to frame the test visuals https://editor.p5js.org/DaisyAcl/sketches/pDycaa3Yh
Visual Ideas + References
- A surveillance camera rotating silently, scanning its surroundings without alert. When the audience approaches and triggers the string, a red light begins to blink and the camera sharply fixes its gaze towards the audiences. //Safety Under Surveillance
- A large human eye wanders across the screen, as if scaning or searching for something. When the audience moves closer, the eye suddenly locks onto them, creating a direct and unsettling moment of contact. //Watcher and Watched
- A person stands still tossing a boomerang up and down while a dog watches with eager anticipation. Once triggered, the boomerang is thrown into the distance, and the dog sprits to chase the boomerang. The boomerang swings back to the person, and the dog failed to reach the boomerang. //Boomerang
- A person in a cow costume floats slowly toward a spaceship, caught in a surreal beam of light. When the setup is triggerred, the costume is pulled into the spaceship, and the human inside falls down to the ground. //Cosmic Cow
- An open eye stares forward while a hand repeatedly clicks a mechanical pencil beside it. The pencil stucked, with the hand repeatly clicking with frustrations. Once triggered, the pencil begins to extend rapidly, moving dangerously close to the eye. //Unblinking
- A cocoon slowly wrapping itself in silky threads. When triggered, the silk begins to unravel in reverse, pulling the cocoon apart, and reveals the inside. //Echo Chamber
Week 14 UPDATE 1
- Connect p5.js and Arduino through SerialPort
- Using Range Finder to control the switch between visuals and hand
- Try to make AI generative videos
👽 Area 51 Vending Machine
Loop: Someone presses a soda button on an Area 51 breakroom machine.
Trigger: A small alien hand reaches out from the slot holding the can… then vanishes again.
Week 17 - 18
- Connect the button with both P5.js and Arduino
Test the Serialport with the push button
NO - pin 2
COM - GND
SERVO:
yellow - pin9
red - 5V
brown - GND
After Week 18
- Woven the net between the hand and the screens
- Cut the cover board
- Making the clear box
- Painting the hand