Last Post: Part 1

Hey Everyone,
This is going to be my (Catherine's) part of the last post (Shaun's Post includes all of the coding etc.) We combined our blogging, but We both thought that we would create respective posts according to our strengths.  In my case, this means the White House model and the iMovie videos. We really enjoyed seeing everyone's projects.  It was clear that everyone had spent a lot of time on theirs and all of the ideas were really different.  In particular, I loved Hilary's illustrated story- as someone who often has a lot of papers to mark, I really wish I could show this to all of the kids.  Instead of a boring and grumpy presentation about footnotes, the illustrations would make it much more fun.  I also really liked Heather's Baseball helmet, what a great way to get people of all ages involved in themed exhibits. Also, for me swinging at nothing is probably the only time I'll ever hear a home run announcement....

For our model, we decided to include:
1. The Blue Room
2. The Red Room
3. The Green Room
4. The Roosevelt Room

We originally had thought of different rooms to create, but decided that four rooms that were all significantly different in their decor would probably be a better bet.  Making the model was much harder than we initially believed it would be...  It's much easier to envision the rooms etc. coming together than actually implementing it.  If time had allowed, we would have loved to order some playmobile furniture that would have worked with each of the rooms, and then we could have put light fixtures in the lights.  This would help correspond the room in the model to the room on the screen.

Here is a picture of the Red Room (bottom) and the Blue Room (above)

Our White House as a whole,

The house was made up of two pieces (so we could carry it from room to room.) The first piece was the lawn and the bottom part of the patio with the pillars.  The second part was the model with the four rooms (propped up by another piece of foam core.)

The Republican bobble head was sitting on top of a button which was connected to an LED.  When pressed, the LED reads "Welcome to the White House, Please watch the video."  The LED was connected to a touch sensor, when touched- the sensor was supposed to bring up the clips on the laptop screen.

This is what everything looked like when it was connected. We took some of the clips we used and edited them using iMovie.  iMovie was easy enough to figure out, so we added music to some of the clips and then combined them to make a larger film.  There was commentary on many of the videos already, but we would have liked to do the voice overs ourselves as well as the music, so we would just be keeping the visuals.  I'll include the links for a clip from the Blue Room as well as the Red Room below (we didn't get to play them through during our presentation.)  We don't own the content, so I thought It would be better to link rather than post it directly.

The Blue Room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oVVJLBprDs

The Red Room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQxHac5hTwk

Final Thoughts,
I know both Shaun and I had a lot of fun in this class.  Not only was it great to be able to do something different, but it was also nice to be able to learn something new every class.  Even though sometimes the glitches (or our overall inability to figure out Firmata) were sometimes frustrating, getting through these pitfalls made for a rewarding experience.  Now we just have to figure out how to get the White House out of Shaun's office...  If anyone wants to recreate Independence Day, let us know!

Last Day!!

Hi All,

Before we go to class today, Shaun and I were just putting the finishing touches on our project.  It's taken us a long time, but we finally have something solid.

Not only can I, Shaun, take great photos (see picture of Catherine above) but also navigate the Arduino and Processing software. Although there were many, many difficulties encountered, we somehow were able to produce a sequence of push buttons and enabled Processing to access a .MOV file from our laptops. We cannot wait until this afternoons class to see what everyone else has produced! We look forward, as well, to writing about our adventure!

Project Deadline Approaching....

With our model underway, Shaun and I wanted to see if we could connect our Arduino to an ipod so that we would cut down on space... The process looks a little something like this:

http://www.jonasolson.se/content/arduino_tutorial/

Needless to say, it looks a little complicated- but still possible? Unfortunately not at this juncture. Looks like we're going to have to stay connected to one of our laptops for the white house.

More Error Messages....

March is scary

It's mid-March, and both Shaun and I are a bit nervous, as we're trying to work out the bugs in our project.  We both had somewhat different conceptions of how our model should be created (I was liberal with the creation, Shaun took a more structured approach...) So we ended up with a jumble of happy mediums.  Last week we had a lot of trouble with Firmata and Processing, so this week, we're hoping to be able to participate and run through the exercises with the rest of the class and figure out how we can start to integrate! Most of our scrips are done, and we've chosen the four rooms in the white house we want to continue creating 

1. The Oval Office

2. The Roosevelt Room

3. The Situation Room

4. The East Room

Model Students

Today Shaun and I are cracking out our supplies- we're going to try to make this model over the weekend (the whole thing's definitely not going to happen, but at least we'll have made some progress!)  We're going to try to make the basic structure and play it by ear, we don't know for sure where all of our wires and sensors are going to go so the model is going to have to be tentative for now.

Matt sent us a great link over twitter which tells you how to connect the arduino to your ipod!  This would be really helpful- considering we were planning to hook the wires up to one of our laptops.  We're going to get to work, but we'll update on Monday as to how we're doing.

The best part about this, is the pink glue gun....

Error Messages are no fun.

Fun Stuff....

Over the past few weeks, we've been having a lot of fun learning how to use inkscape, sketch up and working on our projects.  After the difficulties I had with processing, it was nice to be able to draw and design images without coding anything.... When we started out with inkscape, my partner was away, so I had free range to draw whatever I wanted! I started out using the star shape,

and then moved on to drawing Ninja Turtles.  All of which were extremely pertinent to my project and area of research...

Sketchup fit in a little bit more with what Shaun and I were doing, Shaun even found a sketchup of the White House that had already been completed- It was a little more detailed than my clubhouse...

Although it was nice to be able to play around in 3d to create structures and consider the route we wanted to take with our model.  Essentially, what we want to create is a model of the White House with four rooms that are open.  In each of these rooms, when a figurine enters, we would like to cue or program an audio recording which can explain the room, it's function and roles in history.  Last class, professor Turkel gave us a sensor to work with.  Little did we know, the magnet had to be out of it's plastic casing for the sensor to work.  So something we thought had been a failure may turn out very well.

This is pretty much an example of how our class time is used.  Mostly we both make an effort to try things out and if they work correctly, or as they're supposed to- it's an obvious plus.  Hopefully we'll have a bit of time to try the sensors again today using the correct method.  If this doesn't work out, I was speaking to Matt earlier on, who suggested a push button instead of a sensor for our model.  I think this is also a great idea, and if a push button facilitates the process then we can start imagining how we can take the model further and perhaps incorporate more digital features.

Project Collaboration

Following my introduction to Arduino, and playing around with the lights and sensors, Shaun and I began to think about what we could collaborate on for our final project.  Initially, I thought it would be fun to do something with ballet, and Shaun wanted to use a goalie mask for his exhibit.  Between the two of us, we had a hard time deciding between our ideas.  After a bit more experimenting with Arduino, and the Processing tool, we both had a couple of new plans...

Trying to figure out how to program the LED (unsuccessfully.)

Both Shaun and I are avid American historians, so it was no wonder that we decided independently that we wanted to use an event or an icon which was central to the American story.  Shaun thought it would be interesting if we could recreate the JFK assassination using an electrically controlled car.  Then we could program the music to play the president's march until the shooting occurred.  Although I agreed that this would have a great impact, we decided that it would be a bit too macabre.  Another idea we came up with (after consulting with Professor Turkel,) was to have a model White House. In the White house, one could move a figure into each room on display and they would be able to hear a historical background to their choice.  I especially liked this idea, as I have a longstanding love of all things playmobile, and think that the interactive aspect is a great way to get people involved.  Hopefully next week we'll be able to put together a plan and figure out what kind of technology we could use to execute our idea!

Historical Object

As one of the least technology savvy people I know- creating a blog seemed extremely daunting, initially...  After a failed attempt at figuring out Wordpress, I decided that Blogger would be the best site to start off with.  For this assignment, I tried to think of an object that would be original as well as interesting.  Furthermore, I wanted to imagine an exhibit that I have a personal connection with and would enjoy the process of designing.

I'm sure many young girls who are enrolled in dance classes dream of being prima ballerinas when they get older.  I was always a realist, and had other dreams, but ballet was still a huge part of my life growing up.  This is where I got the idea for my object, the very thing that every girl who dances loves and loathes, pointe shoes.  When you get your first pair, the feeling of excitement is indescribable, and then you put them on and realize what you've actually gotten yourself into...  You want to believe that you're in one of Degas renditions of the ballerinas, but the reality is something much different.

 

Having said that, it's not all bad.  It also gave me a chance to think about the evolution of ballet slippers as well as pointe shoes.  The modern pointe shoe has only been around since the early 20^th century and Ballet as a dance form has been dated to the 15^th century. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to demonstrate the evolution of Ballet costumes (the pointe shoe in particular) and somehow display how dance has changed as well?  It would also be great to be able to display iconic versions of pointe shoes and show how they were worn and danced with during the performance.  I'm not sure how much of this would be possible... If nothing else, it's fun to consider and I look forward to being able to create something this term!