Ball and things

Post 38

Happiness level: 6

Personal progress

As for unity, David has coached me own how to create and link my scenes in UNITY. To call the scenes I would have to use 0 or 1, I think it's way better, you couldn't get the name wrong by typo.

I have also purchased my project ball. It's diameter is about 50cm, it's a bit small but it's alright since the users are going to be standing really near it and the projector wouldn't be so far. I have a limited space only. It's crazy expensive, RM175.

As of for now I have spent RM720 on materials. So expensive. But if you look at it from an agency point of view, it's actually a pretty cheap project. Many projects reach thousands of ringgit. Yeah, I'm comforting myself.

Tutor(s) present: Yee Siang

Yee Siang lent me this microphone from college which worked perfectly. The problem with my previous microphone was that it was too sensitive to sound. Excuse my badly manicured finger.

Stage Design & Glove Design

Post 37

Happiness level: 6

Tutor(s) present: Jazmi

Stage Design

After showing Jazmi my previous post on the motion graphics, we concluded to use different platforms instead of using just a one dimensional screen. Most of my references and tutorials are spherical as well. I proposed a few stage sketches but concluded that I could use a polystyrene sphere instead to suit my motion graphic benchmarks.

He told me that I should be careful of the shadow casts if I were to pick my polygonal stage design.

I would cut a small section in the sphere and place the DJ in it. To avoid shadow casts, I will place a small mirror to reflect the DJ into the cut out hole.

I have also concluded to suspend the sphere in mid-air.

I am considering to rent another projector so that my project could be viewed in 360 Degrees.

Glove Design

As for the glove, it is decided and preferred that it took a look of a cuff instead of a whole glove wear up to the palms.

Motion Graphics Tutorials

Post 36

Happiness level: 5

Light Tech Circles
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/playlist/motion_design/advanced_spin_fx/


Shockwaves
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/playlist/motion_design/shockwaves/
During mid experience.

The ring
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/the_ring/
http://chchcheckit.com/downloads/particle-ring-audio-reaction/ (he actually uploads the sources files for freeee which is AWESOME)

Audio Animation
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/playlist/motion_design/audio_to_animation/
Idle Mode.


Stream of light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-JG1n_Yeo8
Will use this for Idle mode.


Traingles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6JRQl2Dh5E&list=UUuwZ2IZ2pAy4ZOLEtmuApyQ
During mid experience.


Ring of particles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6oA-MfsUM&list=UUuwZ2IZ2pAy4ZOLEtmuApyQ

The intro -starting page.


CC lens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmxP749LYYQ&index=4&list=PLRyoAtAq0XD2xOLEpU112wEQgsrcvzgpt
FIST PUMP text during mid experience.


Grids
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/the_grid/

Placement and Wiring Test & Testing out microphone

Post 35

Happiness level: -10

Personal Progress

I tested out the placements and the wiring at home the night before the Friday consultation, and tested the microphone in the morning. While testing out the wiring with fishing string, I discovered a couple of problems. It's a lucky thing I had experience with circular boards, I would know how to deal with overlapping wiring.

I took some notes on which port would be nearer to certain parts, which would also then effect the way I code my boards.

- accelerometer change from a0 to a1 for z

- rx tx need to be taped over to avoid interferance

- RGB bulb change to pin 5 6 7 rather than 9, 10 , 11

References

Barragán, H. (2014). ElectretMicrophone \ Learning \ Wiring. [online] Wiring. Available at: http://wiring.org.co/learning/basics/electretmicrophone.html [Accessed 20 Nov. 2014].

Instructables, (2014). The microphone and breakout board. [online] Available at: http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Wind-Instrument/step4/The-microphone-and-breakout-board/ [Accessed 20 Nov. 2014].

Tutorial Session

Tutor(s) present: Yee Siang

I brought my woes and my microphone and did not get to solve it.
I could have burnt my microphone.

I keep getting values even though the board wasn't hooked up to the microphone.
And when I did, Yee Siang suggested that I poke through the holes with wire instead of using alligator clips because it couldn't reach deep enough the breakout board.

It worked for awhile, but the value changes with movement. It's almost like a touch sensor rather than a microphone.

I was utterly depressed and unmotivated when I couldn't get a 'supposedly easy' mechanism to work and took 4 hours to do it. Even connecting to arduino with the accelerometer was quicker. One of the reasons why I was devastated is because I worked with sound sensors/mics twice before and had amazing results. I even singed bits of conductive thread today. Sparks. Fire. If I had burned my microphone, I burnt 8USD, just like that. With no ROI.

Why am I failing at this now? I'm determined to get it to work. In the mean time these are my current to do lists for this project.

- Make game mechanism in UNITY: Put accelerometer and changescene scripts
- Get wifi module to work
- Get microphone to work
- Sketch stage for projection mapping
- Sketch wiring in Ai
- Sketch motion graphics

It's getting down to the wire, I better get some graphics in already too.

First Ideation Tutorial of the Final Sem

Post 34

Happiness level: 7

Tutor(s) present: Jazmi Jamal

I was very happy with this tutorial.

Today for this session I brought my second set of music and it is wayyy better and more hyped than the first one.

I brought my boards as well to show Jazmi the placements for the boards and how it would effect the user experience. I showed him and it looked so long! Like this.

There was the LiPower and the battery to think about as well, and I wanted to sew it on the forearm, underneath my arm and the boards. Jazmi suggested that I shouldn't since the thread is going to be so thin and easily breakable.

He suggested that I stack the Xbee board and the arduino board so it looks like some kind of watch mechanism and it didn't need to fill the whole arm. A cuff would be a good design with velcro so that users could take it off and put it on easily.

He gave me a boxing glove as reference. Haha! He said to make sure to put these boards in proper casings to avoid malfunctions and interference from the environmental factors. 

I should also get on with the wooband design and the stage design as well, cause right now all I have is the really basic stuff, like how I want the band to be purple/skin colored/black and such.

Here are some references he shared with me that I could think of, to give my stage more depth and dimension.

They are all slanting walls with projectors projecting the images unto them.

It works

Post 33

Happiness Level: 6

I have made it a point to record every single detail of my working progress.

Note to self:

1. Open arduino first and link up the sketch,
then only open unity.

Why? If I open up unity first, the serial port would be already in use and I wouldn't be able to upload new sketches to my board.

2. z to a2

Wire it like this. I'm only using the Z index, so yeah I only need to hook one up.

3. blah c# script put ON THE CUBE (element)

Yes, out of frustration I named the file blah. I tried renaming it but it messes up everything. So yeah, I'm sticking with blah.


I was trying to hook up my wifi module and connect it to the computer but had some troubles. Apprently online people said the usb port has to be on com1.

I downloaded different terminals, hyperterminal, coolterm, x-ctu and XCTU. Still doesn't work. I'm starting to think it's the wiring problem.

Totally cannot be the driver problem because I already got the accelerometer to work.

BUT, after awhile I got it to work with HYPERTERMINAL and it connects! You had to pay for it.

I had to make sure the board is clean from code, I got spammed because my accelerometer code is still in it.

I have to adjust Baud rate to 38400 so I don't get alien wordings. Like this.

So after awhile I got what I wanted, but not really. It didn't say OK like it's supposed to after I typed in +++. It's to show that it's connected. Tutorials in the links below.

It was supposed to be +++OK.

Well, it's a step.

References

Faludi, R. (2013). Common XBee Mistakes. [online] Faludi. Available at: http://www.faludi.com/projects/common-xbee-mistakes/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2014].

Hartman, K. and Faludi, R. (2012). D I Y : Superhero Communicator Cuffs. 1st ed. [ebook] New York: OCAD University. Available at: http://research.ocadu.ca/sites/research.ocadu.ca/files/socialbody/201106_SuperHeroCommunicatorCuffs.pdf [Accessed 18 Nov. 2014].

Ladyada, (2012). Xbee Adapter - Connecting, Configuring and Upgrading. [online] Available at: http://www.ladyada.net/make/xbee/configure.html [Accessed 18 Nov. 2014].

sparkfun, (2014). Serial Terminal Basics. [online] Available at: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/terminal-basics/all [Accessed 18 Nov. 2014].

First Technical Tutorial of the Final Sem

Post 32

Tutor(s) present: Yee Siang

Happiness level: -5

Yes, this is the first time my happiness level went below 0. Not that seeing him after the two month holiday was bad at all, it was more on how embarrassed I was with the little progress I had for the technical parts over that period.
Spent the whole time trouble shooting stuff I managed to do at home on my desktop. One thing I did though, I tried out the wifi router,

Problem 1:
I didn't record my success and what I did when I got the Unity and Arduino linked at the time, (the post which had a youtube of me waving around the working accelerometer)
I didn't even record how the wiring map looked like. I brought the try out files with ghoul files with weird namings like 'blah, tryout, try2' so I did not know which file was the exact one which worked.
So here it is:

Problem 2:
I did not try out the Xbee wifi module at all and discovered that XCTU was more complicated to use than I thought it was. There;s this new software called CoolTerm which I found online on the Arduino site which could help with the wifi on my xbee.

Back to School.

Post 31

Tutor(s) present: Jazmi Jamal

So here starts the first tutorial of my final semester before I plunge headfirst into land of professional working adulthood and OT's. I have made several alterations on the output of my FYP, one drastic one would be the output.

Won't be using a holobox anymore, instead I would be using a projector screen to project map the audiences beside the main screen and the main screen onto a blank wall.

My initial idea was, that I wanted o place 2 monitors at both sides of the screen for instructions and visual aids.  Like so.

BUT, if I had use the two monitors, I'd had to handle 4 monitors including the projected screen, my laptop and the two monitors along with all the extra CPU's and what not. So instead of lugging all these monitors around, using one projector to project the 3 panels would be easier.


I updated him with my progress over the holidays, the changes I made and such.


*Important actions
- Take note of the distance and projector placements
- The song isn't 'hyped' enough.
- Produce the mock up by next week.
- Test out the wifi connection

Somehow every time I think about the FYP I'd get all jittery and wouldn't know where to start. Well at least I'm making things simpler and cleaner, which also requires less effort to produce, so I'm less worried now.

Happiness Level: 6 

(Happy that I could compromise some things.
Instead of 'compromising on the idea and quality' like most people would think compromise meant, these compromises actually help the project)