Got the easy part done - WIFI ARDUINO XBEE LILYPAD

Post 50

Happiness Level: 6

I have to admit, I have been avoiding this project for quite sometime ever since my Dengue fever.
But I did double check the connection with the wifi and it works fine.

To make life easier, and to clear up what the tutorial failed to mention, (which resulted me and Yee Siang into panic mode) is that the +++ command is automatic, but the other commands are not.

Which means after typing ATMY or any other command, you have to press enter.

If not you would be like me, waiting for the automatic OK response for like forever.

I used two computers to send the messages, my desktop and my laptop and configured the 2 xbees by myself, with the help of the tutorial.

This is the CoolTerm on my desktop which acts as the SENDER,

And the xbee,

And this is the CoolTerm (receiver) on my laptop.

And the Xbee.

One thing I noticed though, I cannot send messages from the receiver to the sender. Only the Glove Xbee could send the info, because I set it that way, There's not back and forth communication.

I don't think that would be a worry though, my project does not require back and forth comm.

Now to link it with Processing.

I'm not excited.

More things to do:

- Wait for Jam Long to reply me on the tutorial he had which could fix my unlinkable pages

- Set the invoke for the delay thing to restart. (probably only I would understand what I'm typing)

An update on the logistics too,
Looks like I won't be needing an arch or stage mount thing, the ceiling at Publika blackbox would suffice.
Sad that nobody wants to be near my installation because of its loudness.

As for the unity and the delay matter,
David told me that there is no such thing as 'YEILD' for unity C# and that I should only use INVOKE.

Alpha Test with Level 4

Post 49

Happiness level : 8

Would give it a 10 if I had more help moving my junk up two flights of stairs.

Lecturers that gave their comments as well: Daniel Chong, Jiawern Kok, Jazmi Jamal, Sweii, Kelvin, Jam Long

You can see the band changing from green to blue!

So, based on my very unique survey, I have collected a number of drawings of faces which are pretty much explanatory.

Following things to improve:
- Make the differences wider between idle mode and active mode
- the tutorial isn't obvious enough
- get the wifi working

Edit//
My components from Singapore has finally arrived! Yeay!

Preparing for Alpha test with LV 4 Students (our juniors)

Post 48

Happiness level: 5

I've built a ramp for the projector with hard card but it came out the wrong height. I'll fix it tomorrow morning.

There are some progress, although very little. Many of my tutors and classmates were complaining that my band was impossible to wear because it was too tight. (Which I agree) So I sewed elastic bands to increase the elasticity of the band and stuck on the Velcro so that the white plastic flap could close properly and stop flapping around.

And here's me playing with the accelerometer. I realized I haven't really showed anyone this.

My wifi parts from Singapore haven't arrived yet and I'm starting to get worried.

As for the video during the experience, I had videos of people fist pumping but they were in black and white. Initially I wanted to make them all black and white because one of the videos in there are in black and white. But Jazmi said it looked like a revolt video.

SO, I re-edited it again and put the color back and added some film burns. I also increased the size of the tutorial man cause it was too small before.

It wasn't necessary to have a survey during the Alpha test, (we just needed 5 participants to try it out and gather their feedback in our little notebook) but I created one anyway.

I made it fun too, so that they would be more relaxed and honest when answering my questions. I didn't want it to be serious and boring, because that's how I usually feel when I'm asked to do surveys without a free gift as a reward.

Click to enlarge.

Here are some of the field work I did in stalking for scaffolding.

As for the 'scaffolding', I talked to a few people, but a flower shop (FLEUR) is willing to rent me a wedding arch with branches which looks great and mysterious for RM260. I think it's still too expensive so I might want to entice her with promotional opportunities so I could get it sponsored.

Guest Sharing with Mr. Benedict from G2

Post. 47

Happiness level: 8

My Happiness is only that high because of Benedict's response to my project. He gave me a mini clap and said that he loved it.
He also said that my project had a lot of potential and could be expanded everywhere, events, concerts, ads, etc.
He was surprised that it was also an individual work.

The reason why my happiness level was 2 points shy to perfect is because I had to show my entire project in a badly rendered video at the last minute. Couldn't use our space at the IIS because the other levels were using it.

UNITY VIDEO-ARDUINO LAG SOLVED WITH READTIMEOUT

Post no 46
Happiness level: 10 Thanks to this tutorial, I have solved the lag with ReadTimeout! Unity keeps reading the code from arduino causing my game to lag. So, I put a Readtimeout so that it only calls the info when there is change in the values! So happy!

And #projectbeautify commences.
I cut a bottle in half, stick some tape over the places I wanted clear and spray painted it white.
Will be adding further details next. I'm excited on how this would turn out! The band seems a little bit tighter than usual now that all the boards are sewn in.

As for the wifi I have yet to get the parts from Singapore.

Found a good tutorial for wifi xbee lilypad connection

Post 45

Happiness level: 5

Honestly, these past two weeks I was totally burn out from the previous ('final' visit from the industry expert) and had to recuperate. I did not progress as much but found out that:

a. The lag in the IIS is not caused by my coding, but by how un-powerful the machine I'm using is. I might have to carry my desktop there. Great.

b. Still have to merge two scripts into one because the serial can't read the ports if I just switch pages like that.

c. Have to solve the latency and clearness of the videos played during the experience.

d. There's a bug where there is no delay time when the person is inactive. It glitches and the idle video comes on and off.

e. The wifi module, I could do it with this tutorial. I need another dongle to test tho. And I do not want to spend another SGD39 on something which I would use just for a day.

f. I might just end up with one glove because I'm already over budget. Unless an unknowing angel is willing to sponsor the other one, which would obviously increase the epicness level of the project.

g. I'm starting to design the glove and improve its appearance. I cut half a bottle and am going to  tape over a strip of tape where the led would show brightest and use it as a stencil while I spray the rest of the bottle black. That way the light would be distributed and it would appear to be a long line instead of just a little round bulb.

h. I have to decorate the space. With alot of white mounting boards.

References

D I Y : AUDIENCE JACKET. (2015). 1st ed. [PDF] Toronto: OCAD University, pp.1-36. Available at: http://research.ocadu.ca/sites/research.ocadu.ca/files/socialbody/201106_AudienceJacket.pdf [Accessed 3 Jan. 2015].

Stuart Godwin visit

Post 44

Happiness level: 7

Can say I'm kinda happy with the progress I had in just two weeks of nonstop hardcore progress.

That's me and my band. I played a video first of the whole experience while interacting with my functional band. Only that the wifi is not on it yet.

My ball.

Looking at people enjoying my work is the best feeling EVER! #paysoffintheend

He was pretty speechless, saying my work is beyond his expectations and all that, but I think he was just being really really nice. Appreciate that.

He did stress on the importance of social media sharing which very few of our classmates did. Including myself.

Obviously with 23 years of experience in the industry, I HAD to ask him which interactive installation impacted him the most. You had to see ALOT of art installations in that time frame.

He said that what he found most amazing was like a 20ft 50ft screen (something like that, but it was big) and users get to experience a digital environment.

Size definitely does matter. If only I could get excess to a 20ft sphere ball. HMMM. (Jazmi did mention to make it huge if I could, but I don't have the cash to do it.)

The 2 week 'holiday' begins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!