7.22.10

Tonight is the closing reception for SADbot at Eyebeam, we’ll have a few drawings up, a bar, some BBQ, and a great panel on the subject of ‘Open Retail’, moderated by SADbot co-creator Dustyn Roberts. So come on by!

In other news, we’re finishing up our mini-SADbot kits for our Kickstarter supporters, and should be mailing out thank you gifts by the end of the month. We put up a how-to on instructables.com yesterday, and it’s already on the front page as a featured item! (And I’ve got pics to prove it):

posted July 22, 2010 | Comments (0)

7.8.10

The last six weeks have been very busy: SADbot was successfully funded on Kickstarter (many thanks to everyone who supported), and is happily up and running at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in Chelsea, NYC until July 24th. Instructions and code on how to build your own SADbot will be published in Dustyn Roberts’ book, Making Things Move. We were also written up on IEEE spectrum .

At the moment I’m in Boulder, Colorado having just secured my future apartment and survived my first day on a bicycle in about ten years. I’m also here for a conference on ‘The Future of Construction’ – which is misleading, because I believe we’ll be talking more about the future of DIY engineering, not the future of architecture. Either way, it should be great.

Here’s a few pics from SADbot development for your enjoyment:

posted July 08, 2010 | Comments (0)

5.20.10

SADbot made to Kickstarter’s front page as ‘Project of the Day’! How exciting. Plus we’re around 80% funded, with plenty of time to go. It’s been a very rewarding experience so far – it’s such a great thing that complete stranger will give money to be a part of something they believe in. Warms the heart a little bit.

Here’s a screen shot of SADbot as project of the day (for posterity):

We’ve also been making good progress on building and coding. Here’s a little sample code I wrote that commands two steppers to draw in the direction of the lowest (darkest) value from an array of photocells:

//import stepper library


include <Stepper.h>

// should equal the number of steps your motors are rated for

define STEPS 200

//delare new stepper objects from stepper library (one per motor)
Stepper right_motor(STEPS, 6, 7); // right motor goes to digital pins 6 & 7
Stepper left_motor(STEPS, 11, 12); // left motor goes to digital pins 11 & 12

// how far motors should go
int distance;

// to store lowest photocell value
int lowest;

// for looping
int i;

// variables for 4 photocells
int photo_up; 
int photo_down;
int photo_left;
int photo_right;

void setup() {
  
  //start serial so we can print out stuff
  Serial.begin(9600);
  
  // set motor speed (in RPM)
  right_motor.setSpeed(200);
  left_motor.setSpeed(200);
}

void loop() {
  
  //read and print all sensor values from analog pins 0-3
  photo_up = analogRead(0);
  Serial.print("up");
  Serial.println(photo_up);
  
  photo_down = analogRead(1);
  Serial.print("down");
  Serial.println(photo_down);
  
  photo_left = analogRead(2);
  Serial.print("left");
  Serial.println(photo_left);
  
  photo_right = analogRead(3);
  Serial.print("right");
  Serial.println(photo_right);
  
  delay(1000); //give me time to read them in the monitor
  
  //store sensor values in an array
  int photoValues[]= {photo_up, photo_down, photo_left, photo_right};
  
  //cycle through sensor values to find lowest
  lowest = 9999; //set this higher than possible values
  
  //4 = number of sensors
  for(i = 0; i < 4; i++) { 
    Serial.println(photoValues[i]);
    if (lowest >= photoValues[i] ) {
        lowest = photoValues[i];
    }
    //print it out to confirm that the lowest value is being selected
    Serial.print("lowest:"); 
    Serial.println(lowest);
    delay(1000);
  }
  
  //set travel distance = lowest value
  distance = lowest;
  
  //find the sensor that matched the lowest, go that direction
  if (lowest == photoValues[0]) { 
     up( distance );
  }
  else if (lowest == photoValues[1]) { 
     down( distance );
  } 
  else if (lowest == photoValues[2]) { 
     left( distance );
  }
  else if (lowest == photoValues[3]) { 
     right( distance );
  }
}

//directional functions, loop size = distance

void up(int distance) {
 
  for( i = 0; i < distance; i++){
    right_motor.step(10);
    left_motor.step(-10); 
  }
}

void down(int distance) {
 
  for( i = 0; i < distance; i++){
    right_motor.step(-10);
    left_motor.step(10); 
  }
}

void left(int distance) {

  for( i = 0; i < distance; i++){
    right_motor.step(-10);
    left_motor.step(-10); 
  }
}

void right(int distance) {
 
  for( i = 0; i < distance; i++){
    right_motor.step(10);
    left_motor.step(10);
  }
}

posted May 20, 2010 | Comments (0)

5.13.10 – Back SADbot on Kickstarter!

Our SADbot project just launched today on Kickstarter! Help us (Dustyn Roberts & I) make it a reality!

posted May 13, 2010 | Comments (0)

4.27.10

A few pieces of exciting news. Dustyn Roberts and I got a proposal approved to build a solar-powered drawing machine for the Eyebeam window gallery. The machine will run off solar power, and will take user input from passers-by; they will be able to block beams of light to change the drawing direction of the machine. Very excited to get to building, it should be up at Eyebeam in early June. More to come as we document the process.

Speaking of drawing machines, it looks as though MAPP has been enshrined at the ITP online gallery. I’m honored. Very cool that ITP is keeping a kind of curated archive of past projects.

posted April 27, 2010 | Comments (0)

4.19.10

New Roebling Video for the DML (Digital Media and Learning) competition FINAL ROUND:

Please leave comments here.

Here’s the vid:

posted April 19, 2010 | Comments (0)

4.05.10

I am apparently not meant to be a blogger. Much has been happening, however. I will be starting my PhD in Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder this fall, in the Craft Technology Lab under Michael Eisenberg. The group there is doing some really interesting things, and I’m lucky to be a part of it. It will be a tough challenge for me given my lack of a ‘proper’ computer science education, but my hope is that I can make it through and come out being a true master of the craft.

In other news, the alpha site for Roebling is up. We are now brainstorming ideas and a development timeline for stage 2, including new features and potential re-thinking of certain core structures. In all, I’m pleased with how phase 1 turned out, and quite excited about the potential of the software to reach kids around the world.

It was also exciting to meet the Italian contingent of the Arduino team at the nyc meetup at ITP a few weeks ago. They’re getting ready for a 1.0 release, and it was great to chat with a bunch of other p-comp nerds and see what projects they’ve been working on and how they’re using the Arduino. It’s inspiring to see a real open hardware movement taking shape and growing so fast.

Here I am looking at one the projects (I’m on the right in the black hoodie):

Thanks to Tom Igoe for the pic.

posted April 05, 2010 | Comments (0)

11.20.09

Found an interesting article today on embedded ink technology and the potential for active interfaces in human skin.

posted November 20, 2009 | Comments (0)

11.14.09

It has been a few weeks since I posted an update due to the fact that I was hard at work studying for the GRE, which I finally took last Thursday. The test is all on computer now, with an interface that reminds me of games I used to have on the Apple SE. But you do get your scores right away. Suffice to say I’m happy enough with the results not to take the test again. In other news, I checked out google wave. It has some interesting concepts and interactions, though I think I need to play around with it more before making a final evaluation. My main focus for the next few weeks will be finishing phd applications for several schools whose applications are due in December.
I’m also continuing development for an open-source platform aimed at bringing distance collaboration to schools around the world. In other news, the portable patient data entry device I helped with is heading to Uganda next month for some field testing – pretty exciting.

Also, you can now control a car with an iphone

posted November 14, 2009 | Comments (0)

10.19.09

Only a few little bits to report this week: Did a redesign of the faceplate for GRND labs‘ patient data entry device. Lasercut a few copies over the weekend and I think they look a lot better. The fit into the casing is better and we tweaked the positioning of some of the cuts for the internal components. Pictures soon. Been very busy with PhD applications and studying for the GRE – the plan for today is to work on statement of purpose essays. In other news, Eyebeam open studios is later week which should be fun. We may finally have a change to flesh out our artist archive on the website with some updated information from the alumni who show up.

Finally, a neat video on Xerox’s idea of future desktop gui’s : http://10gui.com/video/ I’m reserving judgement so far.

posted October 19, 2009 | Comments (1)