I redesigned the sounds for the interface. So far swiping, entering and leaving the interaction box and the volume click sound have changed. Two new sounds joined the family; docking on and off from the volume adjustment gesture.
All sounds have now common sounds-fragments included, to make it clear, that all those sounds belong to the sound interface.
Author: jonas
Arduino Shield for Dimming Light
After having assembled the electronics on a breadboard I decided to solder a shield for my Arduino Yun. The power supply delivers 5V which is exactly the power the arduino needs to run. That’s why I could feed power into the Vin pin. In the end I only need to plug it in, it will connect to the internet and receive incoming messages from shiftr.io.
New Radio
After revising the shape of the radio, I came up with a more reduced and simpler appearance. The current progress is visible in the pictures above. A wooden block as a core and only few controls attached to it. To make the speaker covering, I had to come up with a clever idea how to generate a dot-pattern in illustrator.
This script emerged from this. Check it out.
Video Documentation: User Tests with Music Player
Another set of user tests was conducted. The music player and the helping assistant was tested this time. Again a lot of valuable feedback came together. Here a few to name:
- The sound design still needs some tweaking, because sometimes the sound was not interpreted as an interface sound but rather as a part of the music. A clear distinction would be desirable.
- Music choice still needs to be redefined. Electronic music is for exemplary representation a bad choice because of the similarity with the interface sounds.
- For some people the assistant should maybe give more feedback. Perhaps even visual feedback.
- The gesture recognition/tracking may be improved for a better experience. Sometimes – especially under bad light circumstances, the missing reliability can be very annoying.
Leap and Infrared Light
After realising that my Leap Motion sensor is not tracking with the same accuracy every time. After some research I found out that infrared light sources highly influence the tracking result of the Leap, because it does emit infrared light as well for a good tracking (also in dark circumstances). The built-in trouble shooting assistant shows if not everything is as it should be. At my current working station I have good conditions, but will I find the same in the exhibition setting. This is what I have to find out.
One good thing is, that the LEDs of my lamp object don’t seem to have any influence on the tracking result.
Video Documentation: Dimmable Lamp
Video Documentation: High Power LED dimming via Web from Jones Merc on Vimeo.
Using shiftr.io, an Arduino Yun and any sort of publishing device to shiftr (in this case a webpage publishes commands to increase or decrease LED brightness) allows me to control a lamp. This means I can also use gestures to trigger the publishing of those commands.
Soldering High Power LEDs
To get a dimmable lamp I will switch to LED instead of common light bulbs. Three high power LEDs should emit enough light to imitate a normal light bulb. I will place the LEDs in the same lamp shade as the one I was using in the first prototype with the relay. Now that I don’t need the relay with the lamp anymore, I will reuse the relay with the ventilator.