BlueSkyRC FPV Quad Frame
4x 25cm aluminium arms
4x 20A Turnigy Plush ESCs
4x 2213 800kV motors
HK KKMulticopter board (XConfiguration V4.7)
3000mAh 3S Nano-Tech battery (+-15 min)
Standard 10×6 props.

I’ve painted the frame black and put retro-reflective foil (the stuff on road signs) on the motor mounts. White on the front two; Red on the rear two.

First version.
Same components but with a Hobbyking V1 Frame.

Check out the vid! I should speak for itself. Though at first reading the time may require some getting used to (hours = 3 colored blocks, minutes = 1 colored block, seconds = fading row of blocks).

The clock is equipped with 60 RGB leds making any color palette possible. In this version of the software the color palette cycles through the colors of the rainbow twice a day. There is a light sensor to make sure that the intensity is tuned down in the dark.

When you’re interested in how it was made check this.

Some more Photos:

The most important parts:
Arduino Mini Pro
USB-Serial converter
12x TLC5940PWP (SMD) Led drivers
60x RGB SMD LEDs
DS1307 + battery to keep track of time
Loads of circuitboards (12 black ones and 60 white ones)

The clock works like this: In the bottom of the clock (behind the infinity symbol) is an arduino mini Pro. The Arduino is connected to the first of a total of 12 black circuitboards. These black circuitboards all have a TLC5940PWP led driver. By using Molex picoflex cables and connectors I daisy-chained 12 of these led drivers. Every black circuitboard has 5 connectors for the white LED circuitboards. Behind the infinity symbol is a touch sensitive wire (capacitive) that enables to cycle through different colors or turn it off. That’s roughly it for the electronics! The body was laser cut, assembled and spray painted, the plexiglass blocks were sandblasted. The software is pretty straight forward. The arduino receives the current time from the DS1307 and calculates the color palette according to the time of day using HSV color space.

In this workshop 6 teams of 5-6 people were asked to build a cool installation with 40 Philips Livingcolor lamps per team.

Our team hijacked the cinema and this is the result:

The Living Color lamps faded through the color spectrum. They did not all have the same period so after a while the lamps were not synchronous anymore which gave a nice effect.

In my previous etching tutorial I described the toner-tranfser method to transfer the etching mask onto the circuit board.

That method has some limitations. Especially small circuits are difficult because the small toner traces get easily damaged when removing the soaked paper.
This time the laser cutter was used to remove the excessive spray paint. This worked out really great!
The etching process is the same as the previously mentioned tutorial.

The process:
Get some copper clad without photo sensitive layer.
Spray-paint a thin layer of paint onto the circuit board after cleaning and sanding it! We’ve tried both ordinary cheap black paint and heat resistant Motip paint (to reduce the flow of melted paint) but it didn’t make a big difference.
Prepare a negative of the to be etched mask file.
Put the copper clad (painted) in the laser cutter. Make sure you focus the lens properly! This is very important to ensure a high resolution. We used an engraving setting. Make sure not to put the power too high or the speed to low or you may damage your laser cutter due to reflection.
After the laser cutter is finished brush off the residue that still sticks to the board. I used toothpaste and a towel to polish off the residue till it’s shiny again.
Then your board is ready to be etched. Check out the other tutorial for the etching details.

A few impressions:

The lasercutter at work (sorry for the crappy quality (Iphone 3G camera)).

Completed board.

This is what the board looks like after the laser cutter.

While etching you’ll see the color of the copper turn reddish.

The board gets transparent when the copper is removed.

Make sure you use gloves and plastic tools while etching.

Completed board without holes.

Fully assembled board, even the TLC5940PWP (SMD) was soldered without problems.

This board was used to drive 5 High Power RGB LEDs.

Final application.

Same board as above but this time to drive normal LEDs.

Fully assembled.

Final Result:

Philips was the client of the Philips Creative Challenge.
More on this project will be put online later.
This prototype was not built by Philips.

All the 5 LEDs inside the “lamp” can get any color.

The Equinox clock was featured in the April-June issue of LUXURIA Property magazine.

Remote Context Communicator

This project on the Dutch Design Week – Design United exhibition
More on this project.

- My Remote Context Communicator project was featured in Next Magazine. A magazine from Hong Kong.

- The Remote Context Communicator was also featured in a Ukrainian business magazine called: Vlast Deneg.

- The Remote Context Communicator was submitted as a design case to a “call for requirements” for the MPEG-V standard.
Pdf of submission.

Some of the requirements made it to the updated requirements document, the design was also included as design case:
MPEG-V requirements V3
More about MPEG-V

pdf

You can download a pdf version here

WARNING: In the etching process acid is used. USING THIS TUTORIAL AND THE GUIDELINES IS ON YOUR OWN RISK. I’ll point out some of the things you should take care of but I can not be held responsible for accidents.

Introduction.

When you need to make a lot or very complex circuit boards but do not have the time to wait for professional circuit boards to be made there’s another option. You can make them yourself. It’s a tricky process and it will require some practicing. If you have the time to wait for professional circuit-boards, just wait. If you have a very simple schematic like a voltage regulator just make it with an ordinary euro-board. But as soon as you need to have a lot of circuit-boards, a very complex and big one or a reliable one in 2 days, this can be an excellent tool.

There are a few restrictions compared to professional circuit-boards:
- maximum of 2 layers: professional circuit-boards can have up to 12 layers of traces, home etched circuit-boards can have a maximum of two layers. Therefore with the more complex circuit-boards you’ll have to do a few traces with wires by hand.
- you can’t use vias: Vias are small holes that interconnect the layers. For example the top layer and the bottom layer. Because there is no interconnection between the layers in our circuit board you’ll have to solder the top and the bottom of the component.
- SMD components are possible but you’ll have to be very careful.
- home-made circuit-boards are cheap.

Method

There are different ways to make circuit boards. We’ll use the Toner-Transfer Method. Toner is the material that is used in laser printers. We can use the “melting and sticking” property of toner to transfer the circuit mask from the paper to the circuit-board.

What do you need?

- Access to Laser printer – You need to have a laser printer capable of printing on photo paper. It does not require a special photo printing functionality but it has to allow thick paper.
- Photopaper – Photopaper bleeds a lot less than regular paper and therefore is much more suitable to use when you need thin well defined traces. Don’t buy premium quality photo paper because you won’t be able to soak it off later. I usually use HEMA 170 gr glossy paper.
- Latex gloves – for protection!!!
- Safety goggles – You don’t want to have the acid in your eyes!!!
- Epoxy Circuit board – Just ordinary circuit board. single or doubled sided. make sure to buy one WITHOUT photosensitive layer. Just in case: This is circuit board without pre-drilled holes. Available at Brigatti.
- Two etch trays – You’re going to use the “au bain-marie” method to keep the etching solution hot. So one big and one small tray.
- Etching salt – available at Brigatti as “Ammonium-Persulfaat”
- Water boiler
- 1,5 liter bottle preferably glass. To put the etching fluid in after use.
- Ordinary iron.
- PCB drills and Dremel
- Acetone – available at any pharmacist
- Old cloth.
- PLASTIC!!! pincer or other tool to stir.
- Sanding paper 600 or 1000.

Start

After you’ve gathered all the stuff let’s start.
First you need to have a circuit. You can make these with EAGLE. I usually use Diptrace. It’s easier to use but doesn’t have a big library like eagle. When designing the board make sure to make the pads and traces a bit bigger than standard. Also test print it on regular A4 just to see if your parts fit. When you’re ready you can export the board and print them on the photo paper. If the printer has an economy/draft function turn it off. Also make sure that you mirror one of the two sides of the circuit-board because the paper will be on the circuit-board upside down.

Let’s assume you want to make a double sided circuit-board. The challenge is to line up the top layer and the bottom layer. One way to do this is the following: Line up the front and the back layers of photo paper. This can easily be done by shining light from a lamp through both layers of paper. When they line up drill one hole in the upper right and a hole in the lower left corner of the paper. Take the top layer and put it on top of the circuit-board and drill holes in the circuit-board through the top layer paper. Now you can use the holes in the bottom layer to line it up with the circuit-board and the top layer.

You have to clean and sand the top and bottom of the circuit-board till it shines. Otherwise the toner won’t hold.

Put the top layer on the circuit-board (toner side down) and use the iron (highest setting) to melt the toner so that it starts to stick onto the circuit board. Make sure that every spot of the paper is properly heated by applying pressure with the tip of the iron. It can take over 2 minutes. When you start seeing the traces shine a bit though the paper it usually is an indication it worked. This is a very important step! When you want to make a double sided circuit board do the other side when it has cooled down.

After both layers of paper stick to the circuit-board you can toss them in bowl of warm water. Leave it for 20 minutes and then gently try to remove the top layer of the paper. When you see toner traces on the paper instead of on the circuit-board you’ve not ironed it hot enough.
The last, very thin layer of paper, is tricky. You can use a toothbrush or the rounded edge of a knife (aardappelschilmesjes) to scrape the paper layer off. When you dry the circuit-board you can see where there’s still paper in between the traces, You can leave a bit of paper on the toner but not on the copper.

When you have the circuit board with the toner on it without any broken traces you’ve had the most tricky part of the process.

Etching

When you use Ammonium Persulfate you have to keep the water at 50-80 C for the reaction to run. When you let it cool down under 20 C it’ll crystalize and it can become useless. To prevent this you can use a tray in a tray (au bain-marie). The inner tray is used for the water with the solved etching salt and the other tray is used to keep the inner water warm. When you have a separate heater you can just put it into the outer tray. If you only have a water boiler you can replace the outer tray water with hot water a few times.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!!!

Dissolve the etching-salt in water (220gram for 1 liter). Once it is dissolved you can put your circuit-board in. The acid will etch away the bare copper. It can take up to 40 minutes depending on the size, temperature and concentration. Flip the circuitboard every now and then and make sure the water stays hot. As the etching progresses the water will turn turquoise. After some time you’ll be able to see through the circuit-board because all the copper is gone. That’s when the circuit-board is ready.

Take it out of the etchant and wash it with ordinary water to stop the reaction. Put the water with ammonium persulfate in a bottle and dispose it at the special chemical facilities.
You can remove the toner from the circuit-board by using acetone and an old cloth.

Only thing left are the holes in the circuit-board and that’s it!

Optionally you can spray some special lacquer on top of you print to protect it from eroding which can trouble soldering it after a while.

After etching:

After drilling:

Soldered:

Working

Another example:

Modeling in Rhinoceros, Rendering in Maxwell.

Right before opening.

The prototype was also exhibited during the TU/e public day.

As part of the “User Master Class” me and my teammates(3) got the assignment to design a “playful” object that fits in the “Open-ended play” concept: through interactivity invite the users to make their own playing rules. The target group were “skate-boarders”. Client: Area51, a skatepark in Eindhoven, duration: 3 week, this iteration: 1 week.

Skate-boarding on itself is pretty open-ended: Skate-boarders are constantly looking for new ways of using their surroundings as objects to “take” by grinding/sliding/jumping over. We took the challenge to make “skateable objects” more open-ended by enriching them with interactivity.

The Result

The final design consists out of 4 box-like objects. On both ends of the boxes are distance sensors. The moment a skater jumps over a box an additional row of LEDs will go on. Depending on what side is up the row will be red or blue. When the box is on it’s side both sensors will work and there is the opportunity to “battle”. It’s up to the skaters to think of games to play with it.

More on how it was technically realized.

Name: Context Communicator
Date: 7-2008
Duration: 12 weeks
Type: Individual
Stage Education: Master First Semester

Summary of the Project.

The non face-to-face communication of social and emotional experiences between people usually happens through phone or other media like e-mail, IM (instant messaging or webcam (e.g. Skype). The context in which the experiences were experienced plays an important role. Neither the technology nor our way of describing enables us to communicate this visual context in a way it can be “experienced” by the other person. There still are a few layers of formulation & interpretation in between: you can only imagine. This project focuses on the design of a system that is able to communicate the real-time visual context of a remote user so that the receiving person is able to “ feel” as if he/she is there without the translation steps that are required when describing an experience. Emphasis is on the visual element in experience and thus imaging technology. The final concept is a modular system of connectable triangles that can be mounted to the wall and can project areal-time abstract display system of a remote visual context.

HD Version
This is the representation based on a movie inside a moving car at night.

HD version
This is the representation based on a movie inside a train.

A more down-to-earth description:
The idea is that when you’re on the telephone with somebody and you describe your visual experience at that moment, you have to translate that experience into words. e.g.:”Nice yellow beach with the sun in the blue sky” etc. The other person will have to make an image of those words in his head. There is a level of translation and therefore some richness gets lost. In this project I’ve tried to get rid of this translation step. (the other person is wearing a camera)

In this concept the remote person wears a small device with an integrated camera.
This real time image is then translated into an abstract representation. Therefore the receiver gets (at least a part) of the visual stimuli the remote person encounters throughout the day. So you can get a glimpse of the kind of visual context the other person is in. This allows for a feel of connectedness and empathy with the other user.

One of the interesting things is the abstractness and therefore openness of interpretation. Inside vs outside, light vs dark and movements are some of the dimensions that can be interpreted by “novice” users. However it may be possible to start to recognize patterns as you get to know the system and the visual cues inside the visual context of the remote user. Also the kind of information you have on the possible situation of the other person can help to interpret the visual. For example when you know that the other person may be in the car at night just like every day at 1800 you are able to interpret it as such.

In this manner two or more people can always share experiences even from a distance. The receiving unit is a series of modular triangles one can set up however they like. It becomes a dynamic wall sculpture personalized by the abstraction of the visual experience of he other person.
It’s a ongoing research area and follow-up research projects with this project are planned.

Design

The final concept is a modular system of connectable triangles that can be mounted to the wall and generate areal-time abstract display system of a remote visual context. Essentially the receiving person is presented with a selection of the visual impressions the remote user endures throughout the day. These visual impressions are captured by a device that is worn by the remote user.There can either be a dedicated context grabbing device but may also be an evolved version of a personal communication device (mobile phone). The captured visual information is analyzed and the visual impressions are  filtered and projected onto a abstract overview representation of the visual environment. This dynamic image is then transmitted and projected through the system of triangles.

The projection of the remote context should reside in the periphery of the attention of the receiving user. This will give the receiving part the possibility of getting the same visual impressions the other remote person endures during the day.
The concept is not meant as a replacement for a phone call; making a phone call is a focused activity. To get a sense of what the other person endures during the day the receiving user should be in contact with the remote visual context and thus the system for a considerable time. Therefore this system is meant as a continuous and always-on real-time connection between two people. Because people move throughout the day the triangles can be installed on any often-visited location (work, living room, kitchen, hallway, etc.). The modular character of the system allows for easy configuration on any place with some vacant space on the wall.

Different Contexts

Previous Prototype

Some Sketches & Renders

pdf version

Designing Ambient Intelligence:
A balance between Black and White Magic.

Let’s first take a glimpse back in history. Before the rise of science people attributed events like diseases, spontaneous recoveries and negative weather events to magic and higher powers. This was based on a lack of understanding of the processes behind it. As science progressed people started to understand these(natural) processes and how they could or could not be controlled. This knowledge and understanding gave people the ability to estimate the behavior of nature and anticipate on it by using technology(modifications of nature) but this took away some of the magic.
At this moment magic can still be found in products and services that use technology in a innovative way, a way it’s not been experienced before. B&O has a radio which automatically slides open its doors and starts playing when you move your hand in front of the radio. It’s like the radio has been enchanted. Also electronic devices capable of knowing where you are like navigational devices appear magic to some people as well.
Science fiction author & physicist Arthur C. Clarke once said:” Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. In reaction, Benford said: “any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced”.
I believe that Ambient Intelligence (AmI) has got a property that will accelerate the implementation of magical experiences into our world and will add a whole new chapter to the discussion on the comparison between technology and magic. But do we want to have magic in our AmI systems, can it be trusted?
Ambient Intelligence will split the application of technology into two parts: the upper world technology and the underworld technology. In the upper world, technology is used as the interface for the ambient intelligent system and is fully integrated into the environment. This is the part that is visible to and perceivable by people and interacts with them. In the underworld, computational technology and information sharing technology is located. This part is neither visible to nor perceivable by the user.
This distinction between the two worlds will make it difficult for people to fully understand the underlying processes and principles of the system and will bring them back to the situation in history sketched before: events happen (through the interface in the upper world) but how it works cannot be derived since the underworld technology is not visible. This distinction can make AmI systems to be perceived by its users as magic.
Designers are the ones that are going to create these systems. You could say that designers are the magicians of the future and ambient intelligence will be their potion. Implementing magic can be positive. It can give the user a thrilling, more natural and honest interaction. Secondly the user is not bothered with the complexity of the system. However the downside is that this obscurity for the user on the underlying processes also gives the freedom to the designer to implement whatever he wants in the underworld technology since the user will not be aware of it. And because Ambient Intelligent systems can become very interwoven into our daily lives this can lead to controversial results.
Ambient Intelligence systems rely on information. Without information an AmI system cannot function. This information can be gathered by its interfaces, these can be sensors but also network interfaces with other ambient systems. Knowledge is Power; the kind of rich information AmI systems can gathering can be very valuable for companies and governments. Since designers will design these systems and therefore also the information flow, designers have got a big responsibility on what to do with this information. The system could be designed in such a way the user perceives the system as positive, White Magic, while it may actually also be negative, Black Magic: a second agenda of the designer in which the information secretly is relayed to a buyer. By allowing the positive magical user experience we have to take a decrease of transparency for granted. So eventually the question if you are willing to share information with an AmI system is closely related to the integrity of the designer. As more and more devices get connected to the internet AmI is suggested as an extension of the internet. Internet has developed into a system that has got no central control, it cannot be turned off and is not entirely controlled by anybody. So eventually it’s up to the designers of AmI to find the positive balance between White and Black Magic and to find out if the benefits of a magical user experience and trust can be incorporated into AmI together.

This robot was built with:

Laser cutter (wheels & base)
Lego (gearbox)
Arduino (nerves)
4 LDR’s
2 IR distance sensors (used as a defense against the robot of another team which attacked robots with lights on them. When something approaches this robot it’s light will dim.)
Loads of Duct/Duck tape

In short:
Series of beacons capable of showing a preconfigured danger symbol in addition to a auditory warning system when the line of beacons is crossed. This system can be used to border dangerous areas within the working area of firefighters. It is specifically aimed at firefighters.

The different symbols (prototype).

Background

Firefighting is a dangerous job. Firefighters are constantly surrounded by hazardous and rapidly changing situations. Communication between the firefighters is essential in order to provide a working situation that is as safe as possible. Through interviews and the conclusion of the report about the disaster at the Koningkerk in Haarlem (3 firefighters died) I discovered that there seems to be a difficulty in the communication of dangerous areas within the working area of firefighters. Examples of these dangerous areas can be exploding gas cylinders, collapsing parts of buildings and leaking hazardous liquids or gasses. When firefighters are not aware of or ignore the marked area and move into that area it can lead to dangerous situations which can lead to injury and even death. This problem occurs in situations where there is a rapidly changing situation and a lot of firefighters from multiple divisions are present (e.g. a large fire). This project was about designing a tool that enables firefighters to mark a dangerous area and once deployed will prevent other firefighters from moving into that area in any situation.

Design Proposition

The design proposition consists out of an array of beacons that have to be placed next to each other so that they will form a line; A border between safe and dangerous. These beacons will have to be used when nobody is allowed to move in a specific area. There are two principles that communicate with the firefighter: Auditory and visual.
The visual feedback is specifically used to inform the firefighter about the danger. I believe that when the firefighter knows about the danger it will acknowledge the danger and the restriction faster. The beacons are capable of displaying 5 symbols/animations. Explosion, collapse from the side, collapse from the top/bottom, contamination and no entrance. The beacons will consecutively display the no entrance and one of the other symbols/animations. This in order to clear out that the beacons are there to stop firefighters instead of only inform.

If a firefighter crosses the line between 2 beacons an auditory signal will be emitted. The auditory feedback is limited to trespassing behavior. The device will not make a sound when everything is idle. A moderate signal will be given when somebody trespasses the border and as the firefighter’s distance to the beacons gets larger the sound will become more intrusive. The sound will make sure that the firefighter does not move into the dangerous area without noticing it. The auditory signal has got another advantage. It can alarm other firefighters in the neighborhood that somebody crossed the border. The colleague then can get the firefighter out of the area or assist him when he moved into the dangerous area because of e.g. an injured colleague. The auditory signal should be seen as a last resort. The visual signal should be sufficient to update the firefighter on the danger and the firefighter should know that it’s too dangerous to move into such area.

More in-depth information on the problem:

The different types of danger:
note: the 3d situational images have been made with the virtual trainingssimulator of Artesis.

Explosion:

Situation:
On the screenshot you can see a situation where the firefighters that are already on site know that there is a dangerous gas cyclinder in the little shed (they hide behind the wall). The approaching firefighters from the other side may not have been notified of this danger and may go into the dangerous area.

On the map you can see a large building on fire. Also on the map are two gas cyclinders. One on
the outside of the building and one on the inside of the building. Usually the firefighter in charge
gets information about hazardous substances or explosive risks around a building. These areas then can be defined as dangerous.

Collapse:

Situation:
On the overview you can see a situation where the car has been burning for a while under a porch. Because of the fire the wall may fail. Firefighters coming from the other side of the building may not know how long the car has been burning there and therefore can’t tell if the wall is instable or not. Another risky factor is that when only a small part of the wall collapses it can take the entire wall along with it.

Displayed here are 3 situations where parts of the buildings may collapse due to the consequences of the fire. Usually these dangers can be detected fairly easy. Because firefighters keep track of the time a building is on fire it is possible to derive the status of the building. Before a building collapses it’s also possible to hear cracking sounds and visual hints. However a lot of experience is required.

Collapse from the side (one row of leds is missing)

Collapse from the top

Contamination:

Situation:
Here you can see a situation were a chemical transporter van leaks dangerous fluids. In most cases these issues are dealt with in a controlled fashion making the risk of miscommunication smaller. If however this is part of a much bigger incident it’s important that everybody knows that’s something going on there. The two firefighters near the van don’t wear their suits just for fun.

Displayed here is a partially collapsed building. On the roof of this building asbestos was implemented. asbestos is harmless as long as it’s steady. It gets extremely dangerous when the asbestos is broken. It becomes even more dangerous when the heat of the fire moves up the air filled with asbestos flakes. This situation also is compatible with other kinds of contamination of other dangerous substances.

Closed Entrace:

Situation:
Here you can see a situation were an entire building is on fire on different places and multiple units are at the site. In these cases it can get very dangerous to go inside the building. One side of the building may have been burning for quite a while and if that part collapses other parts of the building may collapse along with it. Also in case of a xtc-lab it’s wise to prohibit anybody from entering the building anymore.

Displayed here is a large building on fire. Due to the fire a part of the building is about to collapse. It has become very dangerous to go into the building. Therefore the entrance of the building is closed.

Some additional visuals:

A series of virtual and quick and dirty prototypes:

Design Featurelist:
1. Legs to let water flow underneath it so that it will not flow along with the water.
2. One speaker on the front and one on the back to ensure signal strength when in front/behind the beacon. The speakers are placed at the top of the device so that it will not get under water.
3. Visual feedback on the auditory signal. To ensure that everybody knows that the auditory signal is coming from the beacons a visual sign is added to the beacon. It will start to respond in the same frequency as the auditory signal.
4. Handle. On top of the beacon is a handle that will stick out of the box so that it’s easy and fast to deploy.
5. Spring power legs. When the legs are folded up inside the box it’s entirely flat. Once the beacon is pulled out the legs will flip out because of the spring mechanism inside the body of beacon. When the beacon has to be cleared the firefighter can push the front legs of the device in the whole and push so that the legs will be folded up automatically.
6. Recharge unit. On the sides of the beacons 2 metal plates are placed so that the beacons can recharge when they are in box inside the fire truck.
7. Symbol plane. This will provide the visual signal. It’s tilted to compensate for the tilted standing of the beacon.
8. Radar sensor. This sensor is place at the back so that it can detect if a person is approaching or gaining distance to the beacon and according to that give different auditory feedback.
9. Light trap sensor. This sensor will “see” if the direct line of sight between the beacons is interrupted and therefore detect if somebody trespassed the border of beacons.
10. Reflective material

In short:
A design concept developed during an internship at Oce Technologies that uses the metaphor of fireflies to give the user a pleasurable magical experience as well as a functional one. The fireflies guide the attention of the user to the part on the printer that is relevant at that time while going through a problem solving procedure.

Fireflies!

The user was asked to resolve (multiple) paper jam

The test participant was asked to resolve the “depleted tray” error

Summary

The assignment I got was to design an alternative interface that does not use the regular screen + buttons in order to provide a richer interaction. In my analysis phase of the project I’ve discussed the question why would you want anything different than the regular GUI + buttons? The answer to that question is in short: The experience users get from using the regular printers/copiers can be classified as “dull”, after using a printer/copier you’ll probably not remember it unless it has been a negative experience. The design challenge here is to design an interface that provides the user with a positive experience. The second design challenge is to design an interface that is easier to use when the printer wants something from the user (resolve paper jams, refill paper, refilling toner etc.) than the regular guides displayed on the screen. The final concept consists out of a lot of leds that have been mounted on the body of the printer just like a swarm of fireflies. Once the printer requires attention at a specific area of the printer the fireflies will move to that specific area and will point out a specific place e.g. a handle. This way the regular GUI is only used to make clear what is wrong and the fireflies will guide the user to do the rest of the steps necessary to resolve the problem. This concept will also provide the user with a more positive experience; just like in a fairytale the fireflies have something magical.

As you can see, a printer/copier can be quite complicate.

Disney films have been a great inspiration in this project

A small summary of the realization of the prototype.
Hardware

The prototype consists out of 64 orange 120 degree leds. Océ had provided me with a 3165 copier. Due to the complexity of the interface between a pc and a printer (status info) I’ve chosen to make the prototype in a “Wizard of Oz” setting and to choose 4 scenarios that would have to work on the device to proof my concept. The LEDs are driven by a PhigetLED64 board which is a able to drive 64 leds and their intensities. I’ve used UTP network cable to make the connections from the Phidget board to the LEDs. In total I’ve
used 80 meters of UTP cable which is 640 mtr of cable in total (8-wires in 1 cable).
Eventually I’ve painted the crêpe tape in the colour of the device’s body.
Software

The software’s been written in Macromedia Flash 8.0. If you ever have trouble with a slow communication between Flash and a PhidgetLED64 board try using MAX/MSP as a proxy. It helped for me. As you can see in the interface of the software there is an unfolded view of the printer with the leds mounted on them. I’ve used 20 green dots as groups of fireflies. By programming the behaviour of those green dots I’ve been able to get the “rough” movement of fireflies. The specific movements are done by overwriting the global behaviour and manipulate every led specifically. On the right side of the interface there is the control panel for the operator of the prototype. Every frame every green dot will calculate its distance to every led and according to the distance will give a contribution to the intensity of that led. So if the green dot is close to a led it will give a high contribution to the intensity of that led and when it is far away of the led it will hardly give any contribution.
This way all the dots are contributing to all the LEDs and therefore will generate a list of
intensities that should be sent to the Phidget Board. This method is the basis for this program. The rest of the program consists out of behaviour programmed into the green dots.

The Software

The assignment was to “use the sounds of birds function as a calm information display that represents the presence of certain people in a certain space.” Nowadays we concentrate on computer displays, television and mobile phones for information. Indeed they inform us, but all too often their busy flickering noisy screens are also a source of distraction. The main advantage of using bird sounds is that they can merge into ones focus peripherique. When you walk outside you’ll probably not notice any birds unless you deliberately focus on them or when something “out of the ordinary” happens.
We’ve used this phenomenon and tried to design a fully operational soundscape that can give its “users” information but only when they want to have the information. When they do not want to have the information the information medium (the bird sounds) should merge into someone’s “surroundings”. We designed and prototyped a soundscape that measures peoples’ activity and moved the birds(sounds) from an active,loud place to a quiet place. When the system would be installed in an entire story or building people could derive information about the activity of people in other rooms.

Birds Whispering – Realization of the prototype.

This page explains the technical details behind the soundscape.

Hardware: To make the system interactive we’ve used 8 microphones as inputs and 8
speakers as outputs. The speakers can each be seen as a spot in the room and the 2
microphones surrounding that speaker together measure if the sound level around that
spot is too high and orders a bird (if it’s there) to leave. The microphones and speakers
are connected to a MOTU which is an external sound interface.

Software: In order to make a fully interactive soundscape we’ve used Max/MSP as our
sound modeling software. One of the difficulties in this project was the connection of
bird sounds and the peoples’ senses and their (un)conscious interpretation of those
senses. The bird sounds had to be present enough to make the people able to derive
information out of it meanwhile they shouldn’t be too present and cause disruption. It’s
a permanent system and it should add something to a space. The funny thing about
birds is that they have a very distinctive sound and still can be very different from each
other. It was crucial to make the birds sound “real” otherwise soundscape would never
merge into the background noise. Birds’ songs are repetitive (depending on the bird)
but there also is a kind of inaccuracy in it that makes it real. Just playing the same
sample over and over again doesn’t make it a real bird. The system consisted out of 16
birds which all had their own model specific to the bird controlling their pauses, melody
and “randomness”. We’ve also added intelligence to the birds so that they respond on
what is happening in the space around them. In the picture at the right you can see the
main control panel which is the basis of the program.

Small article in the universitypaper. Click to enlarge.

For information on the project click here or here

This prototype was built in approximately 4 weeks.

Inside view of one of the 10 triangles

Hardware
Driving 3 sides x 3 groups of LEDs per side x 10 triangles = 90 LEDs requires 90 x R,G,B = 90 x 3 = 270 channels. The easiest way to drive this is with 5 PhidgetLED64
boards (5x 64 = 320 channels). However with the ping-pong ball prototype I had the problem that the color of the LEDs was heavily red-ish. It was possible to compensate
for this. A kind of white light could be established with the following relative intensities: R40%, G60%, B100%. Because of this heavy compensation it was not possible to make
acceptable mix colors. Since color is an important feature in this design I had to search for another solution.

A solution was found in the TLC5940 LED driver. This LEDdriver is capable of driving LEDs with max 17Volt and max 160 mA per channel. The use of this LED driver
would also enable me to put 2 RGB LEDs in parallel to achieve a higher light intensity and homogeneity through the sandblasted Perspex on the edges of the triangles. The
TLC5940 can be driven by a Serial protocol via Arduino boards by making use of the public library of Metalab. The TLC5940 can be daisy-chained. This means that
the Serial-OUT channel of one IC can be connected to the Serial-IN of the next IC. This makes it possible to drive 4 TLC’s with just as much Arduino pins as one TLC.
The displayed prototype is a configuration of 10 fully functional triangles. In the prototype the freedom of configuration is limited. The triangles are configured in sets of
two. Every triangle holds 3 sides x 3 channels x 2 LEDs = 18 RGB LEDs. This makes a total of 180 RGB LEDs. Every set of two triangles holds an Arduino microcontroller board along with a home-etched circuit board embedding 4 TLC5940 daisy-chained LED driver chips which each offers 16 4096 bit resolution LED drive outputs.

These circuit boards are of my own design and etched at home through the toner transfer method. I also etched the circuit board for the LEDs. Without these circuit
boards this prototype would not have been possible in the limited amount of time. The circuit board consists out of a set of header pins, 4 TLC5940s and 4x 1kOhm
resistors to limit the maximum current of the TLC’s outputs to 40mA.

One of the 90 leds groups

Etched circuitboards

Power Supply
At full load the system can draw 180 x 3 channels per LED x 20 mA = 10.7 Amps. A
Power supply capable of supplying this is an ordinairy PC power supply.

Heat Issues
After connecting all the LEDs and supplying them with 5V the driver IC’s became too hot and started to fail. A way to solve this problem is to dissipate some of the power outside of the package by dropping the voltage from 5 tot 4.4V by using 5x an adjustable Voltage Regulator MIC29450. The MIC’s got pretty hot (75 degree) but the LED drivers were kept within the margins.

Used parts:
5 Arduino
5 home made circuitboard
20 TLC 5940
180 RGB LEDs
40 mtr UTP cable
20 1Ohm resistors
5x 5 mtr USB cable + USB Hub

Mess on my desk , don’t worry everything under control

First assembly in progress

Software.

The software was made in Flash. The software is capable of playing videos that have been captured before and can display a live feed of the webcam. Every 1/20th of a
second Flash measures the RGB values underneath the mapped LEDs for it’s value and then sends it to the proper Arduino. The protocol used to drive the Arduino is as follows:
63 bytes followed by the value 255 to indicate the end of the transmission. To compensate for possible color difference I’ve implemented a correction factor for
every color. LEDs efficiency becomes lower as the current through the LED grows. This means that at low currents the amount of light is relatively higher than at higher currents. This
combined with the way the eye perceives light makes that a fade from 10% – 50% versus a fade from 50-100% is much bigger. This has got an influence on the perception
of color. Therefore I’ve implemented a formula with a variable called “power”. It’s the following formula: Output Value = ((value / 255)^Power*255). With most scenes a
power of 1.5 or 2.0 gives the best perception of color.

Software interface

Enjoy .

Check out her website: http://www.check-mate.nl

More visual stuff later.