Tangible User Interfaces - Fall 2011

Visualization

Very minimal visualization of the sensorValue as an ellipse of radius 3 times the FSR input value

Code

I worked to figure out the connection between the Arduino and Processing to no avail. I was able to create a force sensor circuit that changed the brightness of LED based on force.

I also revisited the Potentiometer.

I tried to combine the arduino and processing using the code from the tutorial video but the pot was not recognized.

Arduino code

/*
 * Arduino Canvas Paint
 * (Arduino Ball, modified 2011)
 * ----------------------
 *
 * Draw rectangles with colors based on the value registered from the potemtiometer.
 *
 * Receives an ASCII number over the serial port,
 * terminated with a carriage return (ascii 13) then newline (10).
 *
 * This matches what Arduino's " Serial.println(val)" function
 * puts out.
 *
 * Created 25 October 2006

Description:

I developed code which visualizes a simple flock of birds (or shooting stars) that converge at a point.  The point is controlled with values from two sensors, giving an x (from sensor 1) and y value (from sensor 2) for the xy-point.

I also found a spray mechanism to use as the mechanical construction to use with the FSR, where the force applied is the top where you push the mechanism to spray.

Components used:

Description

A lot of people are tapping a table when they are listening to music. They usually try to convert rhythm to something tangible such as the movement of one's fingers or the sound of tapping actions. Using this action, this program visualizes the tapping actions into a music note. When a user taps the force sensor, it brings up a music note on the screen. After a certain number of music notes appears, it removes all the music notes.

Code

Description:

I Used Force Resistive Sensor for 2 tasks, one visual and the other mechanical.  For the visual task, I used the FSR and a Potentiometer to control the facial expression of a cartoon. 

/* Initially I wanted to use all my all three sensor and apply the following mapping – but I have not yet succeed to distinguish between the channels for each sensor(POT, FSR, PC).

So what I am delivering is 3 separate functionalities – so e.g. if I want to use the POT, I comment out the rest of the Arduino code below: (as seen with the FSR), and then I run the corresponding Prossessing script

Description:

The original idea was to have 2 pots controlling the x and y position of a cursor in processing, and another sensitive resistor control the background color of the screen. I figured out that in order to send separate inputs through the same COM port, I had to multiplex the signal. The other option was to use 2 or 3 different arduino boards to send the information to processing by different COM ports.