Tangible User Interfaces - Fall 2011

Description:

As a kid, I received a number of Matryoshka dolls, one of which was made of cats.  The cats are containers for each other.  For instance, A large cat opens in two, and a smaller cat appears.  That smaller cat opens and an even smaller cat and so on and so on.  I thought it'd be fun to play with this aspect of discover by adding some Arduino fun.  I mounted a FSR and Piezo speaker on the bottom of the big cat.  I close a photo cell inside the big cat.  Pushing the big cat on the table makes it beep a low beep, opening the big cat and revealing the little cat makes a smaller beep for a sort of mom/baby effect.

Materials:

• 1 FSR
• 1 PhotoCell
• 1 Piezo Speaker
• 1 Arduino Board

Arduino Code:

//Katzen
//By Laura Devendorf
//Play a high note when photocell and fsr have values
//Play a low note when only the fsr has a value
//Play nothing when nothing has input



int fsrPin = 0;
int photoCellPin = 1;
int speakerPin = 7;

int fsrVal = 0;
int photoCellVal = 0;
int tones[] = {956,1915}; // a high tone and a low tone

void setup() {
  pinMode(speakerPin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("ready");
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(speakerPin, LOW);

  fsrVal = analogRead(fsrPin);    // read value from the fsr
  photoCellVal = analogRead(photoCellPin); //read the value from the photo cell


  //print out values to define the range.
  Serial.print("FSR ");
  Serial.print(fsrVal);
  Serial.print(" PhotoCell ");
  Serial.println(photoCellVal);

  if (fsrVal > 0){
    if(photoCellVal > 100) {  
      //play the high note
      for( int i=0; i<50; i++ ) {     
      digitalWrite(speakerPin,HIGH);
      delayMicroseconds(tones[0]);
      digitalWrite(speakerPin, LOW);
      delayMicroseconds(tones[0]);
      }
    }
    else{
      //play the low note
      for( int i=0; i<50; i++ ) {          
      digitalWrite(speakerPin,HIGH);
      delayMicroseconds(tones[1]);
      digitalWrite(speakerPin, LOW);
      delayMicroseconds(tones[1]);
      }
    }
  }
  else{
    // do nothing
    digitalWrite(speakerPin, 0);
  }

  delay(100);
}