November 24, 2007
Reading for November 27th, are now posted. Enjoy!
October 2, 2007
To upload your thoughtless acts, create a new assignment page like any other lab. You'll see "Thoughtless Acts" listed as one of the assignment options.
May 24, 2008
This site has been archived and is no longer editable. Stay tuned for the next version, coming in the fall!
* Aluminium Foil
* Scotch MatteFinish Tape
* Plastic tube
* Bulb
Diffuser is shown in the picture attached.
Aluminiun foil is hard-pressed & smoothened into a concave surface on a bulb. This is placed on the cut plastic tube. The concave surface's distance from the LEDs is adjusted so that an approximate focal length adjustment is made & good amount of mixing takes place. The inner surface of the plastic tube is lined with a reflective foil to capture the unmixed light in the fringes of the concave reflection & reflect it back within the tube (hoping that more reflection causes more diffusion). The only window for the light to escape is at the bottom of the tube.
In the virtual world, it is often easy to tell if it is a good time to approach someone (there is the availability indicator in the IM!). But, in real life, the cues are lacking. What my enhancement does is reflect that availabilty using the LEDs. It glows a bright green if you're 'Available', an orange glow if you're 'Away' and a red glow if you're 'Busy'. By this, people can tell if it is a good time to interrupt someone. Now you can keep those nosy ppl about in real life too.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to retrieve someone's online status from the GTalk server. Suspecting it isn't supported. Right now, the program just accepts commands such as 'Set Away', 'Set Busy' & 'Set Available' and changes the colour accordingly
1: Setup
2: Pink!
3: Aquamarine
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| SerialRGBEnhanced.txt | 7.17 KB |
Comments
GSI Comments
Very nice work -- I like that you considered a real-world application for your system. And I think it's actually a good one. I'd like to have such a thing on my desk!
The diffuser looks like it works well. I think the observation of reflecting light around the tube to increase mixing is a good one. It looks quite bright, too. Keep up the good work.