Design for Exploration 2009

DfE on SiCa Website

2010-01-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

http://arts.stanford.edu/sai.php?section=gallery&page=gallery&action=47

Check out the video!

Dichroic chandelier at the Sagamore hotel in South Beach, Miami

2009-12-30T09:40:00.001-08:00

NYU's ITP 2009

2009-12-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

ITP winter show 2009 from adafruit industries on Vimeo.

magnet toys

2009-12-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

Link here

Theo in paper

2009-12-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

Overall Recap

2009-12-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

1. Changes

Several changes were made between the first floor prototype and the final floor prototype.
1. reduced three stacked tiers to two separate one-layer pieces
2. tweaked the mirror dimensions to create a space which one visitor could claim
3. constructed a housing for the user interface turn table
4. further refined the spin shape
5. backed the mirrored acrylic with plywood to prevent scratching and allow for easier mounting
6. got the lazy susan and axle rotation to work reasonably better
7. constructed the entire piece out of more durable material (plywood, acrylic)
8. constructively incorporated color by finishing the housing in grey to contrast with the red and white reflection shape

2. Feedback

Seeing new people use this iteration of the project yielded some interesting observations. Although I had created a user interface spin plate, most people initially went to spin the shape directly. I tried to avoid this being the case, as I did not want the user’s hand to interfere with the reflected image.
Some feedback concerning this occurrence was that I would paint the area for intended user interaction a different color than the housing, thus attracting their attention to that spot.

A user commented that the levels of friction were different on the two side by side piece. This particular individual said he preferred the spin plate with less friction, thus producing a more fluid reflection shape transition. I talked with him about this issue, as I said I was trying to balance type of user gratification with the possibility of users spinning the plates as fast as possible in a non-constructive manner.

A labeling concept I realized I had completely overlooked because I was too familiar with the exhibit is that I did not clearly label which set of mirrors were at which angle. For the next display opportunity, I will certainly remedy this.

3. Further Possibilities

For the next iteration, I would clearly label which set of mirror were at which angle. I would also paint the intended point of user contact a different color. Additionally, I would make sure all the epoxy related kinks were worked out of the axle rotation mechanism.

4. Accomplishments

I gained a firsthand appreciation for the notion that often the most elegant solution is often the simplest. At first I was resistant to reduce the three layers of mirrors, and I really had to reason out a cost benefit analysis for that approach verses one layer. However, being able to visibly see the difference between the designs after I had made two prototypes made me realize I was only complicating the experience with three levels.

Additionally, I learned a new fabrication tool, the lasercamm. Not only do I now know how to use it, but I have much more of a feeling for what stages of the design process it is appropriate.

Furthermore, I gained much more familiarity in designing work for direct user interaction.

5. Insight

I saw that if an exhibit can slowly reveal itself or keep an element secret, only to be later discovered by a few visitors, this can be a tremendous catalyst for social interaction for those who do find it. My first hand experience came from the seeking out the exhibit “Icy Bodies” after hearing Shawn Lani discuss it. I found the exhibit, quiet and without any visitors, in an area of other high activity exhibits. After waiting patiently for the dry ice to slowly traverse the conveyor belt, I was rewarding with the swirling dance of the dry ice on water. After I watched a cycle by myself, I brought the exhibit to the attention of someone walking by. It was great to both watch the exhibit unfold together. We talked for the entire 3 minute dry ice cycle about the aesthetic beauty of the ice, how is mirrored weather fronts, and how it represented cosmic phenomenon. I would not have had that conversation if it weren’t for the fact we were both discovering the exhibit together.

Robots

2009-12-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

This works on the principle that our exhibit "Ball in Airstream" showcases. They use a computer controlled air stream to do some very impressive stunts.

Read more

3D video mapping on houses

2009-12-11T08:28:00.001-08:00

Luigi found this post about 3D projection on houses. Somewhat similar to Purin's projection on a cube.

The videos in this link are really stunning. I think the 3rd one shows some of the best effects.
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/12/3d-video-mappin.php

Us

2009-12-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Week 10 Part 2

2009-12-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

Makers Gallery Thing:

Idea 1:
Drill a hole through the pier, and install a massive floating bobbin through the hole and use the support pole as a linear guide for the floating bobbin. This floating bobbin will sense the level of the tides and waves that propagate through the bay. Affix a gear increaser to the bobbin such that the slow changes in the bobbin’s height create large mechanical variations. These large mechanical variations could then be used to do something like power a small generator that powers an LED, which illuminates a placard that explains the huge mechanism that’s powering the LED.

Idea 2:
Create a square tube structure with a Mondrian like grid/maze pattern that stretches from the floor to the ceiling that surrounds the column. To the square tubes affix low powered LEDs every ½ inch or so and connect the LEDs to an elaborate controller such that every LED can be turned on or off. Create an algorithm that uses traffic data from the museum to create nodes that propagate though the maze structure. As foot traffic into the museum increases the LED grid/maze becomes more congested/more interesting.

Assignment Week 10, Part 2

2009-12-09T03:28:00.001-08:00

The new Maker's Gallery location seems like a pretty sweet space, especially given its proximity to the actual Exploratorium workshop. For the piece in the center of the gallery, I thought it would be really cool to somehow showcase visitors' hands-on experiences, Exploratorium staff's construction practices, and the general thrill of the make. One way I saw to do this was by having a few ginormous screens up high on the center pole. These screens could show a lot of different things. For example, if staff were working in the shop, some or all of the screens could show a live feed of what was going on. This way, visitors could have a controlled peek at the behind the scenes work. This would also let visitors see processes which might be too dangerous to have a public-access demonstration. The screens could also show videos of workshops that the Exploratorium has held, or maybe shot of projects from the workshops. When I hear 'Makers' Gallery', I immediately think of Make Magazine and the corresponding blog. The blog has a lot of videos - maybe the screens could play some of those. The list goes on - the screens could broadcast weather, stats about the museum, supplemental information about an ongoing demonstration... so on, so on.

The other part of the piece is borrowed from the workroom we played around in. Purin mentioned it as well in his post, but something which was really cool about that room was seeing all the little toys and creations that had been made before us. We were really able to get some inspiration, both direct and indirect, from being surrounded by craft and art. The base of the exhibit could be lots and lots of pieces on display. Some of the exhibits in the workroom were too fragile for the floor, but maybe they could still be shown off in a protective case.

The first two (blurry) photos are rough idea sketches. The last is closer to my final idea.

Assignment Week 10, Part 1

2009-12-09T01:25:00.000-08:00

past changes
I made a couple of very noticeable changes in the last few weeks. The most readily apparent change was my decision to stop using an external crank and belt to drive the system, and instead attach a crank to the driver gear in the middle of the assembly. My original thought process behind having a removed crank system was by moving the cranking motion out of the frame of interest, the user would devote more attention to the actual gears and shapes, which were the meat of the exhibit. The belt system, however, proved to be more trouble than it was worth. The night before one of our intermediate deadlines, John suggested I attach the crank directly to the driver gear, just to have a working model for the next day. I did so, and realized that it really didn't distract from the motion of the shapes. Per John's suggestions, I further reduced the size of this crank by exhibition day, so as to minimize distraction. The other main change was purely aesthetic - before, my entire piece was made out of masonite. This didn't really draw enough attention to the gears, so added birch to the assembly. All visible toothed pieces were made of the darker masonite, while the backing on which the gears moved was the light baltic birch. The contrast in colors really made the pieces pop.

feedback
I didn't get too much direct feedback. One of the most direct questions I got was "so what does this shape do?" The Reuleaux triangle isn't the most useful of shapes, necessarily - I just find it really interesting. I'm not sure if this was a satisfactory answer. Maybe I could list the few instances of the shape in usage, or instead enumerate the locations where this triangle could be switched into the place of circles - manhole covers, for example. I could also explain why the triangle couldn't always be used in place of circles, since it doesn't have a center pivot. Another thing I noticed was that sometimes my gears would hit each other. This isn't a function of construction, but instead that users can arrange gears close enough to catch, since the triangular gears aren't center-rotating shapes. People seemed to learn this very quickly, however, so I'm not too concerned.

future changes
I would really like to add my own lighting to the piece. The lighting in the room wasn't horrible, but it wasn't superb. Since I made my own table, I'd like the lighting array to match and be exactly what I wanted. On a different note, I really wanted to try to make the piece out of acrylic and internally light it. I think that would look really cool. However, I decided this in the last week. I've never worked with acrylic, and the cost of messing up and not having a complete piece was too great of a risk, so I stuck with masonite and wood. It could be sweet to make a frosted acrylic version... maybe next time.

accomplishments
Related to my piece, I think my greatest accomplishment was making functional triangular gears. That's an obvious statement, but it was difficult for me. I'm not super adept in Solidworks, so assembling something from nothing wasn't insignificant. Looking back, I also consider the progress I made in iterating concepts a big accomplishment. I definitely didn't know I was capable of doing the work I did in the time that I did it, and while being pushed hard every week was tough, it was a good experience. It was really nice to finally stick with one idea and keep improving it to a level of my satisfaction, especially when I'm used to making lots of different things for different assignments and rarely revisit them.

all in all, I had a blast, and I'd do it again.

Makers Gallery Concept

2009-12-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

(Exploratorium Style!)

(Sketch to come...)

My idea for the makers gallery is inspired by the ever-growing popularity of microblogging and Twitter like sites. I'm envisioning the center pole of the exhibit displaying messages and notes left by visitors, either manually (sticky notes and a white board, or a rotating pole covered in butcher paper) or digitally (with keyboards surrounding the pole and LED displays flashing both recent and older messages).

I envision multiple usage models: Visitors to the Exploratorium might wander through the museum, then leave a little note for other users on the way out: "Be sure to check out the cow dissection" or "Still thinking about the perception exhibits..." or "My son is still in the Tactile Dome- tell him he's walking home if he ever comes out" :)

Alternatively, visitors might approach this exhibit as soon as they arrive and post a message about their initial reactions to the space, or read other messages to find out what other visitors have been checking out and enjoying (or thinking about). Museum staff and exhibit designers could also post messages, "New exhibit in the Audio zone" or " Can you make the nightlights flicker?" to prompt visitor exploration.. or ask for feedback, "What did you enjoy most?" "What did you learn today?"

I feel that a piece like this could start to develop a dialogue among visitors, museum staff, and anyone else who views the space- If this were digital, I could also envision random posts being displayed on an electronic kiosk on the pier outside the Exploratorium, or on a banner on the Exploratorium website. Families walking down the pier might see the sign saying "Cow eye dissection in five minutes" or "Just learned how tornadoes work" and be inspired to go inside to discover for themselves...

Shelly's Maker's Gallery Concept

2009-12-08T23:58:00.001-08:00

The Jacob's Ladders return:

I'm envisioning cascading 'sheets' of Jacobs' ladders on 3 sides of the column, which can be set off by a pulley system for each wall of ladders. The tiles in the ladders would be made of wood: when set in motion, the entire set would create a beautiful cascade of sound.

Some thoughts on the mechanisms:

A pulley system would be an elegant and simple way to interact with each wall of wood, however, I am not sure if it would be strong enough, or require to much force to set off. In the following image, the bottom left is an idea for the end pieces for each side, and the bottom right is a possible pulley mechanism.

The entire set could be anchored to the column with metal bars and bolts:

Lego Tower

2009-12-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

THE LEGO TOWER
Maker's Gallery Proposal

If you want to build something amazing, you have to start with the basics...and nothing is more basic than the Lego piece. Playing with Legos is an easy way to create something quickly from the ground up. In the spirit of rapid prototyping the iterative design, the Lego Tower encourages visitors to participate in their own ideation and construction process.

The Lego Tower is a floor-to-ceiling Lego grid, covered with pieces of all different shapes, colors, and sizes. Inspired by the cabinet of Legos in the Exploratorium project classroom, this piece offers a variety of building pieces to play with (plus handy storage spaces on the bottom). The column is interactive, allowing visitors to pick up the Lego pieces and create their own arrangements. The Lego Tower may also include other iconic building units, such as K'Nex or Tinker Toys. Children get to have some playtime, and adults get to re-experience the toys they loved as kids. The idea is to celebrate basic building tools, like those humble plastic bricks, and encourage visitors to build their own structures, pictures, messages and ideas.

Maker's Gallery Proposal: Maker's Tower

2009-12-08T23:14:00.000-08:00

Inspired by VW’s glass car silos in Wolfsburg, the Maker’s Tower celebrates the purpose of the Maker’s Gallery: making. Essentially, the tower is a massive display case for what visitors have created in workshops. It is divided into cells, each containing a curated piece along with the name, the photo of its maker, and possibly a short story on the making of the piece.

The tower will be visually striking on both the outside and the inside. It is a constantly evolving display, with newer creations put at the bottom and moved up top as it ages (this can be done manually, with a robotic arm, or a forklift). Visitors old and young are invited to view these creations, as well as submitting their own.

[view & download PDF here]

Maker's exhibit

2009-12-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

Electromagnetic Tuner & Visualizer

There are many, many different electromagnetic waves constantly passing through us. I propose a column that will receive/intercept any incoming electromagnetic waves and allow people to visually explore parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with like one scans a radio. The engineering feasibility of this is really of epic proportions (might need lots of electrical engineers), and because of the frequency-hopping algorithms used it's not like you'd be able to pick up cell phone calls or texts. I envision a large column which has the entire electromagnetic spectrum going up it's length that we can pick up (i.e see the strip at the bottom of the graphic above) mapped out onto lots of rings that make up the column. In other words, say it's a logarithmic scale of the frequency such that there's be a ring that represents the 1-10Hz range.The higher the resolutions the better, but one could imagine allowing the user to magnify one ring or set of rings. Some regions (such as AM and FM radio) are decodable and could then be broadcast over the room. Other regions such as CDMA could make the column light up in fun ways as it picks up people's frequency-hopping iPhones, bluetooths, and signals throughout the museum.

DIY Rube Goldberg

A more material/maker-like idea would be to setup an area with materials such that a initial action is provided, but the user gets to build a rube goldberg machine to determine the end action. The column would simply have a large clear tube wrapped around it. Every 15min, a large (softball-size steel ball) will roll down the tube activating any rube machines docked to the tube. There could be several types of docking mechanisms that turn the force of the ball into different motions (spinning, pushing, etc.) which can then be connected to whatever the user makes.

Week 10 Assignment: Reflections

2009-12-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

1) Changes you made to your final piece during the last three weeks. The biggest change that I made in the final weeks was to scrap the gumball machine/mechanism entirely and simplify the piece so that there was no movement or gimmicks, just the basic observation of how colors are affected by being under a sodium light. Instead of the gumball machine, I decided to buy some small wooden balls and paint them vivid colors. In a moment of inspiration, as I was painting the balls I began to experiment with placing the paint bottles under the sodium light. I noticed that certain colors looked almost identical under the light, and decided to start painting some of the balls two different colors. I tried to choose pairings that either looked monochromatic under the sodium, or pairings that looked black and white- I discovered that several color pairs, such as Purple/Yellow, Red, Orange, and Purple/Orange all looked the same under the sodium light.

The other major change I made was removing any sort of ramp or pathway that the balls would have to travel and simply making a small viewing stand at the front of the box. Users could pick up one ball at a time and place it in the viewing stand under the white light, which drew their attention to the moment the ball's true color was revealed. I feel like this change really focused user attention on the core phenomena of the effect sodium light has on colors.

2) Feedback you got on Friday and Observations you made.
As others have mentioned in their posts, it was a really wonderful and rewarding experience to get to engage with real visitors and users as they explored our exhibits. Particularly after out last showing on the Explo floor, when we were asked to sit back and be as unobtrusive as possible, it was refreshing to engage our audience and be able to probe for feedback.
I felt like the feedback on my exhibit was the most positive of any week of this quarter- for the first time, I finally felt like I had a simple and elegant piece that did what it was supposed to do. People seemed to enjoy the moment of surprise when the balls transitioned from greyscale to full color- I observed a couple of high school visitors who seemed genuinely surprised when the call came under the white light. Some of the Exploratorium staff/designers also seemed pleased with the changes- they liked the simplified version. Richard Brown loaned me a pair of glassblower goggles to look at the exhibit with- they block out sodium light, so when viewing the piece with the glasses you can see the regular colors of the balls even when they're under the sodium light- a very cool effect...
A few of the designers commented that it was a little unclear what the interaction at my piece was supposed to be (there was a mishap with the sign/instructions getting printed.) They weren't sure if you were supposed to take the flashlight and shine it on the balls in the back, or bring the balls into the white light. One recurring comment was that the balls and their tray were placed too far back in the box- it didn't seem like that they were meant to be manipulated. This leads me into the next question...

3) Based on this, how would you change the piece if you were to do one more iteration?

If I were to make one more iteration, I would figure out how to have the tray of balls closer to the front of the box/more accessible to the user. The tricky part of this is that the Sodium light can't be too close to the front of the box or it bleeds yellow light into the room- I would need to figure out how to solve for this. I would also incorporate the glassblowers goggles that Richard Brown showed me (I'm considering trying to use them for the Stanford exhibition). One way to solve the first problem would be to eliminate the action of picking up the balls and placing them in the white light, and simply leave them at the back and have a pair of glass-blowers goggles hanging from the box. Users could first observe the balls under the sodium light normally, then put on the goggles and reveal all of the colors.

4) What do you consider your greatest accomplishment(s) during the course? (may or may not be related to the final piece)
Coming into this class with literally zero product design/machining background, I feel that my greatest accomplishment was learning how to confidently use all of the machines and their associated processes. From my very first prototypes (the non-functioning mirror pieces) to the final exhibit, I feel like I learned so much- from basic sketching/measuring skills to being able to source the proper materials, lasercam a piece, build a frame for it using the bandsaw/screws and build it robustly enough to withstand multiple usage on a museum floor. I'm already plotting out pieces I want to build over the vacation that I had inspiration for this quarter- knowing that I can go to the lumber/plastics store and order what I need, in the right size, and then bring it back to campus and manipulate it with multiple tools is a fantastic feeling.

Week 10 Assignment Part 2- M. Ricardo Flores

2009-12-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

A proposal for an iconic piece for the Maker's Gallery

This one is a little tough. Although I have the dimensions and a general sense of what the setting will be, I really need to walk in and see it. I need to feed off the vibe of the place. I need the site to tell me what it wants to be. I need to see the light filter through the window and hit that column, and illuminate the room, and tell me: I am the place for “__________“. Since that is not possible at this point, I have an idea about a piece that uses recycled cell phones or computer parts. I am not exactly sure about the specifics, but I think it should be a piece that will last for centuries, and that people many years, decades, or centuries from now will see and know immediately about some of the major concerns we have in the world today. I think global warming and pollution are destined to be symbolic of the concerns of our generation, so I think that an environmentally oriented piece that features the technologies of today, as well as the waste produced by those technologies is a good direction to head into. Oh, and by the way, one of my professors has 2000 (that's right, two thousand) Nokia cell phones in a warehouse at Stanford, and he says he'll donate them to any one that submits a good proposal.

Week 10 Assignment Part 1 - M. Ricardo Flores

2009-12-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

Changes
Some of the changes I made to the piece included a new name, fixating the light sources, new shapes, and fixing a worn out hole in the middle for holding the square dowel securely in place. I originally had used the name “Geometric Shadows”, it was OK for a working name, but I felt that it needed to be a little bit more descriptive of the phenomena to observed. Through class feedback I came to the new name “One Object, Many Shadows.” I think this new name provides clues for the user about what they are about to experience and what sort of things they might expect.

Feedback From Visitors And My Observations
Some of the feedback I got this Friday included suggestions for a motorized dowel that spins, more shapes, and fixed lighting (i.e.: switches instead of flash lights). I noticed that more women than men were interacting with the piece. I am not certain if that was due to perhaps more women in the SICA bus or not, but was something I noticed.

How I Would Change The Piece
I think I would do all the changes suggested. Actually these things were also suggested the previous time we had a chance to observe people interact with our prototypes. My knowledge of electronics is limited, but someone did suggest a motor before. I also thought a slow motor would be and enhancement and perhaps something that would open up a whole new set of possibilities. I had a few more shapes this time, but I would like to add more intricacy and wider range of shapes to make the prototype more engaging. The lighting suggestion is spot on. I also thought of this before. If I had a chance to re-do it, and the knowledge, I would use fixed lighting with switches instead of flashlights. I thing I might even explore a combination of RGB lights with colored objects to also bring color theory into the experience.

My Greatest Accomplishment During The Course. I Think
As much as I enjoyed the final piece, I thing my biggest accomplishment was the hand. I also feel very good about the camera obscura. I still have a couple of finishing touché to put in, but I think it will be good when it’s complete. Going back to the hand. I did put in a lot of time and reiterations into this one and I finally got one of the prototypes to do what I wanted it to do; to animate when I pull strings, like the strings on a marionette.

Insight from DfE
A significant insight came to me when we saw one exhibit that used metal balls like marbles and you put in the balls in a metal bar. Then you release and they would roll right into a square box with metal rods across. I noticed immediately that the markings in the bottom box where the balls hit when released were the exact square roots of the originating numbers in the top bar from which you released the balls. I always had math anxiety. I think It had much to do with the methods and assessments used. I learn things in my own way, and my way does not necessarily fit the methods that I was exposed to as a student. This exhibit, and the fact that I knew what was going on immediately and without reading the explanation has given me much to think about. What can I do to help others with math anxiety learn math in spite of their anxiety? As a future educator I am concerned with reaching every student to make sure they understand the concepts presented to them. I think that this particular exhibit, and my whole experience in the course have liberated me of previous hang ups regarding math and science and I am considering further studies that will allow me to teach math and science in informal environments.

Maker's Gallery Piece

2009-12-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

I, Beam

In the same way that the Exploratorium is celebrating the exterior structure of its new home, I thing that it would be neat to highlight some of the interior structures of the building. The I-beam that you've asked us to build a piece around doesn't have to be something that is covered or used as a spine to build off of. It can be highlighted as a central part of the exhibit.

I propose an exploration of different kinds of structural beams. The main I-beam would be surrounded by vertical lengths of different types of beams (box, angle, C-channels, tubes, etc) and they would all be painted bright colors. Each of these beam shapes have certain applications they're best in (I-beams are good with 2-d bending, box for 3-d) and these applications could somehow be highlighted. Maybe some of these beams could even be deformed in a way that illustrates their structural properties. This could tie into an explanation of why certain shapes are used in certain situations. Inside this forest of beams, there might be a station where visitors could interact with miniature models of these beams and visually see where they strain under different conditions. (A possible way to do this might be using polarized light in the way Shawn Lani does with those discs.)

Maker's Gallery Space

2009-12-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

I propose for the Maker's Gallery a sound reader. As a child I was always intrigued by the little frequency reader on stereos and microphones. Often in a public place you can't truly understand the amount of noise produced until you completely exit the area. I would like to build a sound frequency reader to wrap around the column that reports the actual sound made in each room or area of the Exploratorium. In order for this to work there would need to be receptors all around the exploratorium, but might make for some interesting comparisons. Is the Maker's room the loudest, the entrance, one of the external areas? In the drawing the rooms are given a color, but they could be framed with labels or colors.

Project Evaluation

2009-12-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Changes:

I was able to keep the original connection that I designed, with the single bar connecting the hoops, by making the oloid out of stronger and more rigid material that could withstand the twisting force without the extra reinforcement in some of my earlier models. I also decided against covering the hoops in fabric, partly to reduce wind resistance and make sure it would roll easily, and partly because the simplicity of the connection ended up being attractive in itself.

Feedback:

I got some positive feedback from the area under the skylights, although it was a tough crowd - the fact that most people were on their way to somewhere tended to keep them from interacting with the piece for long there. The fact that a slight push sent it rolling was helpful to grabbing people's attention, however - once the movement started people would tend to watch until it came to rest. One successful change that I hadn't expected was that since the shape was made up of hoops rather than solid disks, very small children were more likely to play in and through it and not be intimidated by its size. Its light weight also worked well for children to move it, although there was definitely a tendency to spin and jump on it as well, meaning it should probably be constructed even more sturdily. My best feedback was probably from the exhibit designers that came by - they all seemed familiar with the shape but enjoyed the interaction, and seemed to be considering something similar for the geometric show in the future.

Potential changes:

Because of the abuse that it took on the floor, I would have to address the strength issue in one of two ways; I could strengthen the connections by welding them, or, as John suggested, the circles could actually collapse when under pressure, with an elastic connection that would snap them back into their original shape afterwards. This would definitely encourage the intended interaction rather than jumping on it only to have it collapse.

Greatest accomplishment:

Coming into the course, I thought that the greatest accomplishment would be to discover something completely unique about the world, and show it off to everyone. I came to realize throughout the course, however, that taking a known phenomenon and making it accessible and interesting was even more valuable, and by looking at the process that way I could focus on the user, rather than the designer. I hope that making that transition in thinking will influence my design work far into the future.

Maker's Gallery Piece

2009-12-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

Two proposals:

The first, inspired by the Sticker Man covered in Exploratorium stickers at the entrance, is simply a column wrapped in Velcro and covered with thousands of Velcro balls. They would be lightweight, like Ping Pong balls, and use self-stick mushroom head Velcro that is able to stick to itself and has a strong, durable connection. This would allow for elaborate constructions of balls extending outward from the column, and even experimentation with structural engineering as some shapes fail and others hold. The column would have a constantly changing, almost organic feel, and would be brightly colored and hopefully draw people in from a long distance away. There is a danger of the balls detaching and rolling around, but hopefully their tendency to stick to each other will deter that.

The second consists of a thin curtain of water falling all around the column. The water would appear almost motionless when it is undisturbed, like a shimmering curtain, but when interrupted by a finger or projection it would part in interesting shapes. The column cover would hold a pump system to recycle the water, and on the outside would have holes for mounting rods, which would allow users to change the flow and parting of the water.

Maker's Gallery Proposal

2009-12-08T18:38:00.001-08:00

Responsive Bubbles

Version 1
My proposition for the Maker's Gallery exhibit is based on bubbles responding people. Ideally, there would be a cushioned circular bench surrounding a large tall circular tank of water. The water tank would be a donut shape which surrounds the I-Beam. The main idea behind this concept is that sensors on the seat or near the seat would signal an air release within the tank to create bubbles. The bubbles would vary in size and frequency depending on the scale of what it is sensing. For example, a small child might produce a small stream of bubbles while a pair to adults sitting and chatting might produce a large and full set of bubbles. I like the idea that this exhibit could appear to be a comfortable resting place, but would surprise and delight the user by interacting with them. The image below shows what this concept might look like.

Version 2
To build on this concept, another rendition would allow users to control the bubbles. What if there was a keyboard at the base of the cylindrical tube where keys corresponded to the release of bubbles? Maybe different keys and tones would release different size bubbles? For this version of the concept, the seat may be offset from the cylindrical tube allowing the user to face the keyboard and tank. This is a much more interactive and obvious version on the earlier passive concept.

Shadow Boogie: Final Reflection

2009-12-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

.

Changes I Made

After last week, my two primary tasks were to construct a series of wave pieces and to add a stand to hold the spares. I had been experimenting with a variety of different materials, from plastic stars to slinkies to tiny baby rattles, and I began assembling wave pieces and trying them out. For the finished product, I selected the pieces I thought would give the most interesting shadows. Based on several suggestions I've received over the last few weeks, I limited the exhibit to only four interchangeable pieces, so the users wouldn't feel overwhelmed by having too many choices.

To build the stand, I tried a few hooks of different widths and distances. I liked the idea of a "sword rack" appearance, as was suggested in class, and I wanted the affordances to be as obvious as possible: the users should know to pick up the wave piece and drop it into the stand.

Finally, I reinforced some of the parts to add robustness, accented the edges with colored foam, and cut a small mirror to use as a light reflector.

Feedback + Observations

I was pleasantly surprised by how much the visitors liked my piece. There seemed to be a nostalgic appeal to the use of toys, and several people commented that they liked the colors, the contrast, and the whimsical shapes. I was also delighted that the exhibit stirred up people's imaginations: many visitors compared the spirals to DNA, biological creatures, algae cells, or X-ray photos, and I just loved hearing that stuff.

In terms of usability, I was relieved to see that people immediately knew what to do, even without the use of explicit instructions. But I think sometimes the phenomenon itself was hard to see, partially because the objects sometimes obstructed their own shadow, and partly because.some shapes just worked better than others.

I deliberately added some additional friction to the wave shapes, to prevent people from spinning the dowels too quickly, but I found that this made the pieces too difficult to turn, and therefore prevented people from seeing the illusion. So at some point in the afternoon I removed the friction pieces altogether, and I think people found it much more satisfying to spin and twirl the waves to their hearts' content.

It was kind of amusing to see that people always put the wave structures neatly back on the hooks, instead of leaving them in the stand. I guess the piece lends itself to being very organized and tidy.

How I Would Change the Piece

Generally speaking, I would like to make the piece more sturdy and robust. I was pleasantly surprised that nobody broke the piece, but I can't guarantee that it would last very long on the floor each day. Furthermore, I think the piece looked more fragile than it was: there were a lot of small bits and pieces, the dowels were very thin, and I saw more than one parent grab her child and yank him away, afraid he might break the piece. So in addition to strengthening the whole structure, I might make some different visual design decisions in order for the piece to appear more durable to the visitors.

I would also like to fix a few usability issues I noticed as people were playing with the exhibit: for example, it would be helpful to make the stand higher up so that people could see the shadows more clearly, and also to build a more attractive shade to hide the light source, and maybe even try more objects and waves to find some cooler interactions. There are always little tweaks and changes I could have made, but as far as the overall concept, I don't think I would make any fundamental changes to what the piece was about.

Greatest Accomplishment

Looking at my final prototype, I think my greatest accomplishment was producing something that felt like my own. In the early stages, I was focused on construction on manufacturing and cranking out the assignments on time, and the pieces I created didn't have as much personality as I would have liked. I think the final piece has a bit of my own personal style, and I felt happy about the way it looked and the types of experiences it encouraged. I think if my close family or friends were looking at the exhibits, they would be able to pick out which one was mine, and that's pretty special.

Insight

It definitely pays off to invest some planning time before diving in too deep. It was tempting to just rush into things without considering how they would turn out, to whip out some haphazard materials and throw together a prototype. But I found that the more I tried to work quickly sometimes, the more mistakes I would make, and the more I would get burned by those details I had neglected early on. Having more time for the final piece, I decided to think through my decisions, consider how the final product would look, and imagine the process in my head before beginning. Naturally things changed a lot along the way, but having spent some time planning right from the beginning, I was able to progress in a much more satisfactory way.

Thinking about my piece "In a different light..."

2009-12-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

1) Changes you made to your final piece during the last three weeks.
I essentially remade my piece entirely between our prototype showing and our final exhibition at the Exploratorium.
-I made the light box stationary and had the gels slide through it rather than move the box among the different colored lights. I felt that this would allow people to focus more on the rods rather than moving the box from recess to recess. I had also intended to have grooves on the top of the large box so that the slider would be stopped in alignment with each color, but a last minute adhesive error prevented me from realizing that portion of the exhibit.
-I created an arrangement of the rods that caused certain shapes to emerge as different colors of light shined through them. In order to have more flexibility with the forms I could create, I also expanded my rod-grid from 8x8 to 10x10.
-I added two additional light colors, green and white. The white light acted as a reference case with which the other light colors could be compared. The green light was added so I had a wider range of light colors and because I had space for it.

2) Feedback you got on Friday and Observations you made.
The feedback I got on Friday wasn't too in-depth, but was generally positive. In watching people, it seemed like they did follow my instructions and at the very least appreciated looking at the colored lights. I was glad to observe that people kept their attention on the central box and were not distracted by the sliders. I noticed that although some people did remove the lid of the central box as I suggested in my signage, they didn't really seem to know what to do with it, as the white light section of the slider may have satisfied their desire to see the "real" colors of the rods. Additionally, I noticed that some of the color changes I'd seen while testing my piece with a halogen light were far more subtle with the CFLs I used at the Exploratorium.

3) Based on this, how would you change the piece if you were to do one more iteration?
Between now and our on-campus showing, I plan to implement the grooves for the slider, clarify my signage (maybe add a graphic) and use an incandescent bulb instead of a CFL to light the piece. I would also add a piece (maybe one of my old prototype lids) to the side of the exhibit and have it lit from the side so that people had another way of seeing what the "real" color of the rods were. This would be especially helpful for the yellow and fluorescent green rods which appear to be the same color when white light shines through them, but look quite different when edge lit.

4) What do you consider your greatest accomplishment(s) during the course? (may or may not be related to the final piece)
I was definitely proud to have constructed a piece that was robust enough to handle a day at the Exploratorium and interesting to visitors. Coming into the class, I never would've imagined that designing an exhibit took that much work, but I feel that this experience will help me tremendously on future projects.
In adidtion to this the course really drilled home the importance of exploration and hearing other people's feedback. In previous art or project related classes, feedback would only be given once the piece was "complete" giving little time for well-informed iterations. Being forced to create so many different iterations of pieces and hearing detailed feedback from instructors and classmates alike was definitely helpful for me.

5) [optional] Describe a significant insight that you had during the last ten weeks and how it came about (i.e. what were the circumstances).
My biggest insight came on the day we brought in our "looks-like" sketches. I had come to class with a sketch of a large multi-person exhibit that bore very little resemblance to anything I'd prototyped or tested previously. I was fairly confident tha I could handle building it, but when John, Terrence and Sebastian asked me questions about why I was doing things a certain way, or what I was trying to showcase, I had a difficult time answering them. This made me realize that I'd scaled my piece up before I had something to scale up. Never again shall I try to cheat the design process (or at least not while John's looking).

Maker's Gallery Idea: The Hourglass

2009-12-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

For the iconic piece in the Maker’s Gallery, I have been trying to find a way to incorporate time, so I have considered all sorts of clocks and calendars. My search has led me to hourglasses, the highly recognizable-time measuring device. Not only are they a classical way of keeping time, they also showcase the sand (or whatever is inside) and its material properties.

For the Maker’s Gallery piece, then, I propose a large-scale sandglass timer that measures a year. This will physically and visually highlight the Gregorian calendar year, as well as represent the past, present, and future as granules of sand (a philosophical notion in its own right). There is a year-long hourglass in Budapest called the “Timewheel” which is shaped like a wheel and rotated 180 degrees every January 1 to start again (see picture below). I think this concept can be applied separately yet effectively to a centerpiece exhibit in this gallery.

I’m not sure how to incorporate the column into the piece, though, since I think it wouldn’t make sense to build the hourglass around the column. I think the design allows for wide-open parameters regarding size and shape, though. It could spiral or wrap around the column in some way, or be a column itself. There could even be three or four other timeglass “columns” with different lengths of time (hour, day, week, month, season, etc.)—all depending on the type of sand and size of bottleneck opening. It would be very interesting to have four identical columns with identical amounts of sand inside, but only differing in the rate at which the sand falls through (to measure an hour, day, month, etc.)

The hourglass could even be mechanical with the sand moved granule by granule by some conveyer system; here the sand could be dispensed at 1 granule per second, so you could see how many seconds are left in the day, month, or year. I’m imagining a similar conveyer belt system as in “Icy Bodies” dropping a sand granule each seond into some huge container that holds all the seconds past in that year. Representing something as elusive as time in such a tangible manner would have a unique effect on visitors.

My research has also brought me to some digital hourglasses – one in particular that uses LEDs instead of sand to illuminate the lantern, and can be twisted like a dial to set the time amount (see pictures below). This could be taken to a larger scale in the Maker’s Gallery and the digital hourglass could have a huge LED display that showed, say, 24 hour news as it traveled down the hourglass throughout the day symbolizing the dichotomy of time and the apparent timeless nature of our culture and society. Again, there are many options within the concept, all of which could use more brainstorming and refinement.

VideoEcho Latest Prototype

2009-12-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

1) Changes you made to your final piece during the last three weeks.

- Played with projection range (10' instead of 9'), but ended up with 9' instead because of the space constraints.

- Played with different levels of zoom and chose "slightly zoomed in" as the final setting because it's not too overwhelming

- Changed the table size and shape, and ended up with circular shape because it looks like a water ripple.

- Changed the hanging object to a stick with two white ends, but stuck to the ball because it is more simple.

2) Feedback you got on Friday and Observations you made.

- Generally positive feedback. Adults tend to be cautious with the ball while kids are the opposite. Also, the audience tends to look upward and figure out what's going on. The explanation didn't get that much attention.

3) Based on this, how would you change the piece if you were to do one more iteration?

- I was not particularly satisfied with the projection --- there was a white spot in the middle that I could not get rid of. I'm not sure if this has to do with the projection range or not, but when I was testing it out at Stanford, this was not an issue.

4) What do you consider your greatest accomplishment(s) during the course?

- Stumbling onto the video feedback loop phenomenon and experimenting many settings (zoom level, ambient lighting, table shape, color of table, object shapes) to make the exhibit a suitable one for the space that was given to us

5) Describe a significant insight that you had during the last ten weeks and how it came about.

- Similar to the "head spinner" and "slinky" mirror pieces, I had no idea what the end effect was going to be when I hooked the video camera and the lcd projector together. I had to trust my own guts that something cool might happen after creating the prototype.

The Final!

2009-12-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

1. Changes made to the final piece

Although my piece looks relatively the same I reconstructed it 3 times in the last three weeks. I elevated it even more for the final piece. I noticed keeping the box flat on the table made it difficult to actually see the shadow so I raised the front of the box. I think I found the sweet spot.
Next I made the actual box longer. I did this to make the distance from the end of the box to the start of the wall longer, which allowed for better visibility. That process makes the shadow larger, so I had to increase the size of the moving wall. So using the scale I increased the wall size around 4 times its previous size. That scale worked really well with the shadow size. To combat the problem of completely ignoring the moving wall I created a cushioned backstop that prevented the wall from moving completely out of sight. With the stop there was always a hint of a shadow on the wall.
The most problematic part of this project has been in the mechanism to move the wall. I tried various options and went back to my original idea with a slight twist. I moved the mechanism to the left and made the attachment point very visible. That visible connection gave a cue to the users that they could interact with it.
And finally I created a sign that explained how to use the piece and what was going on, but more over it showed the same phenomena on the sign itself, this time having the key players pretty disclosed. That part took a lot of planning and a lot of failure. But at the end I strongly feel like it took something not so special about any piece and made it more exciting.

2. Feedback from Fridays class

Add the words "PULL THE RIBBON TO MOVE THE BACK WALL" I foolishly left that out. To be honest I had written the text before my final mechanism was added to the piece. I read the sign once I finished the project and thought it made perfect sense but I never explicitly said Ribbon. That was confusing for many people.

One of the exhibit designers did something quite clever, he bent the plywood to mimic the curved wall behind my piece. The results are quite interesting. We talked for a while about ways to include these various movement.

Make stronger cartridges. A child broke one, and I felt quite bad because I didn't want anyone to feel as if they needed to gently handle my piece, and I am sure that kid/their parents much have felt badly about about the incident .

3. One more iteration, where would you take it?

Beyond making the entire thing stronger I would make it out of material I can paint for a nice finish, I sanded all the plywood but through my various tests never would the plywood that I used be ready for painting. I think it required much higher quality material.

I also would want to at the very least test creating a convex and concave surface on the wall, I have no real clue of how I would do that successfully, but it would be an area I would want to prototype.

4. What is your greatest accomplishment in the last ten weeks

It seems obvious, but to create something I personally feel comfortable presenting at the Exploratorium. Everything in the Exploratorium is so well made and interesting. I never thought I would be comfortable presenting my piece there, but Friday I was. I thought the project concept was strong enough and the user experience was well thought out and the craftsmanship was to high enough of a level that the piece felt finished and robust.

Almost Final Reflections

2009-12-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

Changes

After spending many tortuous hours trying to refine the 10-lights-on-slots configuration, I finally decided to fall back on an earlier prototype that was much simpler and more reliable. I had abandoned my initial 3-arm prototype because I didn't know how to hide the light cords and protect the lights, but I soon realized that I had resolved these issues when I came up with my design for lights on slots. My decision to switch to a prototype with arms was rather sudden, and arguably an act of desperation, but ultimately it paved the way for the success of my most recent iteration. Returning to more simple user interaction and less complex components made my exhibit easier to play with and more reliable to "set off".

In this current iteration, the last joint that the arm rotates about is a little tight and non-obvious. When I noticed the first visitors not turning the arms about that point at all, I decided to draw some directional arrows with a white-out marker. Those helped a lot, and resolved the issue.

Feedback & Observations

First off, I'd like to say how touched I was by our visitors' enthusiasm for all of our projects. Everyone delivered -- it's been awesome seeing our exhibits grow from wacky ideas to janky prototypes to refined, working models.

The feedback I got was uniformly positive. Users with the least degree of experience (Stanford students and other non-staff) were the least critical of my design decisions. I was nervous that it would be too difficult to find the 'sweet spot' of flickering lights, but everyone I saw playing with it got the pattern going within a minute or two. While I was standing next to the piece, a few visitors struck up a conversation with me about emergent behavior. Roughly half to two-thirds of visitors continued to play with the lights after they got the pattern going, to see if they could get a different pattern to occur. I also noticed that users interacted with it one-by-one: the number of the lights is small enough such that it's a private experience that other people watch/talk about, but don't interrupt.

A drawback I noticed is the non-intuitive placement of the sensor, which is further obscured by the mirrored shade. I made the decision to make my signage as simple as possible: in the future, I would include a graphic (or actual nightlight) to explain the position of the sensor. This time, no one broke my piece (which I was certain would happen in some way), but in earlier test I did with my housemates, someone pulled to hard on the arm and accidentally pulled the light free of its power cord. This is a small flaw that can be solved with a slightly different design of the light housing.

Future Changes

An Exploratorium staff member broached the possibility of adding dials to the lights that would change their brightness. The lights don't respond completely discretely to brightness and darkness: borderline intensities of light cause them to partially flicker or just become slightly dim. Introducing brightness controls could increase the possibility of patterns to explore once users set the lights into the 'sweet spot' configuration. It would also necessitate breaking into the lights and manipulating the circuit.

Reliability of the lights could be increased by changing the mirrored shade design. Another Exploratorium staff member described the way the original night light exhibit was done: they drilled holes into the sensor area, and stuck in a small tube around the sensor as a discrete way of re-directing light. Adapting this into my design could streamline the size of the arms or the housing around the lights.

Greatest Accomplishments

DfE was quite the intense experience: the expectations of a new or modified deliverable nearly every week, on top of my other classwork, was grueling. However, to be set in such a constant stream of creative output, building, and quick problem-solving has taught me a lot about efficient prototyping & building. I was kept on my toes (and perhaps came close to falling-on-my-knees-assuming-the-fetal-position a few late nights) -- but the mere fact that I survived and kept up with the deliverables has increased my confidence in my design skills. Implementing projects so quickly and constantly may or may not have taken a toll on my sleep schedule, overall health, and other academics, but looking back, I have no regrets.

Reflections on Final Piece

2009-12-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Changes you made to your final piece during the last three weeks.

I think my final changes were minimal compared to some of my classmates’. For one, I added the white outline detail to the driven wheel as well as the white pins to help distinguish and clarify the Geneva drive component of the piece. I wanted to draw as much attention as possible to this part.

I also changed my film to a better clip of a matador and bull fighting. The key is to have something simple and recognizable, yet with enough action to show significant movement from frame to frame in the short loop.

Thirdly, I created a new, cleaner light box out of basswood and put acrylic windows on the sides and top of the piece to see the inner workings of the “shutter” mechanism. Aside from that, I just made sure all the mechanics were sound and it would hold up during last Friday’s wear and tear.

Feedback you got on Friday and Observations you made.

I was really excited to get a lot of positive feedback. Having worked on the project for so many weeks, I kind of lost site of the initial coolness that drew me in. It was also nice to see different people impressed by different aspects.

Some liked the obvious motion picture effect, while others noticed the Geneva drive more and spent more time turning the crank slowly to see how little margin the two wheels operate together with. Some people were intrigued by the shutter/light circuit and tried to look inside and figure it out, while others didn’t even notice it (which is not a bad thing because the operation should seem natural). One man was most impressed with how I got the film to move one frame at a time through the light box, which was one of the first problems I had to solve during the first week of prototyping. I was happy to explain to him how critical the sprocket wheel was and how it all depended on how many sprockets were on that wheel. In my case, there are 16 sprockets, and since the film has 4 sprockets per frame, a 90 degree rotation would mean one frame change. Thus, I needed a driven wheel with four slots.

Some people thought I approached this initially from the film side, as if I had a background in film, and were surprised to find out that I was drawn in by the Geneva mechanism itself and the film effect was just the application I chose to illustrate the mechanics. On the whole, it was great watching people interact with my piece for the first time and their reactions.

Based on this, how would you change the piece if you were to do one more iteration?

While I am happy with the piece, more improvements are possible. Firstly, my brush mechanism with the shutter is not perfect. Sometimes it flickers, and the copper wire brush is becoming more and more flimsy with use. I have been brainstorming ways to improve or replace this component before our next showing next quarter (any suggestions would help!).

Also, I think it would benefit from an AC power source rather than the battery I have inside the piece. This would improve the longevity and prevent the issue of a battery dying.

Lastly, I can always use better film in the piece. Right now, the loop I have is divided into 3 separate scenes, one showing the matador, one showing the bull, and one showing a close up of the banderilla (flag). Ideally, I would like the entire loop to be of the bull running, since this is the clearest and most beautiful instance of motion picture I have been able to find for my device.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment(s) during the course?

I think my greatest accomplishment during the course was creating a final piece that I was really inspired by and was a real challenge for me. I learned so much in the two or three separate sessions I met with John not only about the mechanics of my piece, but also about how to design with more complexity and how to use McMaster Carr, the best resource I’ve ever seen on the web. Before the course, I felt very comfortable building static architecture models, but had never built a mechanical kinetic prototype and didn’t know if I could. Now, I think my capabilities have grown so much in what I can design and construct.

As for the final piece, I think that it’s a great accomplishment itself. It will surely remain in my portfolio and hopefully distinguish my work and me in the future.

wrap-up

2009-12-07T01:47:00.000-08:00

Changes

Triple the spinning
The most noticeable change to my piece was the addition of two more retroscopes of unambiguous motion flanking the ambiguous motion illusion. This stemmed from simply talking to John about 4-5 weeks ago on how to trip the illusion. I would say this
was the biggest development in my piece. The two unambiguous figures had their hair colored in and their eyes highlighted providing optical cues on the direction of her spinning. It was still however possible to see dancer spinning in the opposite direction (but with the hair and eyes doing something weird).

Physically more robust
The prototype I showed the first time in the museum had its handle and axle shear off. I'm glad it did because itwas pretty weak, and the breakage forced me to reconsider materials. I bought a brass square rod (they didn't have aluminum) that served as my new axel. I also made the crank out of double quarter-inch masonite. It was a much stronger piece because of it, and ultimately necessary to bear the shear of three retroscopes.

Larger viewing window
The viewing window of my first museum-able prototype had a tiny tiny window from which you could watch the animation. My last iteration had the plexiglass angled at 30º and about 4.5 inches of plexiglass on the top to let in more light. A much better user experience.

Vector images
The original frames of the illusion were taken from wikipedia. They are naturally jpg images, and printing them at 72dpi caused some ugliness in my initial prototypes. At first, I didn't think it would take too long to vectorize them, but after trying one out after my very first prototype, it didn't even work. Right before thanksgiving break, Terrence showed me some tricks to get it, but I'm glad I didn't spend the time vectorizing them in the beginning. Although it was worth the effort in the end, it was not essential in the beginning to get my works-like model across. It took a long, long time to get all the graphics in order (vectorized, centered, scaled, numbers, dots around numbers, hair, eyes), but it really cleaned up the images and made for scaling them really easy.

Feedback (& me being critical)
Unclear interaction
It was not clear what was supposed to happen without reading my sign. Some people would spin the crank and not open the doors. Others would open the doors first, probably because they didn't see the crank.

Not super effective
The hair was not very noticeable in the given light. It turned out to be about the same lightness as the black and thus didn't provide a very good optical cue. I had to tell some people to look at the head because otherwise, it wasn't even noticeable. The eyes could have been not there and would have been just as effective.

Allow people to open both doors
I'm not sure how much I agree that this affordance should be built in, but at least two people tried to keep both doors open at once. One girl even asked her friend to hold them open while she spun the crank.

Positive stuff
Maybe it was the nature of being in our gallery, but there was prolonged engagement with my piece. People would spin it slowly, fast, open the doors multiple times, and one girl even told her friend about it!

Hypothetical Next Steps
Rebuild the enclosure
This is something I could and want to do by our exhibition time at Stanford. I dimensioned some things wrong and my piece ended up with lots of small gaps. Modifying some files and putting it through the lasercutter should solve the problem easy enough. The door hinge was sloppy and could also be improved with an actual hinge.

Make the hair and eyes a lighter color
This is a much more onerous task as it would require creating new cards/frames, but if I had to make one more serious iteration, it would be to change the color of the optical cues (hair and eyes) so that they still are noticeable even in the periphery. Adding more optical cues towards the bottom of her body would also make my exhibit more effective.

find a square rod that's longer than 12"
One of my limiting factors was using a rod that was 12". The crank could be smoother if I had room to put in enough washers.

greatest accomplishment
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the quarter was the exploration on what would make people see it go one way or another. This was spurred by John who basically asked the question of what would happen if there were two side by side and one was unambiguous. That was probably the most significant jump in my final piece and took my piece to the next level. It was not just an illusion seen on the internet now, but something that could trip your mind right in front of you.

Tactile-Sound illusion! ahh!

2009-12-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

ah man, intersensory illusions are so mind-blowing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01obpuff.html?_r=1&ref=science

in short, you can make people think they hear "ta" if they hear "da" while there's a puff of air on their fingertips and they're closing their eyes. (and similarly with "pa" and "ba")

The most well-known intersensory illusion is the McGurk effect - which is pretty crazy.

(watch the video - if you close your eyes, it sounds like "ba ba" if you watch it, it sounds like "da da")

2009-12-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

Changes to my final piece since the prototype

Developed Text and Graphics
Due to timing, the first prototype I showed at the Exploratorium didn't have a label to accompany it. I spent the next week exploring directions the label could take (i.e.: How much explanation is appropriate for dichroic, How do you relate dichroic to something people/kids can understand, etc.).

After deciding on a label direction and revising based on feedback from John and Sebastian, I tested the graphics out on friends with my dry fit prototype. I learned a lot from talking to them about their interactions with the label and prototype. Based on their feedback I made a number of changes.

I flipped my drawn diagram of the prototype to match the view of the prototype the user sees. I added numbers to the diagram that corresponded with steps of how to interact with the prototype. I revised the instructions. For example, my original instructions read, Can you create yellow, orange, blue, pink and purple at the same time on the table surface?. While still keeping the question specific, I simplified the questions to be less overwhelming: Can you position the wheel and light to see at least four colors at the same time on the table surface?.

I decided to focus on the instructions and downplay the explanation. I made the instructions in the Try This a much larger font than the explanation text and combined the How it work" with the Whats going on?.

Created a handle for the Light
In an effort to make it more clear the light was a handle to grab, I encased the light in a handmade rod.

Created a sturdy support for the surface holding the label and single piece of acrylic

Added a light to illuminate the graphics and single piece of hanging Acrylic
This was a change I seriously underestimated. I bought two rotating LED lights from IKEA thinking I could angle them towards the board holding my label and the single piece of acrylic. When hooking the lights up they were MUCH too bright! Their brightness washed out the main effect of the light on the dichroic cross.

I had to find a much brighter main light source with a focused point (the next size up Mag flash light) for the dichroic cross and make my own light source to illuminate the label and hanging acrylic. It took some time to position a high powered LED, adjust its brightness, and create a holder that angled light away from the dichroic cross all while still showing bright enough on the label and hanging acrylic.

Adjusted the handle light source for 180 degree rotation
I cut a notch into the side wheel allowing the light source to move as far forward as it could back. To my surprise the back position actually projected a much more vibrant reflection than the front position. I believe this had to do with the sides of acrylic that had the dichroic filter facing each other (in the back position).

Cut a cross in the table wheel surface to be able to inset the dichoric cross

Used a thicker and brighter white paper to cover the projection surface

Feedback/Observations and Changes I would make

People where amazed by the range of color
I was happy to see people genuinely surprised and intrigued by the brightness and range of color they experienced. At the first trial, it seemed most people where uninterested in the effect they saw. This time I had a few people tell me the effect was beautiful and amazingg. I saw quite a few people become interested enough in the effect that they felt compelled to read the label.

Stanford students and Exploratorium Staff understand the meaning of a "prototype"
Everyone was much more gentle and patient with the prototypes than the users a few weeks earlier. Regular Exploratorium visitors have a much higher expectation for exhibits. They really manhandled the prototypes and had a much shorter attention span. This time around was much more encouraging, comfortable and relaxing :)

Holding the light position wherever you leave it is important
This is something I knew was important and I tried to address the issue. I had tightened the nut allowing the wheel to rotate and added Lock Tight to lock the bolt threads in place. Unfortunately, repetitive use proved this method to not be sufficient. When talking to visitors about areas for improvement, this issue was mentioned first and most often.

Make the table wheel rotation more clear
From observing and talking to people, it was not obvious that you could rotate the wheel on the table. One Exploratorium staff member suggested moving the wheel further out from the table to draw more attention to it. Based on Sebastian's advice, I had already moved it out a few inches since the first prototype. But, I think a few more inches is needed.

Incorporate ways to isolate light and reflections on the cross
I witnessed a few people who were putting their hands or fingers on sections of the cross to block light. Some did it because they were trying to understand the effect by isolating the colors. Others did it to see the various additional reflections the shadow of their fingers made.

This tells me that the single piece of hanging acrylic did not draw enough attention to itself or quickly communicate it's purpose. I would explore other ways incorporate a single piece of acrylic. Maybe it's a larger piece of acrylic? Maybe the light source on it is brighter" Maybe it has a location closer to the front of the table? Maybe it has a projection farther away from it to magnify it's reflections?

In addition to this change, I would consider adding inserts to isolate light in segments. Maybe there could be simple cut out sections you could place on the table in different quadrants of the cross? At one point John almost grabbed one of Jennifer's cut-outs from her exhibit to test out on mine. Something with strips of light or small basic shapes like circles or squares could work well. This would add to the complexity of the exhibit and would need to be tested a lot to simplify.

Hard wire the exhibit instead of using batteries
I had so many details to work out that I decided to focus my efforts away from hard wiring the exhibit. But, the batteries definitely faded over time and then died completely. Changing them while the flashlight was attached to the arm was not a quick task. Next time around I would put time into wiring the exhibit for wall power.

More label adjustments
I am unsure about how much effort I would put into the graphics because people only read them if they can't understand how to use the exhibit or if they want to learn more...and the exhibit is hopefully easily understood on it's own. However, I would consider having a graphic starting point for the light and wheel rotation accompanied by more specific instructions. Right now the instructions break down the process enough to isolate the two moving parts of the exhibit. But, they are still instructions encouraging exploring the exhibit. I might ask people to accomplish a series of small specific tasks.

In my explanation of the exhibit, I would consider showing a diagram of how light is reflected and absorbed. While I originally decided against this because it's not what the exhibits is about. I think a diagram would have helped users since it is not common knowledge.

My Greatest Course Accomplishment and Insight
Not giving up. I never felt like I got any of my exhibits to really work the entire quarter. I felt like the more effort and time I put into exploring and trying to work out details the more they didn't work out. It was really difficult to keep trying exhibits when I was continually discouraged. Even at the last minute on my final prototype when having to adjust light sources for my final exhibit I had little confidence the whole thing would work.

As I would get discouraged on one failed idea after another, within one week I would keep trying others to compensate for my failures. I would say the one insight I learned is to focus on isolating and teaching a simple interaction. My final prototype was simple. But, there were so many little things to figure out to make it all appear simple that it was actually complex. I learned this on the last project after spending a couple weeks on one idea. I wonder if this learning could have taken place earlier in the quarter if projects lasted longer than one week?

DfE in the Stanford Daily

2009-12-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

Read the full article here.

Colored shadow clock

2009-12-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/bulbdial

Oloid Progress

2009-12-03T00:40:00.000-08:00

(picture of final version to come)

Since the black and white foam core prototype had so much air resistance that it was uninteresting to interact with except in front of the fan, I decided to move away from using the fan at all and to rely on user interaction to keep the oloid in motion and attracting attention. I noticed that a lot of people were casually brushing or shoving the prototype when they went by - if that light touch results in an interesting motion, it should attract the user into further interaction.

I experimented with using wood circles, to add bulk, but they ended up being too heavy and a bit intimidating for small children to play with. One of the things that an Explainer commented on was that the foamcore oloid was large, but still light enough that a tiny child could move it around where he wanted it. I decided on using aluminum tubes for the frame, which would be strong enough to withstand abuse but light enough to be maneuverable and safe.

Bending the tubes into circles went smoothly, but I ran into problems with welding the aluminum, since I didn't have any experience with TIG welding - as John suggested, I found T-connectors instead that hold the tubes securely and are removable and adjustable. I had planned to cover the circles in fabric, but I decided that the simplicity of the shapes and connections is actually better exposed - my last step is to paint it a bright color so that it won't get lost in the shadows as it roams all over the Exploratorium.

Ideal user experience:

I was able to get the shape to have enough inertia that it rolls for a fairly long time after it is pushed - I'd like for people to touch it lightly as they go by and be rewarded by its unexpected movement, then follow it and push it further to examine the way it moves and is constructed.

All exhibit titles for Friday

2009-12-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

Thanks for sending all the labels in time! I enjoyed reading your new titles, if you click on the image it should be large enough to read them here, too.

View the world through Jimmy's eyes

2009-12-01T00:20:00.000-08:00

This site has some color charts about halfway down the page that claim to reproduce how a red-green colorblind person sees the world- it also describes how to reproduce this experiment at home. Wish I'd found this earlier- this could make for a very interesting exhibit!

Regular color chart

Red-Green Colorblind chart

Sun Dial Cannon

2009-11-30T16:58:00.000-08:00

I just stumbled across this and it made me think of the installation for the new Exploratorium building- I like the idea of some exhibit/machine that does something cool a few times a day- I could see people timing their visits to try and catch the phenomenon. Not sure if a giant cannon fits in with the Exploratorium philosophy, but perhaps something similar...?

Fluorescent Crayons

2009-11-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

When I was playing with my exhibit, I noticed that when I put this bowl of crayons underneath the sodium light, not all of the crayons were turned to grayscale. A few pink and orange crayons retained their color. I asked Sebastian about this, and he passed it along to Richard Brown. His response on what is happening is below:

Assuming it's illuminated only by monochromatic sodium light, it must be fluorescent. Sodium light can excite red fluorescence, but not higher frequencies - fluorescence is always emitted at lower frequencies than the exciting light.

Put on glassblower's goggles or look through a didymium filter, and that crayon will look fantastically bright [under sodium light]. As a demo, I like to wear day-glo red tape under my shirt in the sodium light. It's invisible until people put on the glassblower's goggles, when suddenly they see a brilliant red glow through my shirt.

Less interesting [and less likely] possibilities to rule out - there's white light mixed in with the sodium light, or the sodium lamp is old, and emitting some red light as well.

If I were to develop another entirely new piece, I might explore the combination of Fluorescent light and glassblowers goggles- seems like there's a lot of fun possibilities there! While researching fluorescent light, I also stumbled across a new material- Neodymium glass. Sounds like it has similar properties to Dichroic.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium#Neodymium_glass

Augmented Reality

2009-11-29T17:49:00.001-08:00

A friend just showed me this- what a fun exhibit this would be! I could see Purin's piece incorporating something like this using the video feedback loop...

Help (now with sign)

2009-11-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

My exhibit is pretty different from what I've brought in so far. I also get the feeling that I didn't clearly communicate the intent of my exhibit. I am showing the spinning dancer illusion, an ambiguous motion that can either go clockwise or counterclockwise. The objective is to present an ambiguous motion without anything "magical" about the mechanism presenting it. That objective was solved weeks ago with the retroscope (the circular flipbook). The challenge now is how do you trip the illusion without telling people, "Just wait for it, it'll come, keep on staring. Just a little longer."

Here's the solution (with abundant help from John and Terrence):

http://www.stanford.edu/~cjimmy/dfe/dfetest

This will, of course, be implemented into three consecutive retroscopes. Or rather, take the prototype flipbooks you've seen of mine and ctrl+c+v two more times. and instead of using your hands to cover them up, you open a small door.

Any feedback would be appreciated. But more importantly, I need help with a name.

Here are a few:

Which way is she spinning?

Ambiguous motion

Ambiguous spinning

Here's my sign. What do you think? (didn't mean to export with the guides still in)

Cipher Drinking Glass

2009-11-27T15:14:00.001-08:00

Theoretically a pretty cool idea. I'm not sure if these would actually work in practice, but they exploit similar principles as my exhibit. More info.

Potential sign - suggestions welcome!

2009-11-24T13:24:00.001-08:00

Is this crazy amounts of dichroic?

2009-11-21T14:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/11/24/cityscope-by-marco-hemmerling/

Chul-Hyun Ahn

2009-11-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

I found some really cool work by Chul-Hyun Ahn, an American-Korean artist, whose work is mostly about creating visual effects with light and reflections.

more at...

http://www.bakerartistawards.org/nomination/view/chul%20hyun%20%20ahn

Vortex Well Prototype 2

2009-11-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

VORTEX WELL PROTOTYPE 2

- Projection range 10'

- Larger (40"x40") table

- Experimented with other objects

Also, something we stumbled upon: the "green" effect...

And a few title possibilities:

light tunnel
the wormhole
time tunnel
visual echo
video tunnel
videoscapes
to infinity and beyond
trails to infinity
endless tunnel
no end in sight
optical echos
black hole
visual whirlpool

UPDATE: POSTER PROTOTYPE

Final Piece: Shadow and Perspective

2009-11-18T20:28:00.000-08:00

Challenges: In creating this prototype I encountered the most difficulty in creating a mechanism that would allow for users to easily interact with the moving wall without having the wall slam down or stay up towards the box. I fussed with the moving wall a variety of time and with different mechanisms and after trying various hinges and stops, John made a quick solution, create a padded foot that prevents the wall from smashing onto the table. The simple answer really worked wonderfully, and made me much more comfortable about the safety of the piece.

Not until I got to the exploratorium did I resolve the return mechanism. I knew I wanted a spring back and all the springs I could find were far too strong, I needed a spring with a lot of give, and thankfully found one in the makers room and I fitted it with the supplies I had purchased for my original spring idea.

Improvement: I worked so long on creating this small moving wall that it didn't occur to me what would be exciting for the viewers, that is not viewing the image on a small wall, but rather a large wall. Unfortunately the large wall they used for viewing was the actual wall in the room. So I lost the perspective side to my exhibition. But that got me to thinking about ways to prevent that from happening again, and I decided that I need to scale up my moving wall. What was most exciting for me was that the children felt like they could control shadows. And not just any shadows, but shadows that were larger than them. That scale is really powerful. If I can make a moving wall that is about 4 times the size of my current wall, and keep it from going completely flat I will be able to keep the perspective element of my piece while also allowing for the excitement of controlling a large image.

The other area for improvement is in my signage. I did a very good thing last week. I was able to make an attractive sign reflect what my piece is about, by creating a shadowed design. I just did not realize how it would play out in the space relative to my piece. The wall projection added fuel to the fire regarding projecting the actual cartridges onto the wall. But this week I am attacking that mishap and creating a new sign, one that doesn't project onto the wall, but a standing sign, and one that also has suggested tasks and explains the phenomenon a little.

By friday I want to have the measurements for my new wall and box. The box will be elongated to change the location of projection. I have two laser cuts to make, the new box top and new sign. Each will be small. I will present my new sign and want to get feedback on how it explains or helps my piece.

Starting over: If I were starting over the biggest thing I would do is delve deeper into possible cartridge images. It took quite a long time to create the selection of cartridges I currently have (which I am cutting in half since I realized there were far too many choices and opportunities to eliminate all light from the shadow box. Cutting the cartridges available in half and reducing the slots to 2 rather than the current 3 will improve the usability.) For children I have the right cartridges, but starting again I would like to see more complicated and more extreme images that when seen in perspective take on a new life. A line drawing that makes an image of a person or well known iconic building or object might be interesting to see. There are a lot of factors to consider in how the cartridge would be cut then how the piece would be cut to express the image in perspective.

Guest Speaker - Kevin Boyd

2009-11-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

Kevin Boyd has been writing exhibit labels and other texts at the Exploratorium since 2007. He earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology at UC Santa Barbara, attended the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication program, and has been writing about science for about 16 years. But he still finds that writing well takes hard work.

Three Tiered Kaleidoscope

2009-11-17T00:29:00.000-08:00

[video coming when the internet unclogs]

Challenges – yet to be resolved

* Make all shapes rotate together on one axle
* Place partitions along the sidewalls to direct viewer’s focus
* Further improve viewing angle

One unresolved issue with this prototype was making all the levels of spinning shapes rotate at the same time along one fixed axle. The presented prototype left users to rotate the shapes individually. Because the one shape did not pass through all the mirrors are the same spot at the same time, I feel much line of symmetry lesson was lost.

For this prototype, much effort was focused of the mechanics of increasing the levels of mirrors to three. I did not spend as much time fabricating an external housing for the exhibit. I figured this would be okay, as it would allow the viewers to see the inner workings of the exhibit and know that no “trickery” was involved. However, once the exhibit was on the floor, I realized that some covering would be beneficial to direct the viewer’s focus. Several environmental (lower lighting, dark floors, high level of activity) and exhibit features (dark rotating shapes, mirrors that reflected activating and thus blended into the surroundings) combined to create a confusing approach for the user. For the next iteration, I plan to leave window exposed to allow the viewer to see the “guts”, but plan to do so in a directed manner.

The main focus of my soft prototypes during the early part of the week focused upon the size of the mirrors and overall scale. I realized that making the mirrors too tall would result in too much divergence from the viewer’s eye level. This would be undesirable, as I wish to the viewer to see all three angles of reflection at the same time. I also noticed that making the radius of the mirrors too deep would make the whole shape too difficult and “hidden” to see. While this iteration is an improvement from the original proposal, I would like to refine this area more.

Challenges – resolved

* Somewhat improve viewing angle of all three shapes
* Figure out stacking structure and create skeletal framework
* Affix a lazy-susan for the bottom user spin plate

Vortex Well

2009-11-16T22:29:00.000-08:00

CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED AND RESOLVED

1. Deciding between Vortex Wall and Vortex Well

Vortex Wall

Pro: full body, more free-form interaction

Con: takes up a lot of space, something similar has been done by Ed Tannenbaum http://www.et-arts.com/reco.htm

Vortex Well (selected direction )

Pro: takes up much

less space, never been done before

Con: limited interaction

2. Deciding what Interaction is Allowed

free form (no objects) vs. pendulum (with LED at the tip?) vs. objects on the table (ball, box, LED pucks, geometric shapes)

In the end I decided to go with the pendulum idea, knowing that it might not withstand overly energetic 7 year-olds.

3. Construction of the Armature to Hold the Camera and Projector

I had to get the exact dimensions of the space (i.e wall thickness) from Sebastian in order to construct my piece before installing it. I made a drawing on paper, then in Google SketchUp before I dove into actual construction. Also, as I was about to finish the armature, I realized that the camera needs to be easily adjusted and not fixed to the armature. I solved this by loosely attaching a makeshift tripod to above the projector.

4. Calibrating the Camera

Getting the square projection to line up and be in the center of the table is a big pain in the ass.

5. Ambient Light Condition

Turns out ambient light has a huge effect on the piece, especially with a reflective ground surface.

CHANGES I WANT TO MAKE BY FRIDAY

1. Make a larger table that captures the entire projection area.

2. Make the white stripes around the table thinner.

3. Make the pendulum stronger.

CHANGES I WANT TO MAKE IF I WERE TO REDO THE PIECE FROM SCRATCH

1. I want to somehow allow for camera rotation, which creates a whole different set of effects, but difficult to manage in this piece.

2. I want to hang the camera and projector from the ceiling, and not have it come off the wall (not so sexy).

Geometric Shadows

2009-11-16T22:06:00.000-08:00

Challenges
I had originally used a 1/2” square metal rod to hold the pieces in place, but it became evident that ½” was too thick for the square metal projected a shadow that was distracting from the triangle-square-circle shadows I wanted in the exhibit. To fix this I went to Lowes and got a ¼” piece of square metal. This solve the problem I was trying to resolve, but created a whole new one for I found myself with a ¼” piece of metal that needed to sit solidly in a ½” hole. I got some wood filler, which the sales person assured me was the strongest, and filled the vacuum in the hole to make a snug fit for the new and narrower piece. This dryed out nicely overnight, and for a moment I thought I had successfully resolved all issues. Then when I saw the exhibit on the floor and with humans other than myself interacting with it I realized that my solution was no solution. It seemed that the first thing everyone wanted to do as soon as they got the geometric shape on the square stick was to try to torque it and see if it would rotate.

Changes
I will cut out the center hole, which is ½” inch right now, to a 2”x2” square and will fit in a 2”x2” piece to fit snugly in and glue it on for maximum strength. I will then place the ¼” metal piece on a ¼” hole I will drill in this new piece of wood. I also need to affix the lights better since people did not seem to care about moving them around, but the strings were aesthetically inadequate. Sebastian has some material he is going to let me try out to do this.

Bigger Changes
I would love to do this on a 3D program and use the FDM (spelling?) machine in the PRL to create more refined geometric figures. I also would like to have a slow motor rotating the shapes on display. Solid wood all over would enhance the aesthetics and the robustness of the overall piece I believe. Instead of loose flashlights fixed by strings or anything else I would have inset lighting controlled by 3 switches since mobility of the lights was not something people seemed to care, but the risk of a light falling on someone’s head needs to be addressed.

Twirling Toys

2009-11-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

CHALLENGES

My most obvious challenge was that I was unable to submit a completed piece for the floor testing. This was a big obstacle, since I wasn't able to see people interacting with my piece, but I think I can put in sufficient work before the final presentation so that my piece is still as effective as possible.

Another interesting challenge was implementing a suitable lighting technique. It's important to achieve a crisp shadow in order to see the effects of the wave pattern without distortion or fuzziness around the edges. My current method involves a bright light reflected from a hanging mirror in order to achieve parallel light. Over the next week, I will continue to make adjustments to my chosen method, particularly establishing appropriate angles and distances, and also trying a handful of different methods to find the most elegant solution.

Despite not having a piece, I was able to make significant progress this week: I established the detailed structure of the piece, its size, the turning mechanism, and a collection of objects to use. I took concepts from the previous week and articulated all of them in high detail. This will make the transition much easier as I'm bringing my exhibit to fruition.

CHANGES TO MAKE

I gathered a lot of useful information from watching people on the floor. I found that there are a few distinct types of exhibits that hold attention for long periods of time:

- Active exhibits: These require lots of movement and interaction, such as the tornado machine, the cloud maker, the bicycle wheel, and the spinning "seeing motion" tent. These exhibits encourage children to be loud, uninhibited, and social.

- Soothing exhibits: These are interactive in a calming, leisurely way, such as Spinning Patterns. Both adults and children have a distinct way of interacting with the sand tables, and it's decidedly different from how they interact with say, the cloud maker.

- Mesmerizing exhibits: These exhibits only require passive observation, but they are visually interesting enough to hold attention, such as Icy Bodies. The Sun Painting exhibit could potentially fall under this category, although it doesn't hold attention for very long.

My own idea seems well suited to be soothing / mesmerizing if I implement it properly. I'd like to keep this in mind during development; I can enhance this quality by choosing objects that move in interesting ways, and encouraging a leisurely interaction by allowing users to easily exchange waves and observe the effects. Installing more than one light source might also have a pleasant effect, and draw in viewers.

I noticed that little girls seemed more likely to read directions and take time on a piece than little boys (I saw several instances of girls settling down and looking at the directions, while the boys seemed to quickly transition from piece to piece). Naturally, this is a generalization at best, but if my piece is more meditative and leisurely, it might lend itself more to interactions with young girls than boys. Rather than trying to fight this, I could tailor my piece to be even more appealing to girls, perhaps by using toys that appeal to them, or softer graphics, different colors.

FRIDAY PLAN

Of course, by Friday I will have a complete working model with all the pieces intact. I would also like to try several options in terms of:

- Light sources: As mentioned, there are a few ways I can tackle this problem, and I want to make sure I don't sell myself short on a good lighting solution.

- Found objects: I've been using small toys, which I think lends to the whimsical appeal of the piece. Since there are so many possible toys out there, it's worthwhile to look at a wide variety of them and see which ones would be most interesting to look at.

- Wave transitions: It's important that the switch between waves is as smooth and effortless as possible, so as not to discourage the visitors. I have a solution that I think will work well, but I suspect there are ways I can augment it.

LARGER CHANGES

I spoke with Eric about ways to improve my approach, and he suggested that an alternative way to make the exhibit would be to place all the waves side-by-side, or vertically, rather than requiring the user to switch them manually. This is an interesting idea, and while it would make the exhibit feel very different (he mentioned that it might speed up the users, whereas my current setup encourages them to slow down), I think it would be fun to try if I had unlimited time and resources. I'm picturing an enormous setup with twenty different waves, which can be spun and twisted at varying speeds. Adding multiple colored lights and crazy materials would make the piece even more tremendous and mesmerizing.

Reuleaux Crank

2009-11-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

(video to come)

challenges + changes

one of the main challenges I dealt with was constructing the Reuleaux triangle gear. The shape is made of two circles chopped and married, which leads to some interesting issues when you're making the shape into a gear. You have to have a smooth transition from the large side to the small rounded tips... and also a matching gear spacing for your outer ring and driver gear... which also matches the circle gears you're making to pace the triangular gear... anyways, it took a long time to make. After all of this, the gear was too big by a few hundreths of an inch. After I reworked the Solidworks files late Thursday night/early Friday morning, Sebastian was kind enough to cut another gear for me up at the Exploratorium - it's the blue acrylic one, and is unfortunately still a little bit too big. I think the file that the blue gear was cut from will work - I feel like our lasercutter takes more material off of masonite than the Exploratorium's does off of acrylic, and this difference will let the gear fit well.
Making the right sized triangular gear is my main concern and issue right now, and it's also something which is solvable by Friday. Besides that, I have some issues to figure out with assembly. My first prototype had stupid amounts of friction, something which I solved by more careful construction and the addition of plastic washers from John. I put the crank and the assembly in different planes, unfortunately, so the driving belt is at a weird angle... the workaround up at the Exploratorium was my keyring carabiner and some string - a tensioner suggested by Andrew. On top of that, the belt is really janky - fabric with hot glue. I'm hoping to order a timing belt or a proper rubber power transmission belt off of McMaster. I wanted to work with bike sprockets and chain, but i'm a little concerned about mating my masonite and wood parts to the metal of bike components.
I didn't see too many people interacting with my exhibit, but to be honest - I wouldn't really use it if I saw it in its current state in the museum. It looked kind of crappy (the carabiner and belt didn't help). It's all mounted on a piece of plywood, but it just doesn't look finished. For my final, I'd like to make my own table with a unified look as a standalone piece. I think I'm going to install my own lighting about the piece (attached to the table), because that really would make it look nicer.
I think the piece is fairly robust, but it doesn't look like it. If I had time and resources, I'd like to have it be cut out of plywood, and obviously increase the scale too. Its current scale is kind of small... I may try to scale it up out of masonite for my final.

Reflections on a Gumball

2009-11-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

I encountered several challenges when working on this prototype, both logistical and in the construction. My biggest challenge was that building the framework/box that the light was placed in was far and away the most technical thing I've ever had to build- even spending all of Tue, Wed and Thu in the model shop, I was barely able to finish this part by Friday, which left me very little time to figure out a way to release the gumballs. I also realized very late on Fri that I didn't have a great system built in place to either catch the gumballs as they came out into the light or get them back into the starting container. Both of these issues created problems on the floor, as gumballs were flying everywhere and unless visitors moved gumballs back to the start container, the gumballs all tended to pile up in the white light tray.

I also encountered some problems getting the ramps to stay in place, but fixed those at the Exploratorium with the acrylic velcro Sebastian had.

I think the major changes this piece needs are 1) A way to have the gumballs bathed in sodium light/red LEDs before they are placed into the machine- otherwise the surprise at their true color is lost. 2) Some way to return the gumballs from the tray to above the box without visitors having to move them themselves. One other change might be to eliminate the ramps altogether and simply have the gumballs (and maybe some other colorful objects?) scattered inside the box, and give visitors the option to turn on a white light in the box to reveal their true colors.

I also think the piece would look better in a dark room- when I tested it during the building process in a pitch black room, the light from inside the box really drew the viewers attention, whereas last Friday in the lighter room visitors were looking all around the box and kids were focusing on dropping the gumballs through the hole without looking inside. The problem of course is that my piece is so bright, it kills the darkness for surrounding pieces..

For this Friday, I think reasonable changes I could make would be a sturdier tray for the gumballs to fall into so they don't scatter everywhere, and a box to hold the gumballs above the piece and release one gumball at a time. Alternatively, I could try to install some white LED lights inside the box that could be controlled by a switch by the user.

If I were going to build a bigger piece from scratch, I would think about building in a motorized way to transports gumballs through the piece- one of the exhibit designers suggested an escelator style mechanism or tubes and fans to send the gumballs back to the top. This would take the user interaction out of it, but could make for a more engaging viewing experience and would really be able to draw visitors attention to the effects of the different light bands.

Spinning Dancer Illusion

2009-11-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

(video on its way)

Challenges

One challenge while building the piece was how to make it such that the handle only spins in one direction. This was before implementing it such that you can see the illusion in the other direction as well. I initially made a hurricane-like gear so that it would get caught on something when trying to spin it in the wrong direction, but soon realized that one could easily torque the axel.

Another challenge was how to place a light inside the enclosure such that it illuminated the card being viewed. Placing the light towards the bottom made the animation much more blurry and created a weird shadow on the card being viewed.

I was unable to get stock thin cardboard to make the cards of the animation. Much of what I could find at Staples was heavy paper, but was still thinner than the material used in the Retroscope. Ideally, it would be as stiff as the plastic used in the packaging of most products. My solution, which worked better than expected, was putting two 4x6" together. This allowed me to print easily on the cards and to create a stiff light cardstock that was heavier than the heaviest cardstock sold. The uniformity of the cards also made the animation much smoother than my previous iterations.

I tried for an hour or so to get the images into vector images, but the resolution of the curves in illustrator made the dancer look alien. This is something that would be nice (and necessary if it were to be on the floor longer) but does not ruin the effect if it couldn't be done, so I lowered it on the prioritized to-do list.

Improvements & Next Steps

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see any museum-goers interact with my exhibit. I only saw some of the explo staff interact with it and that was partially mediated by me. According to Ricardo's anecdote though, one woman was trying to take my exhibit apart and I guess that's how the handle was torn off. The axle was only a quarter inch thick of masonite, so it was definitely due to be destroyed. The next axle will be thicker or made of some metal such as aluminum. The handle itself will also probably be made more robust because it will probably break somewhere else if it is made with masonite again. These are both changes I can feasibly make by this Friday.

Another smaller change, suggested by several people, was to make the image on the card smaller (and thus less pixelated as well). Printing, glueing, and inserting the 34 frames takes a few hours, so this is definitely a feasible task to complete by Friday.

The larger goal is to make two more of the same circular flipbook but to have a disambiguous spinning ballerina on either side of the illusion. One would be for sure spinning clockwise, the other counterclockwise. There could be slide curtains that can cover up one or the other. The hope is that if there are two of the same dancer and one is ambiguous and the other is disambiguous (e.g. for sure spinning clockwise) then this will force the user to see the ambiguous one as spinning in the same direction (e.g. clockwise). I think this is feasible for the final project. I will have Thanksgiving break to make and print out the frames, gather the materials, and all I'll need to do is lasercut the enclosure and assemble.

Kaleidoscope Cross, Abby

2009-11-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

Challenges I encountered

Light Source
Finding an appropriate light source was tricky. I needed a light with a focused point that was bright, but not too bright and had a clean projection outside of the focused point. A mini Mag light worked best for having a focused point that was bight, but not so bright that it blew-out reflections. I couldn't get most of the LED's and halogen lights I had to have a focused point. As a result they were too bright and the dichroic intersection effect was lost. But, the Mag light had a distracting uneven projection outside of it's focused point. I had to create an attachment to block out much of this projection.

Light Adjustment
Being able to smoothly adjust the light source while having it pointed on the dichroic cross and being able to rotate the cross on the table surface was challenging. Relying on inexpensive ball bearings from IKEA lazy susan's turned out to be an excellent solution.

Cross Attachment
Holding the dichoric cross on a clean flat surface was challenging. I adhered the dichroic to a dowel rod and then covered the slightly raised surface with heavy white paper.

Building a new table surface
Creating a raised surface to account for rotating the dichroic cross on a flat surface and being able to place all of this on another surface seemed simple. However, having a smooth rotation relied on a completely flat table surface and a sturdy material to act as the new table surface. Quarter inch masonite was a little thin and warped when clamped to the table.

Problems I plan to solve

Creating a concise written explanation for the exhibit which includes a single piece of dichroic acrylic to show the material's properties. (Friday, November 20)

Adjust the size of the dichroic cross to be larger in scale and symmetric. For this first round of prototyping I had an asymmetrical cross about 2.5" h x 7.5" l. I plan to make a symmetrical cross about 4" h x 8-9" l. (by Friday, November 20)

Find a better way to cleanly attach the dichroic cross on the flat surface. (by Friday, December 4)

Clearly have a starting position for the adjustment mechanisms. I plan to create a spring loaded system or provide graphics to indicate wheel starting positions (by Friday, December 4)

Wire my light to be able to plug into a power supply rather than relying on batteries. (Friday, December 4)

Make a more robust handle and arm for adjusting the light source (Friday, November 20)

Extending the width of the table surface to 24" instead of 19". Now that I know I have more table area to work with, it would be nice to have a larger surface for reflection. I also plan to use a stronger material (baltic birch ply) for the raised table surface. (Friday, December 4)

I plan to use this week to logistically work out all these details and purchase all the materials I will need to build my revisions for December 4th.

Larger Changes

If I were to build this from scratch I would not have to build a structure to fit on a table, but would build the exhibit into the table itself. I would also consider designing this exhibit to be accessible only while standing - like a podium. Most people who played with my exhibit did not feel the need to sit down while experiencing the exhibit. The challenge in this would be to create a height that was appropriate for both young children and adults.

Light Box

2009-11-16T00:10:00.000-08:00

For this prototype, my intention was to increase the amount of illumination the rods received, tweak the light color and rod arrangement achieve the most dramatic effects, and enhance visitors' ability to change the color of the lights.

I feel that my prototype was able to accomplish these things to some extent, but could definitely be improved upon.

My exhibit currently requires visitors to move the box with rods from recess to recess, then pull the slider out to expose the light. This two-step process is not entirely intuitive and takes away some clarity from the exhibit.

What I'd like to do to streamline the visitor experience, is to make the rod box stationary, and have different colored gels slide through it.

Additionally, I noticed that when my exhibit was placed in the darkroom, it did not attract many guests. I would like a major component of my exhibit to be visual delight, so I need a way to convey this from a greater distance to draw visitors to my exhibit.

One obvious way to do this is to scale up the size and amount of rods used in the project. Another possibly easier way to achieve this would be to provide more glowing areas by adding plex sheeting to the box. The last way I'm considering to increase the visibility of my exhibit is to make it wall mounted with the colored light facing visitors.

By next Friday, I will construct a sliding panel of colored gels to replace the 3-gel box I currently have. I will likely include more than 3 gel colors and will definitely include a clear section so that visitors can see the original color of the rods. I would really like to scale the exhibit up and explore wall mounting it, but I will take things one step at a time and focus on streamlining visitor interaction at the scale I've currently tested.

Nightlight Exhibit Beta Version

2009-11-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

Challenges

Accuracy: There are many factors that affect the sensitivity of the night lights, which in turn directly affects the interactiveness of the exhibit. The size and angle of the mirrored shade, the type of mirror used in the shade, the angles between each light, the reflectivity of the surface the lights were placed on, and the distances the lights slid along the slots were all factors I had to (roughly) figure out before I could move on to designing the structure of the piece. I spent many hours sitting on my bedroom flour with power cords (I now own over 36!), taping lights down, trying to record the ideal angle. Through these very rough experiments, I realized that the angle between the lights was not a huge issue, but the tilt and length of mirrored shade was very important.

Structure: After figuring out rough dimensions that my pieces had to be, I had all the correct sizes for the sensor shade and the slotted board that the lights could travel in. However, my piece was only half done: without a structure to suspend the board and allow the lights to travel, my piece wouldn't work. I spent an additional amount of time designing the box the light structure would fit into, as well as an entire model shop session trying to figure out how to make a baseplate for the box so that it could clamp to the table.

Time: I knew that the LaserCAMM would fill up by Wednesday night, so I had to get all my initial testing done, materials sourced, foamcore prototypes, and digital DXF files done between Monday evening (after my physics midterm) and Wednesday evening. Most design decisions were not carefully thought out or resolved: they were the best guesses I could make given time constraints. Though at the time it was stressful to never actually be sure if my project would work or support itself, forcing myself to choose one path over the other helped me reach a final design as quickly as possible. Many insights came to me as I was about to make a mistaken cut or calculation, and many others were born out of actual failures (not having clamps to set the wood glue because the model shop was closed? turns out that rubber bands work just as well, if not better, for small parts!).

Interactivity: My largest conceptual sticking point was how I wanted users to interact with the device. I wasn't sure if the lights would work best moving in unison, or if they could be individually pulled in and out. In the end, again due to time issues, I chose to prototype individually moveable lights for this round, and to worry about all-at-once interaction with another prototype. After making a few foamcore sensor prototypes, I noticed that the lights become too sensitive. Within the 28 x 28 inch board (these parameters were another snap decision after I realized I was running out of masonite to cut on the lasercamm), there was no point at which the emergent behavior of circular flickering was NOT happening. I decided to make the lights less responsive to each other by decreasing the length of the sensor, which ended up being my downfall in Friday's prototype. From this I've learned I shouldn't reduce tolerances in my exhibit prototypes: for an exhibit so dependent on sensitive factors, the extra room for failure is necessary.

Changes

By Friday:
-The most urgent change to make is increasing the size of the mirror shades to their original shape, to make sure that a refined prototype will actually work. I noticed a lot of light was reflecting off the surface of the masonite: darkening the surface/reducing gloss with some black spraypaint might reduce this effect.
- I noticed children removing lights form the slots entirely. While I'm glad they're so curious, it's unideal to have my exhibit so easy to take apart. An easy fix is to add a bottom piece to the slider, so that it can't be removed form the slot. Putting something in a long hole probably entices kids to take things out of said hole, so I'd also cover up the hole so it's no longer such a visual and physical cue.
- Thomas Humphrey and other Explo staff mentioned that the exhibit was great for personal, intense exploration, but not for multiple people messing with it at once. To design my way out of this problem, I'd like to explore a mechanism that moves all of the lights in and out at once, keeping them at consistent angles between each other. That way only 1 motion is possible, and the effect of moving lights in and out is obvious: there should be a point at which emergent behavior will not occur. In the video Sebastian took of my piece in his blog post, a child individually moves all the lights in and then out: he might have found it more satisfying if one motion did the trick. By Friday, I will probably prototype a simple hinge mechanism, instead of a complex one.

Bigger Changes
- Other visitors seemed to find moving each light around and discovering effects through light-by-light experimentation to be very absorbing: this is something older visitors were more inclined to do for long periods of time (see video). I would in the future like to incorporate both all-at-once and one-at-a-time mechanisms in my piece. I'm envisioning fixed-length arms that hinge to the moving light at one end, and all converge in a central plunger. Moving the plunger up and down moves all the lights in and out. However, if I could figure out a simple way to 'unhook' the light from the hinged arm, visitors could do just that, and perhaps enjoy a more free form interaction with my exhibit.

Intermittent Movement: Motion Picture with a Geneva Wheel

2009-11-14T16:01:00.001-08:00

Challenges/Problems:

I think in general I was happy with where I brought my exhibit for this week. Before I get into the challenges and problems, I think it’s important to note what actually did work smoothly and as expected—namely, all of my mechanical moving parts. The Geneva mechanism that I’m showcasing works perfectly and sturdily, and the film moves one frame per turn of the driven wheel (cross-shaped one). My main issue was, after all that mechanical success, portraying the point of the exhibit: to see a motion picture. There are a few things I need here.

First of all, my film loop only allows for around 20 frames, which is less than a second of film. I can either make my loop larger, or find slower film.

Next, my light wasn’t bright enough, so visitors couldn’t really see the image. Luckily and thankfully, Andrew helped me fix this by switching my battery to a 9V instead of 2 AAs, taking care of this issue.

Another challenge is that the exhibit isn’t ultra-legible in that what you’re supposed to look at (the film in the light box) is only 35mm wide and is facing a different direction than you (by nature of the planes of the motion). To remedy this, Erik Thogersen suggested I display the exhibit at a 45 degree angle so that the crank/wheel and film frame/light box get equal value towards the visitor.

Also, I needed to have some instructions/labeling to direct visitors. My piece has a unique appearance aesthetically (aside from it being one element in a sea of laser cut masonite); it doesn’t look like anything people use regularly. Thus, it needs some instruction and clarification. Further, it needs some explanation of what the mechanism is and why it is there. If people aren’t comfortable with what an exhibit is or is supposed to be, they are often reluctant to interact with it.

Lastly and unrelated to the central experience, there were two problems with my handle. First of all, it fell off, which was just a matter of loose fixation. I can either bend my steel rod into a new handle or fixate it with more epoxy. Next, there were complains that it was too long for rotation fast enough to get a motion picture effect. These are both easy fixes…

Changes to make:

Right now my main concern is the film. I want the experience to be one of a real motion picture. I will either try to lengthen my film loop, or set up two reels for true motion picture look and feel. Also, I will make the light and light box more permanent and sturdy. I will also base a new base that presents the structure at a 45 degree angle to the visitor, and create a “lid” for the top with an acrylic window to allow visitors to see the brush “shutter” system. I should be able to accomplish these all for next week…

Later changes if making a completely new piece from scratch:

If I were making a completely new exhibit from scratch, I would do many of my same steps. I would start early, and work often. There is no way to make something like this the day before—I had to go to Minton’s twice, order from McMaster-Carr twice, wait 2 weeks for one sprocket wheel from the worst seller on eBay, and meet with John Edmark on how to solve mechanics issues several times. If anything, I would try to finish everything two or three days before so that those last few days I can use it and fix problems that I didn’t predict before (which I ended up having to fix at the museum). My process, my CAD, my materials were all for the most part sound and as predicted, but the unpredictable issues are the ones I need to minimize and solve.

Videos

Handle-less operation

Close-up of light box

AssignmentWeek7

2009-11-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

Write a blog post with an image(video) of the prototype you brought to the Exploratorium.

-Write about the challenges you encountered when you were making this prototype. Write about problems you couldn't solve while building this prototype.
Addendum: Ben H. just made a good point in his own assignment post. Please also write about issues that you were able to solve and the progress you made.
-Write about any other changes that you think would improve the piece after you have seen it on the floor. Changes could be informed by your observation of visitor interaction, seeing your piece in the museum environment, seeing your piece in a certain light condition, on a certain table.
-tell us which of the above changes you would like to make by next Friday
-tell us which larger changes could be made if you were making a completely new piece from scratch (not for this class).

Write this down while it is fresh in your mind and post your blog post by Monday at noon. Title: Exhibit Name; Label: Prototype final piece, [your name]

For Friday make the changes that you identified and bring your piece to class. Focus on fine tuning the piece you have and avoid larger changes. At this point you should be focusing on bringing your piece to a high level of resolution. This assignment is not about making your piece more sophisticated, we are now going to commit to the choices we made and refine the piece.

Obsering visitors

2009-11-14T10:44:00.001-08:00

I spent some time this morning to process the videos I took yesterday. There is a lot to learn from a couple of minutes of video and I hope we see more photos, video, and written notes from everyone.

This one shows thoughtful interaction at Ricardo's piece, a bit of craziness at Purin's, and interesting open ended play at Shelly's. Notice a small problem with the strings on the flashlights at Ricardo's piece. We can replace the strings with a more rigid wire to avoid that.

This is a video of the bubble gum boys. At that time the bubble gum boys were not quite in the right mind set for exploring exhibits...

The next video shows a group interacting with Jason's piece. While we can't see much, it's worthwhile to listen to the audio. The piece sparks a dialogue about color and light between the parent and the kid.

Here is a short one of a group playing with Purin's piece without the pendulum.

This girl really wanted to know how Ben's camera works. I think it was the right size and height for her. Bit of a problem with the crank at the end...
Sorry that this video is so dark, seems that this happens during upload to blogger.

Designing for Exploration - Signage

2009-11-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Our exhibition poster! Terrence designed it for us.

Update to my previous post

2009-11-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

I discussed this in my original entry, but did not quite use this format. So here it is.

name of the piece: Geometric Shadows
footprint:3.5 x 3.5
power needs:none
light control needs:uses 3 flashlights, but no need for controls
number of chairs: none
height of table (if you need a specific height): 30" is ideal, but not a must
placement: wall
access: one side, front
any special needs:some darkness

Guest Speaker - Erik Thogersen

2009-11-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

Erik is a senior exhibit developer and manager of one of our developer groups. Most recently he directed the Reflections Exhibition we saw in week one.

More about his recent work:
I worked on a show called Boundaries, that attempted cluster new and rebuilt exhibits around an abstract theme. I learned that visitors are strongly inclined to focus on the most prominent aspects of an exhibit, not underlying concepts. I moved on to work on our Memory exhibition, and had a great time creating Hoop Nightmares, and exhibit where your brain adapts to prism goggles while playing basketball.
Next, I spent two years renovating many of our classic physics exhibits, an experience that led to the writing of the Going APE grant. The APE project proved highly rewarding, and difficult, as it broke new ground in our core discipline of creating visitor driven phenomena based exhibits.

Try this link to the Mind project Erik has worked on:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/mind/index.html

Exhibition specs

2009-11-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

Shadow and Perspective

Footprint: 3' x 4'

Battery operated

1 Chair

Wall placement with access on 2 sides, 3 preferable.

I would like to hang a sign if possible, so ability to drill into ceiling to hang strings.

Floor Exhibit Specs

2009-11-11T00:39:00.000-08:00

TABLE UPDATE

Multi-Tiered Shape Kaleidoscope

Footprint: 3.1 square feet. A 45 degree right triangle with 29" legs and 41" hypotenuse.
Power needs: none
Light control needs: none
Number of chairs: 1
Table: a table of height 24" - 30" will be needed for this iteration
placement: corner or against a wall
access: one sided

Light Cube

2009-11-09T23:36:00.000-08:00

Evolution:

I have once seen a picture of a Louis Vuitton retail building being covered with colorful image projections. I wonder what it would be like to do something similar onto a cube. So I constructed a near-

perfect cube, project my computer screen onto it, and traced its geometry on Flash CS3 (at first I tried it on Google SketchUp, but it was impossible to get it to line up). I consciously used Flash and not Photoshop because I wanted to animate the projection. With this, I experimented with colors, animations, outlines, and fade in/out effects.

Ideal Visitor Experience:

The visitor would press a range of buttons to reveal different illusion effects (i.e. box collapsing, fading and appearing, being dissected)

Problems / Next Steps:

Getting the setup to line up properly again after disassembly was impossible. In reality, this piece would have to be created/setup in the actual exhibition space.

AssignmentWeek3

2009-11-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

Shape Kaleidoscope Using Motion

This iteration of a prototype builds upon a concept form my earlier work. The construction of the piece consists of two angled mirrors and a rotating shape. The user turns a crank to rotate the shape and watch it’s reflection change in the mirrors. It is this knob and crank action with is the new motion concept for this week’s project. The mirrors can be adjusted to either be at a 90 degree or 120 degree angle.

To further this piece, I would improve the reliability of the friction based rotation mechanism. Additionally, I would change the user interface to rotating a wheel which was on the same axel and parallel to the spinning shape. This way, the user is not turning an arbitrary knob, but spinning the entire axel without getting their reflection in the way of the mirrors.

AssignmentWeek5

2009-11-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

Improve Upon 2 Earlier Prototypes and Explore a New Concept

Project 1:
The Color Screen.

I had the opportunity to test this piece on the floor. The biggest take-away lesson was to improve durability and reliability.

Improvements:
- sturdier screen mount, with possibility to change out screens if the paper tears
- replace warped plywood "legs" with masonite
- change slippery nylon string to cotton
- mount all supports for rotation on a flat stage
- rebend the metal axel for less play in rotation
- change colored gels to yellow, cyan, and and magenta to accommodate the single light source

Project 2:
The Polygon Kaleidoscope

This is the third iteration of this project. I implemented aspects of it into the motion assignment, but after talking with Sebastian, realized it would be better for users to more directly rotate the shape rather then turn a generic knob. Also with this iteration comes more durability and tougher materials.

Improvements:
- wooden mirror supports
- everything is mounted onto a presentation stage
- metal washers are used to reduce sliding friction

Further progress:
- make a lazy susan spin table, so the user rotates the axel which is attached to the shape, but does not touch the shape directly
- figure out how to make the angel of mirrors change while still maintaining reliability
- allow the user to rotate the shape without spinning it too fast

Project 3:
The Periscope

For this project, I liked the idea of looking into a narrow box, but then seeing something bigger appear to be trapped inside the box. The concept of a ship in a bottle came to mind.

The project consists of parallel mirrors which are set at a 45 degree angle to the horizontal. Whatever is placed on the table in front of the box appears to be inside the box when the user looks through the viewing slot.

Further direction:
- For the illusion to be fully effective, I need to hide the edges of the mirrors.
- I have the idea of adding angled mirrors (like my kaleidoscope project) for a different effect. This is just an option, as it would detract from the feeling of realism.

AssignmentWeek4

2009-11-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

Light and Shadow

Mixing Color Crank

In brainstorming for this piece, I watched an Eames video entitled “The Solar Do-Nothing Machine”. Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY_viPkxH1I (note: poor visual resolution. Not original musical score) An aspect of the video depicts shapes which seem to be bobbing in an elliptical pattern because they are rotating form a crankshaft while having their center of gravity suspended from a string. I wanted to make a piece with the same “bubbly” feel.

During the ideation, I realized the rotating shapes do not need to be opaque, but could rather be light gels that overlap to transmit new colors.

The idea is that the user rotates the crank shaft and watches the motion and colors.

Improvements:
- Affix all pieces to a floor plate for durability
- Make a screen to project the colors onto
- Add a light source for project the colors
- Change the colored gels to magenta, cyan, and yellow to accommodate the subtractive nature of single source light
- Change slippery nylon string to cotton string
- Stiffen up the arms of rotation, currently they are warped and get tangled.

Prototype Sketches

2009-11-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

Building from my kaleidoscope idea, I have decided my final exhibit will be a three tiered tower of kaleidoscope mirrors. each level of mirror will be at a different angle (90, 60, and 45). the shape rotating through the mirrors, however, will be the same in each case.

I gained a lot of in class feedback. One insight was that the whole tower could be placed on a corner, thus changing the top orthogonal view to a triangle. Secondly, the height of all three mirrors may have to be reduced so the viewer can see all three images without perspective distortion. This is a concept I plan on further flushing out with prototypes. Additionally, it was pointed out that I would want the user rotating disk to be on a lazy susan with a large radius of ball bearings, thus reducing possible cantilever action from a user's weight. Lastly, I knew I wanted to somehow display the shape of the entire rotating piece, but I was not sure of an elegant way to do so. Now I know I can add a fourth tier of just the rotating shape without mirrors, or incorporate that shape into the rotating hand disk.

Update on tables

2009-11-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

Aside from the standart 6'x30" tables, I found a few smaller exhibit tables. I hope we can find a good table or custom exhibit stand for everyone for 12/04.

The photo shows a table with a tilted surface that is 21" deep, 27" wide and 28"high. That seems a good size for Kiran's piece. I have two other tables with the same dimensions and a horizontal surface. Let me know if you are interested in those.

PS: I also confirmed that we can use wall mounts in the gallery. Jimmy is planning to do that.

Woodwork

2009-11-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

Just talked to Ben about making a box for his bubblegum exhibit. The following detail photos of exhibit furniture may be helpful for your exhibit prototyping...
We use plywood (1/2" or 3/4") for a lot of the exhibits. Wood glue together with flat-head wood screws makes for a strong connection. Make sure to sand and round-over all edges and corners to avoid wood splinters.

Light sources

2009-11-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

This is for those of you who are using a halogen light in their exhibit. Halogen lamps get really hot and should be covered to protect the user. If you are using LED lights, you don't have to worry about that because they stay relatively cold. In case you are using a halogen light, consider a housing for the light that protects visitors but also keeps the halogen lamp from overheating. Insert plenty of air vents in the box you make for the light (laser cutter), and make it large enough so that the light doesn't heat up parts of the box.

Here is an example from the explO. Wooden box with slits for airflow.

Shadow art

2009-11-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Terrence found this. This is very related to Ricardo's exhibit idea. The examples in the 2nd half of the video are stunning.

Fun with shadows. Interesting multiple shadows cast by physical objects. More at: http://graphics.stanford.ed...

Our Gallery - Design for Exploration Exhibition (Part 1)

2009-11-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

The Seeing Gallery is available for us (closed to the public) during this week. If you want to set something up before Friday morning, let me know.

This drawing shows the dimensions of the gallery we have on Friday. We will use the 3 rooms that we had used for the large art installations of Danny Rozin before. The separating walls are about 8 feet high. We can make it really dark in the room on the left. I am currently planning to have two dark rooms (middle, left), and one lit room.
In addition we have about 22 foot along a wall in the middle of the Seeing area (see photo below).

Looking at the spaces that we will fill made me realize that this is a really big project! Looking forward to your prototypes on Friday!

Vase Clock Is Designed To Break When The Right Moment Comes

2009-11-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Purin posted this buried in a comment. I think it's an awesome exhibit idea that could be expanded to show how different materials wear/break.

When Georgios Maridakis' product breaks it's actually an intentional feature. His Clock Vase indicates time with a little hammer that knocks against the porcelain. And at the right stroke, it shatters. There aren't any notes on how long it would take to wear out a vase on average, but the entire idea is to have different chime sounds due to switching the flower pots so it can't be too long. I just hope Gerogios never decides to make an alarm clock like this, because just imagining the porcelain shards near a bed makes my feet hurt.
source: http://gizmodo.com/5398011/vase-clock-is-designed-to-break-when-the-right-moment-comes

Oloid Sketches

2009-11-06T09:55:00.001-08:00

2009-11-06T09:50:00.001-08:00

Assignment Week 6: Catherine

2009-11-06T09:42:00.001-08:00

ISOMETRIC

ORTHOGRAPHIC

MODEL WAVE PIECES

Nightlight Exhibit Concepts

2009-11-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

Color Table Sketches

2009-11-06T03:16:00.001-08:00

Vortex Exhibition: Concept Drawings

2009-11-06T03:08:00.001-08:00

OPTION 1: VORTEX WALL

Footprint: 6' wide x 10' length x 8' height
Setup: Facing one blank wall (doesn't matter what color for now)
Access: left and right sides
Lighting condition: the dimmer the better
Equipment: Two outlets — one for camera, one for projector

OPTION 2: VORTEX WELL

Footprint: 6' wide x 6' length x 9' height
Setup: free-standing
Access: all sides
Lighting condition: the dimmer the better
Equipment: Two outlets — one for camera, one for projector

exhibit sketch

2009-11-06T02:58:00.000-08:00

update: (new sketches to be posted soon). exhibit will be wall-mounted (with screws) about 36" off the ground. It should be placed in a semi-dim room and will eventually need a electrical outlet connection for a point light source, but for 11/13, will use batteries. The dimensions of the wall-piece will be about 2'x2' and will extrude from the wall at most 1'.

AssignmentWeek6: Sketches, M.Ricardo Flores

2009-11-06T01:16:00.000-08:00

The ideal set up for this exhibit would be up against a wall to keep the user's attention on the exhibit. The Exploratorium is a very dynamic place with lots of cool things that can distract from the exhibit especially since this is a simple concept and it is hard to compete against other exhibits that have all kinds of fancy lighting and electronic features that inevitably will seem cool because of all the gadgetry involved. The exhibit should be positioned on top of a table against a wall to keep distractions at a minimum. It should be low enough for a medium sized child to interact with it. The dimensions should be in the neighborhood of 2.0 to 2.5 cubic feet so that children are able to reach the flash lights and set them on the resting positions or feel free to explore and see what they discover.Though the exhibit does not necessarily require absolute darkness, some relative level of darkness is desired. The darker the better of course, but it will work in semi-dark conditions.

One concern I have is that this exhibit is a low-tech kind of piece, and with so many high-tech exhibits that rely heavily on video and computing equipment to produce amazing displays it may be overlooked because of it's simplicity. My hope is to do the best job I can to make it as appealing as possible and hopefully it will be able to stand along with the high-tech exhibits that are out there.

mrf

Week 6 - Sketches, Kiran

2009-11-06T01:08:00.000-08:00

Week 6, Prototype Sketches, Jennifer

2009-11-06T00:57:00.000-08:00

Prototype

Week Six: Prototype Sketches, Abby

2009-11-05T23:50:00.001-08:00

Kaleidoscope Effect (smaller scale)

Station 01: Single Sheet Dichroic Rotation to learn material properties
Station 02: Dichroic Cross to show reflections when at 90 degrees (kaleidoscope effect)

Top + Side Views

Footprint Needed: 3 feet by 30 inches of a table (32 inch height) + 2 stools
Orientation: middle of room
Light Conditions: As much darkness as possible
*Power source and possibly extension cords needed

Prototype Sketches

2009-11-05T23:11:00.001-08:00

Isometric view, Exhibit idea #1

Isometric view, Exhibit idea #2

Sideways view

Front view

?

2009-11-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

Two shots of my revised gumball prototype- first shot shows interior of box under red LED, 2nd photo shows white light. Below is a video of a gumball going through the machine- my camera uploaded the video at a sideways angle, but it actually makes for a kinda cool video- looks like the gumball is defying gravity! I could see using this angle to make some fun perception bending videos...

Geneva Wheel Motion Picture Mechanism Sketches

2009-11-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

Perspective

Front View

Top View

Rear Section

The footprint of the exhibit is fairly small - it sits on its own 7 x 15 in. base. Lighting is not too much of a concern, as a moderately or well lit space will suffice. The light box on my exhibit will not be so bright as to affect neighboring exhibits either. The piece has a clear front, and the back can be against a wall. I don't need power. Let me know if there are any other logistical questions.

Buttons, Switches

2009-11-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

In case you want users to switch something on and off (motor, light), let me know. I can bring switches and buttons on Friday.

Shawn Lani - Guest Lecturer this Friday

2009-11-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

Shawn Lani is a Senior Artist at the Exploratorium and Curator of Outdoor works at Piers 15 and 17 (the future location of the Explratorium). He was most recently Project Director and Senior Exhibit Developer of the NSF funded Outdoor Exploratorium at Ft. Mason in San Francisco.His exhibits often blur the line between art and science as they invite visitors to explore complex, beautiful, and often mesmerizing natural phenomenon. Exhibits include Geysers, Strope Flower, Icy Bodies and Magnetic Pendulums. Learn more about Shawn's work at Lani Studios

Light piece - Jimmy

2009-11-01T14:11:00.000-08:00

Dichroic Spinner

My light piece was inspired by a attaching a piece of dichroic to a string and dangling it in front of sunlight. Besides being blinded every one in a while, the sunlight reflected off the dichroic was as focused as the sun itself and created a laser-like beam that changed colors depending on the angle it was reflecting at. Spinning the dichroic piece fast enough, I was able to get a laser show in my room. The interesting part was that the spectrum is created was only half the spectrum (i.e. the colors between the two complementary dichroic colors). The light that did pass through the dichroic lens created a expanding and contracting ellipse on the wall that continually changed colors but remained in the same place.

The ideal visitor experience would be to see this spinning at various speeds to explore the properties of dichroic lenses. Interactivity was not one of the core features of this prototype. Instead it was built to showcase the half-spectrum effect you can get with a dichroic filter.

The piece was not as successful as I envisioned for several technical reasons. For one, the light source I was using (a super-bright LED) did provide the same kind of focus that sunlight produces. Instead of a laser-like reflection, there was a diffused circle of light. In the planning stages, I figured having the light source as close as possible to the spinning dichroic would mitigate this. Additionally, the connection between the motor and the rotating plate was finicky and created variable speeds for the rotation. For this prototype, I was simply going for a fast spin to achieve that half-spectrum.

Although I think this would interesting to pursue, I don't think it would be something interesting enough to be exhibitable because the interactivity is limited and the material is foreign to most people.

AssignmentWeek6

2009-11-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Part I - Address and solve technical issues and material sourcing for your prototype

This part should be done before moving onto Part II, since the results will impact what your sketches look like.

Part II - Sketch your exhibit
Produce sketches on letter sized paper. You may produce the sketches using paint or drawing programs if you like, but however you produce your sketches, they need to 1) be put on the blog before Friday's class, and 2) printed out and brought to Friday's class.

Sketch 1: isometric view of your exhibit
-show user interaction (includes a person). How many visitors interact with the piece at a time, do they sit or stand?
-show at which places the exhibit is accessible. Does it have a front side and a back side, is it placed against a wall, or accessible from all sides, or mounted on a wall?
Be conscious about scaling your current prototype. What is the ideal size for your phenomenon? Be thoughtful about placement of components and the overall ergonomics.

Sketch 2: side view, top view of your exhibit
-show dimensions on the side view/top view.
-annotate key components showing the material or the part specs. Be intentional about material choices based on physical needs of the exhibit and appearance.
-show graphics label placement if graphics are needed.
-for light pieces, propose a structure that provides light control.

Optional additional detail sketches: Close up on area of interaction
-produce any needed additional sketches that zooms in on places where the user interacts with the exhibits. The sketch shows the user's hands or other body parts used to interact.

To help you get started look at the sample sketches of two exhibits in these blog posts (the Magic wand sketches are a good example of an isometric view and a top view/side view).
http://dfefall2009.blogspot.com/2009/11/sample-exhibit-sketch-magic-wand.html
http://dfefall2009.blogspot.com/2009/11/sample-exhibit-sketch-resonant-rings.html

Also look at photos of different exhibit styles in this post:
http://dfefall2009.blogspot.com/2009/11/exhibit-furniture.html

Exhibit furniture

2009-11-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some examples of exhibit styles. The configuration you choose can help shape the visitor experience. Exhibit styles can range from a simple steel stand, to a table surface, or highly customized consoles.

Sample Exhibit Sketch - Magic Wand

2009-11-01T09:06:00.000-08:00

A projector produces a real image in space. Waving the wand provides a surface for the image to reflect from, so the light can get into the viewer’s eye. Persistence of vision—the eye's capacity to retain an image for a short period of time—lets the brain see the moving reflections from the stick as one whole picture. Other images in space can be found by waving the wand closer to or farther away from the projector, but only one image is in focus.