Physical Computing FINAL : START

The Project: I have chosen to create an installation that uses video tracking to control a VCR.

The Plan:

As the user watches a television screen on which the content is displayed a camera attached to the television tracks their eye movement. The pixels are captured into Processing and the darkest part of the pupil is tracked. Processing talks serially to a PIC microcontroller which, in turn controls a hacked VCR. The VCR displays the content to the TV screen.

This cycle opens up possiblilities of strong artistic statement and relevent content. The user’s eye “controls” the content which in turn “controls” the user’s eye.

The Process: (week one)

Things are still very buggy as I concentrate on the physical computing side of controlling the VCR serially through Processing.

VIEW the clip

Industrial Design Final Project : Make a thermometer.

The result: follow the makings of a human thermometer.

whether gets press!!!

(more…)

Industrial Design Project 3 : BENT

The Project:

Use The New Media Center’s laser cutter to etch or cut a “pattern” into a material. Bend the materials to make a new object, practical or otherwise. The BENT project is the most loosely defined project in the Industrial Design class to date. We are encouraged to play.

The result:

I chose to experiment with new materials. The laser cutter allows a cut more intricate and precise than a traditional hand cut. It uses heat to burn through or etch into a material.

The white of an egg changes consistency and color when heated. My goal is to use the laser cutter to precicely “cook” a pattern into an egg.

The pattern:

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The process:

A glass ashtray was used to hold the whites in place while the laser raster etched an Adobe Illustrator file of an image of Jacquline Kennedy Onassis into the white of an egg.

The result:

A thin layer of cooked egg was extracted and is in refrigerated storage.

everybody’s doing it.

The long awaited finale to the Cardboard Chair Project:

But is it sittable?

booya.