Project Runway: Proof of Concept

Project Runway: Turn existing physical behavior into a compelling, interactive experience using a person's clothing or worn accessories (not gadgets). Incorporate a transistor, external IC, motor, speaker or fan to help accomplish the "conversation".

This time around, I've joined a group in the hopes that I can make my project bigger and better! I'm working with Amanda Imperial (http://amandaimperial.wordpress.com/) and Rebecca Vessal (http://arduinohackers.wordpress.com/) to create a wearable laser tag game. We hope to create a glove gun, where the user folds their hand into the shape of a gun, and shoots an IR beam at a target. 
Our initial idea had a second person wearing a shirt with IR sensors sewn in, but for our proof of concept, we're planning on having the sensor stationary on a box-cat.

Box-Cat!

Moving forward with this idea, we decided to get an IR emitter and IR sensor working before we decided to sew anything together. This meant getting an IR LED turning on and off (which should be a cake walk) and getting a sensor to recognize that that is happening. 
After looking around online for some advice, we decided to proceed with a photo transistor as our sensor. We assembled the materials and started building. 

A standard LED (for testing) across from a photo transistor.

After some trial and error, we realized that while moving things around, we had forgotten to put a resistor back in next to the photo transistor. All the power we had been sending through it burned it out, and that was the source of our recent frustrations. We traded it out, and we had a working system.

The sensor is connected to the alligator clips
on the far right, with the speaker connected to
 the breadboard on the far left

In the hopes of making our game more fun (and more complicated!), we decided we wanted to add a speaker to the box-cat that would make noises when it was shot. Having never worked with a speaker before, this posed some issues. We thought we had everything wired and coded right, but the speaker wasn't working. After a lot of trouble shooting, we gave up and decided to wait until we could get help from the professor. 
The next day in class, we hooked up a different speaker. It works!

The laser pointer is being powered by an Arduino.
 I hope to add a speaker to this system too so that when fired,
the glove-gun goes "pew pew!"

We then moved the emitter to a second Arduino and breadboard so that we could test the range on the system. This is where we hit a major roadblock. The photo transistor was sensing the IR LED, but only at a maximum range of about six inches (and that's being generous). We had to go a different route. 
We got some advice from our professor, who suggested using a laser pointer instead. After connecting the pointer, we were able to get a solid reading at any distance!
With a little tweaking, the speaker now makes noise when the photo transistor is tripped by the laser pointer.

This completes our proof of concept. All that remains is getting the laser pointer on a glove for the player to wear, and getting the sensor embedded into the box-cat!

Box-cat!

Blink: Project Finished!

Blink! Using an Arduino and some other components, make some LEDs light up from multiple inputs. Sounds pretty simple. Also make it do something interesting? Now its getting complicated.

After finishing the Proof of Concept, I now needed to meet the requirements of the assignment. That meant adding a second sensor and making the interaction meaningful. 

It was simple enough to add the second sensor. I simply had to do all of the wiring that I had already done again. That didn't take me too long. The problems here arose when trying to program the Arduino. 

None of the problems I ran into were overly complicated, they all seemed to be stupid little mistakes; forgotten semicolons, forgetting to change a variable after a copy/paste, things like that. It wasn't too much of an issue. It took me a little longer than it should have, but I was done! Or so I thought. 

I realized later that I had multiple inputs like I was supposed to, but that the different inputs didn't actually do anything different from each other. I decided that the best way to solve this was to set up two more LEDs, with each one lighting up depending on which sensor detected the stronger wind. 

More problems here, but it was more of the same. A few minutes of debugging and I was set! I fixed up the pin-out diagram and I was finished! Ready for show and tell tomorrow!

Blink: Proof of Concept

Blink! Using an Arduino and some other components, make some LEDs light up from multiple inputs. Sounds pretty simple. Also make it do something interesting? Now its getting complicated.

For my project, I originally planned to meet the minimum requirements and get my B. I was partway through programming the Arduino to read in from a potentiometer and a button and have each light up when I came up with a better idea. The inspiration for the project struck me after seeing other forms of input combined with a little bit of curiosity.

After seeing one of these and asking what it did, I had an idea for what I jokingly call Lights Over Rochester.

Now I had my idea to (hopefully!) get me that A. I would use a couple of these to sense wind and light up the LED accordingly. Cool!

A half hour of work later I had my proof of concept working. Just one sensor, but it lit up the LED when I blew on it.

Mission Success!