Finalized concept
For my final project, I have decided to create an interactive art piece that is based around the idea of friendship and human bonding. The piece requires there to be 2 users at a time, ideally friends. The idea of the art piece is to allow the users to watch their connection to each other visualized on the screen, based on their body temperatures and the way they are holding their hands.
As can be seen in the terrible sketch, the users will be asked to put on a glove on one hand each and hold hands. Inside one of the gloves, there will be a force sensitive resistor (FSR) attached. They will be then be asked to put their other free hand on the temperature sensor on the table.
In p5.js, each user generates their own plant-like/branch-like structure using Perlin noise loops, growing from opposite sides of the screen. The color of each plant reflects the user’s temperature reading, mapped to a color gradient. As the plants grow toward each other, their speed is controlled by how tightly the users are holding hands, measured by the FSR sensor. When their grip becomes strong enough, the plants meet and fuse in the center. Upon connecting, the colors blend into a new gradient based on the users’ combined temperature and the Arduino buzzer will be triggered to play a melody.
Arduino <–> p5.js communication
- Arduino -> p5
- FSR – send reading to p5
- temperature sensor – send reading to p5
- p5
- map FSR and temperature readings to appropriate values to use for controlling speed and color
- the magnitude of FSR reading changes the speed at which the 2 illustrations “grow” towards each other and connect
- temperature sensor reading controls the color of the sketch
- p5 -> Arduino
- when the 2 illustrations touch and merge in the middle, p5 sends to Arduino a digital signal that starts a melody on the buzzer
Progress
I started creating the p5js interface and added basic interactions like showing the instructions, starting the illustration and going back to the homepage to restart.
I tried testing 2 of the temperature & humidity sensor from the IM equipment center but both didn’t work (most likely due to hardware breakages), so for the time being, I plan to stick to using the temperature sensor provided in our Sparkfun kit.