Shelley Zhong – Page 2 – Introduction to Interactive Media

Unlock the Lights

Based on last week’s circuit, I wrote a new program to make it into a digital lock. The main idea is that if you press the buttons in the correct order, all three lights will light up (unlocked). I set two sets of password by incorporating potentiometer into my circuit.

The circuit on the breadboard is pretty similar to what I did last week. The only difference is the set up of the potentiometer. The potentiometer is connected to power, ground and analog input A0. When the voltage at A0 is below or equal to 512 volts, we use one set of the password. When the voltage at A0 is above 512 volts, we then use another set of the password.

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Status Indicator

This week, I made a combination of multiple switches and LED lights into a status indicator. The basic idea is to tell the user if they have successfully pressed a button by looking at the blinking lights. I got inspired to create this device while I was playing a game called Limbo. In Limbo, our protagonist is allowed to do three kinds of moves: forward move, backward move, and jump. Since I was playing on iPad, a touchscreen device, I had to move my fingers rightward, leftward or upward to make the moves. Sometimes, I failed to jump over a barrier because I swept across the screen so softly that the screen did not detect my finger movement. I wish there were signals telling me that I did not trigger the jump move. I thought that a physical button would be much easier to control than to sweep across the screen. Therefore, I created this device to tell the users if they have successfully pressed the button by the status of the LED lights. Continue reading “Status Indicator”

A Hole Puncher Switch

For this week’s assignment, I made a switch with the help of a hole puncher. The main idea is to use the metal cutting poles that cut the paper after you press the hole puncher. Here’s a link about how a hole puncher works in slow motion.

http://www.trumpf-machines.com/en/solutions/more-knowledge-for-the-best-production/punching-principle.html

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Dorm Entrance

If a student wants to go into the dorm buildings on campus, he or she has to swipe the NYU ID to open the automatic gate. A security guard, always sitting behind the reception table, ensures that all people who wish to enter the building have swiped their IDs. However, today in A5B, I observed an incident in which a student passed the automatic gate without swiping her own ID. The student was carrying two bags of heavy books and slowly approached the gate. She had a friend coming with her. Her friend swiped her ID and opened the gate. Then the student carrying books walked past the gate. Before she went any further, however, the security guard immediately stopped her and asked for her own ID.

Of course, either the student carrying books or her friend meant no harm. However, the incident reveals some loopholes of the security system at the dorm entrance. If a person swipes an ID that belongs to someone else, the card reader would not notice and would let the person enter the building. It reminds me that the security system in the dorm of NYUNY is slightly different. At NYUNY, in addition to swiping the NYU ID, a student needs to enter his or her birth date in order to enter the dorm building. I’m not saying the setting at NYUNY could completely prevent people outside NYU from entering the building, but I would suggest adding some other verification method in addition to swiping NYU IDs at the dorm entrance. It could be as simple as entering birth date or scanning fingerprint.