Category: F2023 – Mang

Concept: 

The concept of the switch is pretty straightforward, you place a book on the designated part of the desk and if I had read this book already the Red LED turns on indicating that this book has already been read. If I hadn’t read that book yet then the Green LED would turn on indicating that this book is new. 

Process & Highlights:

I created the following circuit that has two LEDs in parallel and the switch determines which, if any, is turned on:

Then I connected the aluminum foil ends to each of the books and on the desk by glue pads and that was it. Whenever I place one of the books on the desk, it shows whether I have read it or not!

 

 

Here is a video demo of the switch:

https://youtu.be/2xE2YWdkiFQ

Reflections:

I found this exercise pretty easy and fun to implement. I would love to create more advanced switches in the future and find a way to incorporate more creativity within.

Concept: For this assignment, I wanted to develop a concept related to car parking. As a driver, I often find parking to be the most challenging part of the process. I spend a lot of time trying to gauge if I’m at the right distance, whether my car is perfectly within the parking space, and whether I’m about to bump into the front wall. To address these concerns, I came up with a model that incorporates a simple solution: when your car is properly within the parking boundaries, a light starts blinking, indicating that you’ve successfully parked your car.

Demonstration

Process:

Materials and components used: LED lights, Cardboard box, Resistor, Wire, Aluminum foil, tape, Breadboard, and Arduino board. By using these elements, I created a parking lot, and a simple series connection, connected with aluminum foil. Two wired are attached with aluminum foil, when they are in contact, the LED lit up which indicates that the car is parked rightly.

Reflection:

I am content with my work, yet I would like improve it by adding some sound element if parked wrongly. And also I would like to improve the setup as well.

I made a simple “switch” which completes the circuit when there’s a conductive fluid in between the ground and live wire. It’s a simple circuit, and there’s not much to it really. Water is not supposed to be conductive, but the tap water on campus has added minerals, so that works for this purpose. I just used the LEDs and jumper wires in the Arduino kit, and borrowed some solid core wires from the IM Lab to put in the liquid container.

I had the most fun making the demo film with my friend, though. Here’s the demo:

When my friend pees in the container with the two exposed wires which were initially not touching, the circuit is completed, and the LED lights up.

Concept:

The inspiration for this assignment came from a common problem: phone distractions while studying. I wanted to create a practical solution to keep my phone away during study sessions. To achieve this, I decided to make a phone stand with a built-in switch. When my phone is placed on the stand, the switch activates, turning on a red LED. This serves as a visual cue to remind me that it’s time to concentrate on my studies.

Process & Highlights:

1. Materials Used: I gathered a few basic materials for this project, including a resistor, a red LED, foil paper and copper tape.
2. Circuit Design: I sketched a simple circuit with a switch schema using these components. Then, I have made a simple circuit without a switch as we have done in class. And then, I have added my phone stand switch to the circuit.
3. Switch Mechanism: To implement the switch, I used foil paper and copper tape. I used foil paper on the phone stand, connecting it to the circuit board. Copper tape was used to connect arduino UNO board and my phone. When I set my phone on the stand, the foil paper came into contact with the copper tape, effectively closing the circuit.

Reflection:

This assignment was a practical learning experience that reinforced my understanding of circuit and switch mechanisms. I think my implementation provided an effective solution to the issue of phone distractions during study sessions by using a simple LED cue.

 

For the unusual switch assignment, I have decided to utilize a keychain and a shot glass to create an unusual switch. The idea is that you signify that you are done drinking by closing the shot glass with the sombrero keychain on top. Because both items have conductive materials, the LED turns on after the shot glass that is connected with a jumper wire touches the keychain that also has another jumper wire attached to it. The result can be seen in the video:

Although that is an extremely simple concept, I had fun brainstorming until I came up with this. The visuals are also not the most pleasing since only tape was used, but my main concern was with the concept itself.

Preface: I realize that my idea ended up being more of a tech demo than a cool idea. Sorry!

Concept

My project was inspired off this tweet I saw. They were using a Wemos D1 Mini microchip which has a Wi-Fi module on it and can act as an access point ( other devices can connect to it ), and using the Wi-Fi capture portal to display a message/article/book/image/video ( up to 4MB ) to anyone who connects to it. I thought it was fascinating so I ordered the chip from Amazon and was playing with it, when I thought I could rig it up to the Arduino and use it as an unusual switch.

It ended up being more of a technical exploration than a artistic exploration, as I found that using microchips outside of the Arduino UNO we were provided was a little more challenging as not everything is available out of the box.

Implementation

 

Video Demo

My implementation was pretty simple — when you connect to the network, it will toggle the state of the LED between on and off, and the webpage that you see reflects that. There could have been more interesting applications of the switch, for example adding a Wi-Fi password so that the switch is only usable by certain users, or adding some HTML inputs to the webpage so that the LED is controllable from the webpage without having to disconnect/reconnect. Even if you’re in a receptionless area, this switch will still work ( as the chip is hosting it’s own Wi-Fi network, you do not need a network connection to use it ).

Reflections

Will try to do less tech-demo-ey projects for my future physical computing projects sorry!!!

Concept:
For this assignment, I wanted to set up something automated. You see, in my dorm room, I’ve got these cool, colorful LED lights that I like to switch on when it gets dark. But here’s the thing: I often turn them on when I close the window by my bed. That got me thinking: why not connect the LED with the window? So, I came up with a simple idea. Now, when I close the window, the LED light automatically pops on. And when I open the window, it goes off. It’s like a little automation trick to make my room feel cozy without me even lifting a finger.

Process:
I’ve put together a basic circuit here. It’s pretty straightforward – just one resistor and one light bulb. I connected the wires and fixed a little coin to the end of each wire. At the bottom of the window, I stuck a sheet of aluminum foil. When I shut the window, those two coins make contact with the foil, and that’s when the circuit completes. The light bulb lights up when they touch the foil.

Video of implementation:

Reflections:
This assignment was so fun and I really liked that I did something that is very interesting for me. The only problem I encountered was attaching the board to the window, but I managed to solve it in no time. Another aspect that could be improved is the choice of materials. I used basic items like coins and aluminum foil, which I believe may not be the most suitable options for projects like this.

This project took a while for me to wrap my head around mostly because of the stipulation: creative and unusual, I guess I was overthinking what classifies as unusual and what does not. I realise that the prompt specifies no use of hands but for some reason I interpreted that as no use of hands to regularly trigger a button/ switch etc., as a means to activate the led… so hopefully my simple project still qualifies. I interpreted the light to embody a positive emotion since it radiated a warm and homey glow. I wanted to connect this to a meaningful something whilst making it so that it could act as a switch, and with my sleep-deprived brain, this really stumped me. The only viable “something” I could think of was relating this “switch mechanism” to the arts, which I’m moderately passionate about. And naturally this transformed and manifested into the idea of using scissors as a switch.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cSCZFdWsqJQ?feature=share

The whole circuit itself was not too difficult to create – it consisted of a green light, ground wire, resistor, a red wire and 2 more wires to connect from the breadboard to the scissors. The one thing I will say is that I had no no conductive tape or aluminium foil and so I had to make do with using normal tape to wind the wires to their appropriate positions on the scissors. Because of this, it wasn’t too reliable since the wires were prone to shifting, and so ultimately it would’ve worked better through use of a more stable medium. Whilst I’m happy about this assignment, I do have doubts on the “creativity” aspect. I also propose a more meaningful and idea-wise, stronger alternative. Perhaps I could’ve attached aluminium foils/ conductive tape to my chest and hand. Whenever I would place my hand over my heart, the led would light up.

Concept

Since the assignment was to create a switch that didn’t rely on using hands, I came up with the idea of using feet instead. The way this switch operates is that when your feet, covered in socks, make contact with each other, it triggers the LED to light up. I love collecting cute socks, so I thought it would be a fun and an entertaining feature to have the socks themselves light up when they come into contact with one another.

Demonstration

This is how the switch works:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wJUOS9xvNBDc9PbyCIyS2xbPuY8vBTjv/view?usp=share_link

This is the setup of the switch:

Process & Highlights 

The components used in constructing this switch include an LED, wires, an Arduino Uno, a breadboard, aluminum foil, tape, a resistor, and a pair of socks. The setup employs a basic series circuit configuration, featuring an LED and a resistor. To increase the contact area, I used aluminum foil to cover the wire ends attached to the socks. When these wire connections on the socks come into contact with each other, it activates the LED, causing it to illuminate.

Reflections

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this assignment, and there’s definitely ample space for additional creativity. One exciting idea is to attach wires at various points on the socks and incorporate multiple LED lights in different colors. This way, diverse foot movements would trigger various colored LEDs, adding another exciting layer to the experience.