Concept

This project is inspired by the moustache switch example. In the example, the creator used conductive materials to mimic moustache and made them into a switch. Then, I think of the very first Arduino program everybody learns: Blink of the LED. A idea comes into my mind: why don’t we actually blink when the LED blinks? Therefore, I decide to follow the same manner of the moustache switch to make a blink switch.

video_blink

Highlight

I think the highlight of this little project is the attachment of the wires to the conductive materials and to the eye muscles. It is critical to decide which part of the eyes to attach the conductive pieces to so that they are sensitive enough to close the circuit when blinking.

Whenever the user blinks, the movements of the muscles will make the to conductors touch each other, making it a closed circuit. 

Reflections and Improvements

I think generally the project is interesting and can be expanded if more coding is added and more complicated sensors are used. It explores the possibilities of other parts of the body and movements as switches other than just hands. The project can be further improved by using better conductive materials that can be attached better to the skins with more compatible sizes to make the interaction more smooth and create better user experience.

Light up your step:

The “Light Up Your Step” assignment involves creating a foil-based light switch integrated into a rug that activates when someone steps on it. When pressure is applied to the mat, the foil switch makes contact, turning on the lights connected to the breadboard. This concept aims to create a welcoming and surprising element for guests entering your living room, as the lights switch on when they step on the rug (if made into a real rug).

IMG_5050 = demostration video of the rug being stepped on

Structure

 

Reflection

Concept

For this assignment, I tried to come up with a functional switch that could be potentially used in real life. As it was my first time working with electronics, I found it very interesting to explore different tools and materials that could be used in the project.

After some consideration, I decided to create a theft detection switch that is triggered when an object is taken out of the place. One of the complications I had to solve was to make a switch more convenient by not connecting the wire directly to the object that was being tracked.

Technical structure

For this switch, I used conductive fabric, which was put on the back of the object. I secured two wires on the table, one of which was connected to an Arduino Uno, while another was connected to a solderless breadboard. When an object is lying on the wires, the circuit completes and the LED lights up. The moment you take the object from its place, the LED goes out.

Demonstration

Link to the video: Switch_demostration

Reflection

I really enjoyed working with electronics, and I see how many things can be done using them. I’m glad I managed to find a practically usable switch that could be potentially used in future work. I’m looking forward to learning more about Arduino and creating more and more sophisticated projects.

Attractive Things Work Better – Donald A. Norman

In this preview of Don Norman’s forthcoming book, Norman writes about the implications of pleasurable and attractive design on human interaction and functionality with certain elements. His first example of the three types of teapots concisely demonstrates different balances of the two main aspects of an object’s design and functionality. Whilst some objects might have a ‘negative affect’, (negative visual response to an object being unattractive), they might still be completely functional. Nevertheless, Norman’s research suggests that these negative responses can “make simple tasks more difficult” and, conversely, with a positive ‘affect’ “difficult tasks more simple.”

By the end of the article, I have mostly agreed with Norman, however, I believe that there are a few considerations he did not mention. For the most part, I agree that if an object is ‘attractive’ and equally functional, it is far better and more understandable than one that is ‘unattractive’ yet equally functional; this idea can stem back to the previous reading of the Design of Everyday Things. Nevertheless, what Norman did not mention is that in certain circumstances, humans prefer a challenging design. For instance, physical puzzles can come in many shapes and forms but are usually confusing to humans at first sight, which could be considered ‘unattractive.’ Nevertheless, most people would prefer to attempt the challenge of solving the said puzzle and try to work through the solution. Of course, these things are designed to be difficult, but they might contain a simple solution. This would support the idea that a challenging design can complicate the tasks at hand, however, depending on the context, I believe that this could be beneficial and even pleasurable to us humans.

Her Code Got Humans on the Moon – Robert McMillan

In this WIRED article, McMillan writes about Margaret Hamilton, the woman who wrote code for the first-ever Apollo mission, which brought humans to the moon. In the article, numerous quotes from Hamilton are given, describing her experience in creating the highly sophisticated program and how she managed to do it.

I found it highly interesting learning that a young mother, working for MIT, was able to accomplish and build such a significant part of the world’s history, and it just goes to show that you can do anything you put your mind and heart to. Due to the widespread stereotypes about ‘men ruling the tech industry,’ it is refreshing and intriguing to learn that women played a much more significant role than most of us realize in the creation of the so-called “tech-run world” that we live in. The article also emphasizes the importance of error prevention, which was a significant issue on the Apollo 8 mission when all the navigation files were deleted due to the program P01 being launched. This instance reminded me of a video I recently saw which described why Japanese cars are considered more reliable than German cars. It is because Japanese engineers consider all cases and expect that the users won’t follow every instruction by law, where as German engineers construct cars that will work perfectly well if used as intended, but can quickly break if misused. Similarly, as a programmer and software engineer, I believe it is important for programmers to consider all cases, however as we know by the frequent bugs and crashes we experience, we all make mistakes.

Approach and Concept:

After spending a lot of time brainstorming ideas – I found one I was particularly proud of. The phrases “it happened in the blink of an eye “, “blink and you miss it” etc. are often used to talk about phenomena that happen really quickly. The literal meaning behind them is that it may as well happen that the phenomenon will start and end in the time it takes for you to finish a blink – leaving you with nothing to observe.

So how about we build a system that only does ‘something’ when you close your eyes? Thus now, every time you blink, or close your eyes – you miss ‘it’. You never actually have the experience but everyone around you does. I was personally satisfied with the concept but it was quite difficult to actually implement it given the very limited range of motion of our eyelids. Nonetheless, I ended up succeeding in doing so:

The mechanism that connects the switch to the eyelid movement. (double sided tape connects the thread to your eyelid. a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil and weighed down further using a coin serves as the conducting bridge.)

The simplified circuit

The switchboard. Two wires are taped to a piece of cardboard and aluminum foil is used to increase the surface area of conduction.

Demonstration:

Highlights:

The part I’m the most proud of in this project is devising the exact mechanism for the switch to work. Unlike the p5.js coding assignments, arduino and physical hardware is something I have no experience in – so this was my first time actually working with these elements and I had a lot of fun finding solutions to problems as they came up.

For example, just taping the wires to the cardboard and using the aluminum foil as the switch worked – but it wasn’t as reliable due to the uncertain points of contact between the wire ends and the foil. I managed to remedy this by putting a layer of aluminum foil on the wire ends.

Next, the switch mechanism itself didn’t have enough weight so it wouldn’t rest properly on the wire ends. I changed this by putting a small coin as to add some weight to the mechanism – and this ended up working spectacularly.

Reflections and Future Work:

I’m proud of several decisions I made in the design of this switch as I stressed earlier. However, there are quite a few things I would do differently if I had to redo the project:

First, I would find a more effective way to connect my eyelids to the switch. The current method using double-sided tape works but is very inefficient. I am still unsure as to how I would do this though.

Second, the switch itself is fairly robust to perturbations – but I believe it can be improved further aesthetically and functionally. I can use a more stable base and find better configurations to place the aluminum foil such that it covers the best area possible.

Lastly, since all my time was spent focusing on the switch, my actual design for the lights can definitely improve by a lot. I would like to add more LEDs to make my design prettier.

 

On Norman and the Importance of Attractive Design:

In this follow-up reading we had to Norman’s previous work – Norman feels the need to clarify that when he didn’t mention aesthetics in his previous writing “The Design of Everyday Things” he didn’t put functionality above aesthetics, but rather on the same level. I never got the impression this was the case, but nonetheless, it’s a welcome clarification.

Throughout the reading, Norman stresses the synergy of affect and cognition – not only are emotions driven by cognition,  cognition is also influenced by affect. I particularly love the rigorous way in which Norman points out how aesthetics can make things more ‘functional’ by themselves. Moreover, going into this reading, I did not expect to read an analysis of how mental/emotional states affect our mental processing – Norman’s discussion of depth first processing etc. – a pleasant surprise as this is a topic I have read about before!

On a more practical level, working to make your designs pleasant and relaxing for the user (or in general being conscious of the emotional state we want the user to be in when experiencing our work) seems extremely important. I have personally experienced this when even though my website designs were often technically better than my peers, I would myself prefer theirs because they looked pretty. Moreover, (though not recommended) even implementation flaws can be hidden by an aesthetic design – but are glaring when your designs are not aesthetic. From the perspective of psychology, perceptual sets, and first impressions of an aesthetic design deciding the overall experience more than the technical details seems obvious too!

I want to end this reflection with this beautiful quote by Norman: “True beauty in a product has to be more than skin deep, more than a facade. To be truly beautiful, wondrous, and pleasurable, the product has to fulfill a useful function, work well, and be usable and understandable”

 

On Hamilton’s Contributions to the Space Mission:

Margaret Hamilton’s narrative with the Apollo program is not just a testament to her pioneering efforts but a remarkable moment in the history of software. On a personal level, it echoes some sentiments I’ve personally experienced in my coding journey.  For example, the evolution of software from an afterthought to a critical component during the Apollo moon landings parallels many projects I’ve encountered, where the true importance of effective software design only shows up later.

Moving on, this deep-dive into Hamilton’s contributions also reveals an essential trait in software design: predictive error handling. I can recall several instances in my own projects where I had neglected potential edge cases. When a user unexpectedly entered data in a manner I hadn’t anticipated, causing the software to crash. While this is an important concept drilled into students who learn coding today – I imagine the roots of how it came to be thought of as a fundamental concept can be traced back to Hamilton. Additionally Hamilton’s championing of asynchronous processing in the Apollo computer also sounds way ahead of the time they were operating in and is incredibly impressive.

In sum, Margaret Hamilton’s journey with the Apollo program, filled with foresight, innovation, and resilience, is not just historical but a beacon for every coder. Her story doesn’t just echo the challenges and triumphs in the software domain but resonates with the intricacies of my personal coding experiences. It’s a reminder that in the realm of coding, challenges are but stepping stones to innovation.

 

 

Concept

Since this is the first time I get to work with electric components, specifically the Arduino Uno, I am excited to explore all the possibilities with physical computing and circuit design. For the first assignment using the Arduino, we were tasked to come up with a creative switch, a physical component that opens and closes the circuit, without the use of our hands. The concept that I came up with was to create a switch that completes the circuit when you bend your arm in and flex your bicep.

Process

Accomplishing this switch was slightly more challenging than anticipated, At first, I realized that the wires given in the starter kit were not long enough, to comfortably create connective pads. Additionally, I tried to use conductive fabric, however, the tape I had would not hold it in place properly. Finally, I decided that it was best to use two aluminum foil pads for creating the connection. A video of the working switch is attached below.

VIDEO FOR SWITCH

Reflection

Overall, with my limited knowledge of circuit design and lack of certain supplies, I believe that I could have created a better switch. Nevertheless, since this is my first time working with these concepts, I am proud of the switch I created, and I believe it is a fun way to connect a circuit. On a side note, even though the circuit was only 5V, it still gave me a weird sensation on my skin as the current was trying to pass through me. I look forward to working on more complex projects involving the Arduino.

Concept

Have you ever been startled by a midnight headache, only to find yourself fumbling in the dark for painkillers? Been there, done that. So for this assignment, I decided to tackle this problem. I wanted to create a switch that would illuminate my bedside table drawer automatically as I opened it.

Process

I set up my breadboard inside the drawer and attached it to the side of the drawer using tape. Outside, on the side panel of the drawer, I attached the arduino board. Then I had to figure out how to make the wires connect in a way that somehow allows the drawer to still close all the way. Luckily I discovered this tiny hole (its the same hole through which the drawer locks) on the same side i attached the breadboard and this turned out to be the perfect way to connect the wires to the board outside.

I used two black wires so I can pull the drawer all the way out.

The way the switch works is: as i pull out the drawer, the red wire comes into contact with the metal side slide surface and inside the drawer, i attached another red wire to the breadboard and connected it to a metal nail drilled into the drawer. So when the red wire comes into contact with the metal surface, it allows flow of electricity and lights up the led (current passes to the metal nail inside the drawer). When the drawer is pulled back in, the metal surface also slides back, disrupting the flow of electricity and hence the light turns off.

Here is a video of how the switch works:

 

And to show that the light actually turns off when the drawer is closed, I put my phone inside the drawer to record the inside of the drawer once its closed:

 

Future Improvements

Overall, I feel like I was able to accomplish what i had envisioned. If I could improve one thing, it would be somehow making the connections between the wires more stable. I noticed that as I moved the drawer, the light would fluctuate a little. A more stable connection would make the lights more consistent.

I’ve always been aware of the importance of aesthetics in design and how greatly it changes the perception of objects, websites, apps, etc., and Donald Norman’s article proved such a position to be right. Even though the whole article was dedicated to the positive and negative affects, I would be more interested to see the author’s point of view on what a positive and negative affect is and how the processes in our brain and the system of human perception influence our view of pleasuring and unaesthetic things. How does a person decide whether something is pleasurable or not? How big of a difference in perception is there between different people? Is there a universal understanding of pleasant-looking objects and unpleasant objects? Someone may say that humans like following patterns, and we may see this concept date back far into human history. But what about transitions, smoothness, sharpness, and color palette—concepts widely used in art? What neurobiological processes are responsible for recognizing pleasurable things?

Furthermore, I believe that humans are limited in recognizing aesthetics in such a way that there are no other creatures whose perception of things would be on a higher level than ours and who could communicate with us. Everything that is being produced is limited by a human’s mind, even though it’s conceptually very broad. I’m wondering how different our world would be if we could see how creatures on a higher level perceived the world, and would we be able to understand them at all?

After reading the article about Margaret Hamilton, I was very surprised to find out that she was one of the founders of the software engineering industry. Being interested in astronautics, I’ve gone through many materials dedicated to the Apollo program, but I can’t remember her name being mentioned. I believe that she deserves much more recognition for what she has done to advance technology and humanity.

The Unbirthday Candle

Video of the Unbirthday Candle in action

Concept

When the assignment of making a switch that doesn’t need the use of one’s hands was introduced, I first thought of other body parts that could be used to trigger a switch. Then, I realized that touch is not even needed — a switch could be triggered by blowing! Initially, I wanted to make some sort of fan or windmill that would bring the two ends of the wire together and complete the circuit, but when I was browsing through the IM Lab materials closet, the idea of a candle came to me. A folded piece of foil is attached to the end of one wire, and when one blows on it, the foil swings around and comes into contact with the end of another wire, making the LED light up. I thought it was kind of funny that blowing on the candle caused the LED to light up (since, traditionally, one blows on a candle to put out the light), so I named this candle the “Unbirthday Candle” after the unbirthday celebration from Disney’s Alice In Wonderland film.

via GIPHY

Highlight
A highlight of my design is how the bottom of the candle is attached to the piece of paper I used as a base. I quickly discovered that just taping a tube of paper to another paper was not stable, so I made both the candle and the base thicker by folding the paper a few times. Then, I fanned out the bottom of the candle to create a wider surface that I could then attach to the base, and cut slots for the two wires to be fed through. With these slots, and the holes on top of the candle, it was relatively easy to make adjustments to how much wire I wanted sticking out. 

Reflection
This assignment was very helpful in terms of making me more comfortable with how a breadboard works. Initially, I set up the circuit by copying the image in the lecture notes, like so:

However, after a while, it became clear that it was rather awkward to have the two black wires be so far from the candle. It was hard to adjust them to the desired length. Thus, I used an additional red wire to connect the two power strips so I could freely experiment with different circuit configurations, and eventually settled on the one below, which gives both wires easy access to the slots in my candle.

Ideas for future work or improvements
An improvement could be made by somehow stuffing the inside of the candle with paper or adhesive material, so that the black part of the wire can be completely concealed within the tube. This would make for a more “realistic” looking candle. I would also place a small tube of foil within the two layers of foil that make up my “flame” so that the foil can only rotate, not tilt side to side. Currently, sometimes, the switch does not work because the flame will tilt too much and not connect with the other wire when blown.