Play-Doh game controller? Sure. Banana synthesizer? No problem! Beach ball drawing tool? Why not?
MaKey MaKey is a system that lets you wire anything (as long as it's the least bit conductive) to an electronic interface. Just hook up the alligator clips to send keystrokes to a computer that can be programmed to respond any way you wish, even a web-enabled interface to set up an "Internet of Things" system.
The kit was created by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, where imagination-enhancing projects like the Lego Mindstorms and Pico Crickets (developed with designers here at Smart Design http://smartdesignworldwide.com/work/project.php?id=144).
Check out the Kickstarter page (http://kck.st/IT93ry) where you can preorder one for $35.
We can't wait to get our hands on one: http://www.makeymakey.com
We love this project by NYC neighbor design studio Pensa. The D.I. Wire bender can take a CAD file and reproduce the lines in a physical object composed of bent wire forms. In true DIY style, it's run, in part, with Arduino. It can read vector, 3D CAD (Rhino or Wavefront OBJ) or text coordinate files and then translate the data into wire bends as it feeds the material from a large spool. The video shows sample creations such as eyeglasses, 2D shapes and a 3D wire hat. Here's how they describe it: The D.I.Wire Bender is a rapid prototype machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D or 3D shapes.
Wire unwinds from a spool, passes through a series of wheels that straighten it, and then feeds through the bending head, which moves around in 3 dimensions to create the desired bends and curves. Vector files (e.g., Adobe Illustrator files), text files of commands (e.g., feed 50 mm, bend 90° to right…) provide DIWire’s instructions. It’s essentially a 3D printer that describes lines, instead of volumes, in space, and it could be used for anything from prototypes to customized products. Here's a more detailed description: http://blog.pensanyc.com/post/22278992083/why-bend-wire-diy-not
Former Smartie Jeff Hoefs has created a prototyping tool called Breakout ( http://www.breakoutjs.com) for using Arduino to take physical world data from switches, buttons and sensors and broadcasting it to online applications. The tool also allows you to create web-based interfaces that can be used to control physical outputs such as LEDs and motors. We ran through the "getting started" guide during our weekly Smart Interaction Lab tinker session and then played around with some analog sensors, and we're looking forward to getting creative with broadcasting monitoring and controlling different real world gadgets with websites and mobile devices. Our next experiment? Taking the desktop status MenuCube ( http://www.smartinteractionlab.com/cubecontrol-physical-object-for-digital-contr) and hooking it up to Breakout to provide a real-time, virtual representation of status.
The Wall Street Journal featured our very own Jason Short today in this piece entitled "Drones Are Techies' New Darlings": The article describes DIY flying drones, which are essentially helicopters embedded with sensors and equipped with cameras so they can be remotely controlled and programmed to grab images while navigating in the air. Here's a quote from the piece: "Mr. Short, who helped design the Flip video camera, is working on technology that allows the drones to be controlled via iPhones and Android devices. He also recently built drones with a fancy chip that can process inputs from three gyroscopes, three accelerometers and a compass.'We're ahead of the phones,' says Mr. Short, who adds that he prefers the helicopters to the airplanes, because they are easier to test in his backyard."
The BBC reported today that a 3D printer that uses chocolate, developed by University of Exeter researchers ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14030720), will soon be commercially available. Just like 3D printers that deposit plastic, this one lays down strips of chocolate in layers that accumulate into a 3D form. We envision lots of creative sculptural shapes – like nested forms and algorithmic structures, as well as interesting flavor profiles, where one type of chocolate can be interlaced into another. This could be a great place where Smart's IxD lab and its Food Lab can collaborate:
Folks at the interaction lab recently have been playing with the LUFA framework. LUFA is an “open source complete USB stack for USB-enabled Atmel Microcontrollers”. This basically means with LUFA you can turn an Arduino into a keyboard, mouse, joystick, or other USB devices. Awesome!
There are tons of ways to get LUFA onto your Arduino. We found it easiest to use Darran Hunt's LUFA hex files (which he already pre-compiled) posted on his website and load it via an AVR Programmer. If you're interested in trying our process download the sample project (which is based off of Darran's work). It contains a keyboard hex file, the original arduino hex file, and a sample arduino sketch.
You will also need:
Crosspack
AVR Programmer (we used an AVR MKII)
Arduino Uno
Here's the steps for creating a LUFA Keyboard.
1. Download and install Crosspack. This will give you the ability to run avrdude, which you will need to flash to your Arduino.
2. Load LUFA_Sketch from our sampe project onto your Arduino. It is important you do this step first since once you do step 3 your Arduino won't be recoginized by the IDE anymore. Don't worry, we'll go over how to get it back in step 6.
3. Hook up your Arduino like so. Open up terminal and navigate to the folder. Once there, run the following command to flash the new hex:
avrdude -p at90usb82 -F -P usb -c avrispmkii -U flash:w:arduino-keyboard-0.3.hex -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0xF4:m -U lock:w:0x0F:m
Once it is done (should take less than 10 seconds), unplug the USB cables and AVR Programmer.
4. Now, wire up your Arduino so that there's a button connected to pin 2. Re-plug in your Arduino and computer should say it has detected a new Keyboard device.
5. Open up your favorite text editor and press the button. You should see "w"'s being typed.
6. I mentioned that once you load LUFA onto your Arduino you won't be able to load a new sketch since it is no longer recognized by the Arduino IDE. To load a new sketch you need to re-flash the original Arduino firmware (which is included in the sample project). So hook up the AVR Programmer as in step 3 and run the following command
avrdude -p at90usb82 -F -P usb -c avrispmkii -U flash:w:UNO-dfu_and_usbserial_combined.hex -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0xF4:m -U lock:w:0x0F:m
Once done your Arduino will be recognized by the IDE again.
Happy Hacking!
MenuCube is a four-sided menu navigation interface. We love the idea of moving interaction design away from the mouse and keyboard and into the physical, tangible world, and have been playing with using real world physical objects to manipulate digital data in natural and intuitive ways.
In this experiment, we decided to map values to a simple geometry, the cube.
The cube’s geometry lends itself to a simple interaction of switching among values by flipping it onto one of four faces – we saved two faces for an LED matrix display that can be seen by the user, and perhaps others nearby. Turning the cube switches to the next option in a menu list.
Our first application lets someone choose and display a status by selecting a facial expression (happy, sad, neutral… and excited):
Beyond this, we envision many possible applications, such as:
• Switching time zones (particularly useful when you have studios in three time zones like Smart does)
• Changing Mac OS spaces
• Navigating through favorited websites
• Navigating favorite TV or Pandora stations
Special thanks for Geoff Woo.
This is an interesting prototype for a system that lets people in two remote locations collaborate in real time by sharing a work surface. Objects can be placed on the surface and images can be drawn which can then be viewed as superimposed images in both locations.
The prototype shows some basic card playing and tutoring scenarios, but the system looks like it would have exciting potential for designers to collaborate on projects.
Raspberry Pi is a little bare-bones computer that plugs into a TV and
works with a standard keyboard to become a full-fledged workstation. It
looks just like a credit-card-sized microprocessor board, but has an ARM
processor (using Fedora OS), 256 MB RAM and an
SD card slot for memory.
So why is this cool? Basically, it's a giant step in the right direction
towards making computing accessible to everyone. Though it won't have the
usability and friendly design that the OLPC project
offers, it takes advantage of the ubiquity of
ordinary TV sets to eliminate the cost of the screen. The entire project
is run by a non-profit organization and is completely open source and
clone-able. We're a little worried about how piecemeal the system is
(essentials like the SD memory card and power cord are not included), but
are still excited to see this project grow. As something that's just about
the size and cost of an Arduino board, this little computer has fantastic
potential to bring computing into schools and homes that would otherwise
never be able to afford it. Here's a quote from the Raspberry Pi foundation about their vision: "We want to see cheap, accessible, programmable computers everywhere; we actively encourage other companies to clone what we¹re doing. We want to break the paradigm where without spending hundreds of pounds on a PC, families can¹t use the internet. We want owning a truly personal computer to be normal for children. We think that 2012 is going to be a very exciting year." If you'd like to learn more, here's a bit more information about the Raspberry Pi product and foundation: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs
Here at Smart we've been playing around with ways that RFID-tagged physical objects can trigger digital events such as sounds, videos and even map navigation. We put together three experiments as part of a prototyping workshop that Jeff Hoefs of Rockwell Labs and fellow Smartie Carla Diana led at IIT Chicago and SVA here in New York:
- The Internet of Things vis-a-vis a product catalog – Placing an object on the RFID reader surface brings up a full product description along with how to purchase. We used some OXO products Smart had designed to tell the story - the next evolution of retail, perhaps?
- Paper characters come to life! – Using cardboard cutouts that Shu Li (illustrator and interaction designer at R/GA's visualization group) designed for Math World, we brought story characters to life in animation on the screen:
- Lord of the Rings, meet New Zealand - Embedding tags onto a DVD case lets you create a geographic movie viewer, where the tags launch a Google Map of the movie’s location. Lord of the Rings takes us to New Zealand, Chocolat takes us to France, and Chicago takes us to, well, Chicago:
If you're curious for more, here's a sneak look at the actual workshop these came from:
http://instituteofdesign.typepad.com/blog/2011/09/prototyping-workshop-at-id.htmlStay tuned for more explorations! We’re just getting started...
|
