I made this sketch while learning how to use touch design. This sketch uses a shape and noise to give life to an inanimate object.
See video – https://youtu.be/aIQ-i0PxcXg
Author Archives: Taylor Patterson
Emotive Objects: Run – Walk – Idle
The Origami Night Light
Prathistha Gera and Taylor Patterson
The narrative
We have created a prototype of the product ‘Origami Nightlight’. The product, in its future, is meant to exist in a bedroom or a room used for sleeping. It can be used for all ages. The light in its idle state ‘breaths’. The breathing motion is meant to be representative of the lungs. This is designed in hopes of offering a tempo that mimics the motion of your lungs taking a deep breath. “Deep breathing is a practice that enables more air to flow into your body and can help calm your nerves, reducing stress and anxiety.” (Right as Rain by UW Medicine, 2018). The light is designed with energy efficiency in mind. While the lungs are still moving, the energy is preserved as the sensor is reactive to the light of day and night. Using the sensor, we’ve designed this product so that during the day, the light sensitivity keeps the light turned off. However, when night falls, the blue light switches on. The colour of the light can be changed from blue to green by adjustive the flap located in the front of the product.
Run: Light up and change color | Idle: compressing and expanding
Main verb -to light | sub verb – to stretch
Materials: Plastic Sheet standard servos and LED’s.
The Tech Specs
- This product utilizes the Arduino nano board, one light sensor, one 180 servo motor, two breadboards, two separate sets of code and one LED strip.
- The code for the motor is written to allow the origami shape to contract and expand using a clear string tied to one end of the shape and one prong of the servo motor. The position is 0 to 180 to allow space for expansion and contracting.
- The code for the light sensor is written to change all colours on the LED strip at once. The colour change is based on light sensitivity levels that were recorded in the serial monitor.
The Design
- The shape of this product is rectangular to seamlessly fit on a bedside table.
- The origami shape was chosen to ensure there were enough angles for light to reflect from.
- We chose to create the origami shape from a plastic sheet as it offered the bounce back that we needed based on the extent of stretch that the motor could give.
- There is a reflective surface on the inside of the box to aid in illumination.
- Below the origami shape is an area to hold hardware such as the motion sensor and the motor. This section also had the flap used to control the colour change from blue to green.
- The back of the box has a compartment where the breadbox and wires are stored.
- The top of the box has a slit where the LED is nestled right at the opening of the origami shape. The origami shape is fastened with an opening, to the inside top of the box.
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Inspiration
TIDELINES | 2021
Tidelines is a kinetic sculpture commissioned by the Museum of Science in Boston, MA for their new Engineering Design Workshop exhibit.
16 origami structures form an overlapping field of motion and light, inspired by the lily pads on the tidal estuary underneath the Museum and the clouds in the skies above it. The sculpture creates a unified choreography of motion and light, ever-changing and evolving with time.
Each origami element is driven by two independently controlled motors, creating a body that can expand to create a larger volume, and collapse to be nearly invisible against the ceiling. Custom lighting makes the Tyvek structures glow with internal color. The system is run by custom software that drives both the motors and lighting. Tidelines serve as the centerpiece for an exhibit that inspires children and families to explore the worlds of science, art, and engineering. (HYPERSONIC, n.d.)
Creators of the work, and a little about their backgrounds
Concept, design, assembly, software, and installation by Hypersonic: Bill Washabaugh, Gwylim Johnstone, Heather Blind, Katie Treidl , Alex Garcia, Anna Torvaldsdotter, Pauli King, Origami Assistance from Matthew Shlian, Assembly Assistance from, Casey Bloomquist, Technical Assistance from Matt Felson and Nathan Lachenmyer. Special thanks to the wonderful team at the Museum of Science, Music by Candlegravity.
Hypersonic was founded in 2012 by Bill Washabaugh. After a successful career in aerospace engineering designing airplane systems and industrial robots, Bill moved to New York City and founded Hypersonic with a dream of melding his passions into his work. Hypersonic was born to bring together art and technology into seamless creations of sculpture, physical installation, and interactive experiences. Bill is passionate about creating site-specific physical works that engage people with their environment and their community, using technology and data to create beautiful new works of art. (HYPERSONIC, n.d.)
Kinetic Origami Surface
An Arduino Integrated Prototype based on the triangular deployable structure of Ron Resch’s pattern, a kinetic surface was developed. Different mechanical and electronic automation systems were explored to control the surface adjustment in response to real-time sensor inputs, such as sound or light. Arduino board and scripting platform (which can be connected to Grasshopper, allowing the user to interactively control a 3D simulation) enables this project to integrate digital design and physical model. Understanding the chosen geometry characteristic, scripting logic, electronic and mechanical principal are the core of this project. (Kathryn, 2022)
Creators of the work, and a little about their backgrounds. Evola Team: Elisabeth Kathryn, Susan Wu, Le Diha. Evola is founded by Elisabeth Kathryn. Elisabeth holds Master of Architecture with a concentration in Sustainable Design from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, and Bachelor of Architecture from Petra Christian University, Surabaya, Indonesia. Curiosity has led Elisabeth to find a deeper interest beyond architecture design world she used to know. Computational design, digital fabrication, artificial intelligence, and other relevant technologies have triggered her to endlessly explore and create innovations.
Evola is a consultancy firm which specializes in advance computational design and its interaction with sustainability and digital fabrication. They push the boundaries of architectural technology to optimize design explorations, building performances, user experiences, and to integrate the whole workflow from design, fabrication, and construction. (Evola, n.d.)
Both Projects In Relation To: The Origami Night Light
TheTidelines kinetic sculpture by Hypersonic caught our eye while searching for interactive chandeliers. Our fascination with origami was heightened by its ability to move, especially when combined with light. We explored the different folds of origami and the relevance of colored light in our daily lives through this project.
Evola gave us a deeper understanding of how to use origami with Arduino and make it more interactive by adding a sensor. It inspired us to play with the compression and expansion of an origami fold.
Link to Code
Referencing
Right as Rain by UW Medicine. (2018). This Is Why Deep Breathing Makes You Feel so Chill. [online] Available at: https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/mind/stress/why-deep-breathing-makes-you-feel-so-chill#:~:text=Deep%20breathing%20(sometimes%20called%20diaphragmatic.
Evola. (n.d.). About. [online] Available at: https://www.evola.id/about [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].
Kathryn, E. (2022). Kinetic Origami Surface. [online] Evola. Available at: https://www.evola.id/post/kinetic-origami-surface [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].
HYPERSONIC. (n.d.). About Us. [online] Available at: https://www.hypersonic.cc/about [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].
HYPERSONIC. (n.d.). ART. [online] Available at: https://www.hypersonic.cc/art#/tidelines/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2022].
Taylor Patterson Sketch 4
For this sketch I used a servo motor to expand and shrink a folder origami shape.
Link to video – https://ocadu.yuja.com/V/Video?v=756484&node=3751094&a=232424773&autoplay=1
Code
#include <Servo.h>
#define PIN 9 //servomotor
Servo myServo;
int pos = 0; // variable to store the servo position
void setup() {
myServo.attach(9); // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}
void loop() {
for (pos = 0; pos <= 180; pos += 1){ // goes from 0 degrees to 180 degrees
// in steps of 1 degree
myServo.write(pos); // tell servo to go to position in variable ‘pos’
delay(20); // waits 25 ms for the servo to reach the position
}
for (pos = 180; pos >= 0; pos -= 1){ // goes from 180 degrees to 0 degrees
myServo.write(pos); // tell servo to go to position in variable ‘pos’
delay(20);
}
}
The Digital Pet | Screen Space Experiment
THE DIGITAL PET
October 2022
By: Divyanka Sadaphule, Nicky Guo, and Taylor Patterson
Context Research
Related Work
- For this experiment we wanted to focus on the exploration of colour and emotions.
- Two artists that we’ve researched for inspiration are James Turrell and Jónsi, Hrafntinna. Both artists use the senses to emit emotions and evoke feelings from their installations.
James Turrell – Ganzfeld
This installation explores space and light, focusing on the effects of light on people’s moods as opposed to light just being there for illumination. James Turrell comes from a scientific background where he studied the ‘Ganzfeld Effect. In the Ganzfeld Effect, “your brain is starved of visual stimulation and fills in the blanks on its own. This changes your perception and causes unusual visual and auditory patterns” (Healthline, 2020). This is a perfect fit for our project as we aim to link colour to emotion.
Jónsi Hrafntinna – Obsidian
Located in the Art Gallery of Ontar
io, this installation stood out the most with its use of sound to create deep vibrations. The installation is set in a room with little to no light and is a “Sixteen-channel sound installation, chandelier, speakers, subwoofers, carpet, fossilised amber scent.” (Art Gallery of Ontario, n.d.). Other senses such as smell and lighting are used in this installation as well. The idea is to ‘evoke the sensation of being inside a volcano’. To push our project even further, we want to incorporate the feeling of sound through vibrations.
The Impact of Colour Psychology on Emotions in Child Development
Colours play an essential role when it comes to child development. It is an energy having wavelength and frequency. Colour psychology and its impact on a child’s learning abilities and behaviour is a much-researched subject. (Olesen, 2016)
Studies demonstrate the benefits of colours where brain development, creativity, productivity, and learning are concerned. With the help of colours, neural pathways in our brains are connected. The research was done that children wearing coloured goggles who were made to complete pegboard tests were found to solve the tests much faster when wearing goggles of their favourite colour. (Co, n.d.)
The reaction to the temperature of warm to cool colours was another matter, the warm colours in a way can calm certain students but they may excite others. Likewise, cool colours might stimulate one and relax another. In addition, research studies have also shown that with the help of colours we improve our learning ability and memory. The study concluded that red and blue colours are the best for enhancing cognitive skills and improving brain functions of children. (Renk Etkisi, 2017)
Historical Aspects
Several ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, practiced chromotherapy, or the use of colours to heal. Chromotherapy is sometimes referred to as light therapy or colorology.
Chromotherapy & Phototherapy in Ancient Egypt: The ancient Egyptians used to use colour as a healing technique as many aspects of their lives. Colours were also associated with gods. With a strong focus on worshiping the sun, they believed that shining the rays of light through coloured crystals could penetrate the body and act as a treatment for ailments.
Chromotherapy in Ancient China: In Chinese culture, they connect colours with health. Chinese culture has always been keen on the connection of body-mind-earth-spirit, and it shows in the holistic Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) techniques that have transcended generations. It is believed that the colours you attract are alignments or imbalances with the cosmos and surrounding energy.
(JACUZZI Saunas – Clearlight Infrared SaunasTM, 2018)
Conceptual Framework
The initial idea behind the digital pet was to help children to learn and understand emotions with the help of colours. This can be also beneficial for students who have learning disabilities and ADHD who often experience distorted colour discrimination. The impact of different colours can simulate emotions ranging from comfort and warmth to hostility and anger which can help children to understand their emotional factors.
- We created an interactive platform for people to explore two different states of emotion through sound, technology and colours.
- Our digital pet represents two states of emotions, happy and angry. We chose colours and sound to match each of these emotions to enhance the effect of our emotional qualities of our digital pet.
Research Question
-
How do we map emotion to sound, through technology and interaction while formulating a playful experience where users utilise their visual and hearing senses?
Technical description & design considerations
Ideal Project Location
Ideally, we would like the digital pet to be in a room set up with a projector, speakers and a webcam, the digital pet will be projected onto a wall. The colour of the octopus will reflect on all 4 walls of the room, and there will be a song playing. The use of colour, sound and touch will working together to produce an immersive art installation.
Transitions/Interactions
While the demonstration shown in the images below only utilise two of the three proposed emotions, happy, and anger, the aim is to give users the opportunity to experience all three 3 separate emotions /positions with the below actions associated with each.The idea is to have an interaction-based end goal where our character is reactive. The sequence of events are shown below:
Position 1 : Static/Sad
The character will be floating, it will look sad, but it will be ready to welcome on-coming guests. The character’s position should be in the middle of the screen and it will be white on a black background with a rain cloud, rain, thunder and lightning on all 4 walls.
Emotion 1 : Happy
After 20 seconds of someone entering the room, the digital pet becomes happy and turns yellow. The background will change to sunshine and a bed of flowers floating. The user will be prompted to wave their hands up and down to be ‘happy with the octopus’. The waving of the arms will change the digital pet’s colour to a yellow orange gradient and will bounce up and down on the grid. The face will have a smile on it.
Emotion 2: Angry
After the user waves their arms 5 times, the octopus experiences a new emotion, anger. When our character is angry, the background will change into clouds of smoke. The character will change colour to red, the head will grow and the room will vibrate with rage. The character will have a frown on its face and angry brows at this point.
Emotion 1 (Happy)
Emotion 2 (Angry)
______________________________________________
References
D, William. “Ganzfeld – a Light and Space Exhibiton by James Turrell.” Design Is This, 27 Oct. 2015, https://www.designisthis.com/blog/en/post/james-turrell-ganzfeld.
“Jónsi: Hrafntinna (Obsidian).” Art Gallery of Ontario, https://ago.ca/exhibitions/jonsihrafntinnaobsidian#:~:text=Hrafntinna%20(Obsidian)%2C(2021,places%20or%20trigger%20different%20memories.
Pietrangelo, Ann. “Ganzfeld Effect: Sensory Deprivation Hallucinations.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 15 Oct. 2020, https://www.healthline.com/health/ganzfeld-effect.
Healthline. (2020). Ganzfeld Effect: Sensory Deprivation Hallucinations. [online] Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/ganzfeld-effect.
Art Gallery of Ontario. (n.d.). Jónsi: Hrafntinna (Obsidian). [online] Available at: https://ago.ca/exhibitions/jonsi-hrafntinna-obsidian [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].
Co, P. (n.d.). How To Improve Your Child’s Mood With Colors. [online] Parent Co. Available at: https://www.parent.com/blogs/conversations/how-to-improve-your-childs-mood-with-colors#:~:text=Researchers%20at%20the%20University%20of.
Renk Etkisi (2017). Renk Etkisi | The Effect of Color | The Effects of Colors on Children. [online] Renketkisi.com. Available at: http://renketkisi.com/en/the-effects-of-colors-on-children.html.
Olesen, J. (2016). Color Psychology: Child Behavior And Learning Through Colors. [online] Color-Meanings.com. Available at: https://www.color-meanings.com/color-psychology-child-behavior-and-learning-through-colors/.
JACUZZI Saunas – Clearlight Infrared SaunasTM. (2018). The Ancient History of Color Light Therapy | Jacuzzi® Saunas Blog. [online] Available at: https://infraredsauna.com/blog/color-light-therapy-history/.
Catch me if you can | Taylor Patterson
I wanted to get more practise with attaching objects to different body parts. For this sketch, the pink circle is your nose, the grey is your left wrist. The object of the game is to try to capture the pink circle using your nose and left wrist to manoeuvre the two circles.
Let’s Grow
For this sketch I experimented with creating multiples of one object and have them grow with the mouse function.
https://editor.p5js.org/TaylorPatterson/sketches/VljjtPNqd
Taylor Patterson Sketch 1
After watching a series of videos from ‘The Coding Train’, I used mapping and speed skills to create a background that changes colour depending on the position of the ellipse.
https://editor.p5js.org/TaylorPatterson/sketches/m_cCjQjnm
20 Screens – Group 5 – Tic Tac Toe
https://editor.p5js.org/tamikayamamoto/full/-zVWyAZo5
Question: How do we make screens interact without having them communicate wirelessly?
For this project, we wanted to have a simple tic tac toe game played on 9 different phones. The goal was to have people interact with the phones, and the phones interact with each other simultaneously without being connected, so that they can work together as one game.
Taylor Patterson
Tamika Yamamoto
Sunidhi Naik
Rim Armouch
https://editor.p5js.org/TaylorPatterson/sketches/5HupM2sSJ