Robotic and Kinetic Media

Crazy Bot

CRAZY BOT

Crazy Bot is a study of how to emulate organic and spontaneous, yet randomised emotion and characteristics in a robot that is rigid where movement is restricted. This study aims to create in a simple 360 servo a specially designed wheel that will allow for the exhibition of character purely using physics and product design knowledge, with the help of 3D printing for rapid prototyping.

The wheels were the most important part of this study and a majority of the time spent went into rapid prototyping of it.

The idea is to have 3 points that act as pivots for extended arms to fall into place through the rotation of the wheel such that they exceed the perpendicular line and sticks out from the wheel, causing a disruption to the movement of the wheel.

Type 1.

Type 2.

Final prototype

Robotics and ethics presentation

In this presentation, I talk about how ethos are any relevant in the future development of tech, citing examples of robots that has Artificial Intelligence and one that are pure mechanical with basic programming. Will they harm us like it is always portrayed in movies or are there hopes that one day, both robots and us can live harmoniously?

Link: Robotics and Ethics

Interactive Devices #4

Light – the camera(s) that sought to take over the DSLR

The Revolutionary Light L16 Camera

This camera is pretty much a pocket DSLR and it just changed the game ?

Posted by UNILAD Tech on Friday, 13 October 2017

This camera with its imaginative concept of having multiple lenses (probably stemmed from Huawei’s and Apple’s dual camera idea) that allow for the capturing of large megapixel image in a pocket-sized camera. Stitched using software, the multiple images combined produce huge resolution files which also captures depth and allow for after-capture depth manipulation to achieve your desired image.

As a photographer, while this seems to be a suitable replacement for my photography services, I feel this takes away the value of the skill. This is a craft by profession and thus while this seems like a good alternative, would not be that good for the industry. It may be useful as a value add-on:)

Interactive Devices #3

Automatica

By far the most intriguing device ever.

Engineers from Standord University created a live band but with robots that are programmed to play musical instruments such as the piano, drums ans turn table. Their aim was to realise an A.I. musical future with this project. Best part, they only took a month. I was literally blown away, given the short amount of time spent to make this. This inspires me further to dwell into the world of robotics and programming.

While it all seems complicated, the idea and basics behind it is actually very simple. The robotics arms features a 6 axis arm but all of which the angle of movement isn’t at all large. Then there is the intervals at which the arms press the keys/play the instrument. Getting the beats right, is definitely more difficult. But what I think is the hardest, is to get the different axises of an arm to move in one concise motion to deliver an actual action. This is what I’ll probably be stuck with, especially having to sync the other arms together.

https://web.facebook.com/RocketsAreCool/videos/1350758585053669/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Human +

The Human + Series proved to be an exhibition that questions the inclusiveness of interactivity by which a prosthetic is involved in one way or another. The deeper insight to this, however, would be the social and ethical issues that would arise from modifications introduced to the human body. Will this aid us in becoming more efficient with our daily work or cause a social divide?

I think these are questions that many of us have unanswered. But, let’s take a step back and take a look at what advancements we have achieved to date.

One of the installation that struck me greatly was this. Titled: TRANSFIGURATIONS by Agatha Haines, 2013.

It was startling to me because of how far we have come to accept bodily modifications in 2017. Not long before this, we were still against this idea. But it seems that it has become increasingly alright to be bionic.

Agatha’s work challenges the notion of bodily modification and how far a parent would give an edge to their child. And I think that the different examples presented were shocking enough to make me question the future existence of such beings.

As an installation, this totally works because of how realistic yet gruesome this looks but it also harps on the very emotions from within; a struggle between letting a child live with a disorder or be “modified” so that they can live a “normal” life.

I think that we should not allow this to happen, and even if we do, it should be a physical add-on that helps with the daily functioning of the body.

I’ve been inspired to continue this series, so look out for this page to find updated content related to this topic!