Little Red is a ghost bride in search for a loved one to accompany to the after-life. Dancing for whoever she meets, she hopes to find someone who will stay with her. If they do, she proposes and forms a bond with them. Otherwise, she weeps in sadness for the lost of a fated one.

Done in collaboration with Amanda Lee for the Creative Robotics Module.


Full Video:

Documentation Video:


Full slides for documentation here!

 

After doing some fun versions of the Windbot, I decided for my final to be a Cat Toy that one can control from a distance away. Attaching a fluffy ball on a string to the end of the WindBot, the ZigSim controlled bot moves around erratically using gyro sensors on the phone, connecting to the servo motors using arduino. There are three 180 degree motors, each one reacting to one axis of the sensors on the phone.

Introducing KetPlay, a cat toy that allows you to play with your cat while still remaining at your desk for those boring meetings. KetPlay only requires your phone and one hand, letting your cat and you have fun even from afar.

Testing of the bot using ZigSim

Initial Ideas:

Cowboy on top of the stick, then having a WindBot fight with @Jessie’s WindBot.

 

For Behaviour Bot, rather than a music piece, I decided to go with clips from movies. Following the Halloween season, I decided to choose between Frankenstein or Corpse Bride, and finalized on the latter. Watching the movie again, I found the proposal scene where the main character practices his proposing rather fitting for the project, and chose that audio clip.

 

Using Ableton and Arduino, I attached servo motors to a skeleton and programmed the robot to move according to the audio, creating “A Confession from a Skeleton”, where lonely souls can get a cute proposal from a skeleton during this Halloween season.

The head movement is made using two strings attached to each side of the skull, causing the head to get pulled left and right when the servos move accordingly. The arms are lifted by creating a sleeve made of straws on the arm, and then attaching a stick that is connected to a servo on the other end. As the servo moves, the sleeve slides up and down the arm, pushing the arm up and down accordingly.

In collaboration with Amanda Lee

Ghost Bride

Slides here!

Motorized character donned in Traditional Chinese funeral clothing, with no physical body, dancing to music. Platform decorated to look like a ghostly Chinese funeral scene with incense and papers burning.

– Moving based on audio input – Using ableton?

– Puppet show – reenacting wedding scene?

Ghost Weddings are practiced to ensure the unmarried dead are not alone in the afterlife. It was originally a ritual conducted by the living to wed two single deceased people, but there are also rituals involving one living person being married to a corpse.

Traditional reasons for Ghost Weddings include continuation of family’s lineage in the case of men and maintaining family honour in the case of women as it was viewed as shameful to be the parents of an unwed daughter, and unmarried girls were often shunned from society. The weddings are taken seriously and most often than not, many factors are taken into consideration before matchmaking two parties, such as age, family background and opinions of feng shui masters.

In ghost marriages between two dead people, the “bride’s” family demands a bride price and there is even a dowry, which includes jewellery, servants and a mansion – but all in the form of paper tributes.

The wedding ceremony will typically involve the funeral plaque of the bride and the groom and a banquet. The most important part is digging up the bones of the bride and putting them inside the groom’s grave.

While it appears to be an old tradition, it happens even now in certain parts of China. The ritual has mutated over the years, resulting in secret rituals, numerous cases of grave robbing and even murder cases for the sake of these Weddings.

 

 

Other Ideas!!

It’s Alive – Frankenstein

Using the audio from 1931 Frankenstein, in which the doctor animates the monster. A brain heart and skeleton moves to the sounds of the audio, reenacting the creation of a monster created through science and technology.

Frankenstein touches on the idea of playing god, and the moral and ethics in artificial life and experimentation. In a day and age where we move towards artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, the message Frankenstein relays till remain applicable.

 

HurtTypeBot!

Video:

Image:

(A hurt robot with a little plaster, requesting for repairs)
Process:

Tested every letter and how to make the bot type it

Ensured each letter worked and tested by making it type a sentence – “Hello, I am wl”

Video of test: https://youtu.be/QXZzFbcezJQ

Initial code: https://github.com/WLTjoa/TypeBot/blob/main/test2.ino

Then edited the code to make it move slower like it was “hurt”, and edited the message to request for help with a crying face “qwq”

Final code: https://github.com/WLTjoa/TypeBot/blob/main/hurttypebot.ino

 

TypeBot, WindBot and FollowMeBot Sketches

TypeBot

Considering ways of construction

 

Ideas for TypeBot:

  • Scanning colour of item then typing the colour
  • Listening to music, detecting title, then keeping list of songs heard
  • Working together with a face recognition camera, it detects the person who enters each room, then types the name of the individual like an attendance list

 

FollowMeBot

Ideas for FollowMeBot:

  • Follows person walking ard and aims at the head, attached to a mechanical toy gun that shoots a bullet at the detected person’s head
  • Instant camera that snaps a picture when a “peace” sign is detected
  • Accessories and filters change on the image of the virtual character when different gestures are detected

WindBot

Ideas for WindBot: