Improvements Just In Time.
Few weeks ago, Explorer-27 was a short, dog-sized robot:
and after weeks of further development..
fast prototype using sticky plasty to form a tablet holder.
Afterwhich, I also built the new paper model dog head(Husky) 
And installed the LED eyes into this new paper Husky head.
Re-code the UI in Unity and also connect it to the Arduino system.
These are the show I watched in the past 2 weeks to get ideas for the robot personality, appearance concepts, and the overall world for O.U.R.S..
This is the nearest concept to what I have in mind, from the robot characteristic, appearance, to the overall concept. the Lab scene, the destroyed appearance is what i could reference on and I really like it.
The personality of KVN(Kevin, the round robot) of this show got some really interesting personality, it is really irritating and have some sense of self realization that it is easily replaceable was really cool.
watched to get a general sense of a cyberpunk theme(which is the world O.U.R.S was placed in) really cool technological stuffs here and the city was really well made.
Dragon + Robot, quite cool, except for the fact that the anime was good, there was nothing much for me to reference here.
classic, robotic sound can create emotions too, simple movement and eye from the robot could say alot.
it is just an action movie with robot, nothing much here.
Friendly, empathy, not industry looking, not intimidating.
unity + touchscreen control master arduino
read book (I robot – Isaac Asimov)
drawing for concept
lidar(maybe)
head model (maybe)
“Mobile Robot Planning to Seek Help with Spatially-Situated Tasks
Stephanie Rosenthal and Manuela Veloso
Computer Science Department
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213”
The Slides were made with multiple programs,
Adobe After Effect for the animations(I got my animation template online and edited it.)
Adobe Premiere Pro for converting the animation into GIF
Powerpoint slides for the slides.
Why use GIF for animation? Because a video in slides is not loopable and have too much constrains, so if I separate one animation into 2 GIF (Appearing and Looping) and use the “Animation- Appear” function in Powerpoint in a well-timed manner, I could create an illusion that it is looping.
Example:
and when put together in PPT, it will look like this, this GIF have the “Looping Animation” played 8 times, after 8 times it will “Appear” again but just an example~ in the ppt, it will loop indefinitely until I click to the next slide.
That was how the slide was made! and I learn After effect for it because most of the animation i used in this slide could be applied in the UI of the robot (Remember i have a screen that needs User Interface, yes, thats the one.)
Also, The Lab coat i wore during the presentation was customized with the logo of OURS to have a more cohesive feel to the theme.
What had i learn in the presentation:
Antropomorphism in robotics
main issue in the fyp:
Fake Ai -> Belivability -> Lost -> Antropomorphism
LEM Solaris (movie and book, george clooney) , I robot russian Stalker
Why robot? Why Guiding robot? Why a whole system including a company, a backstory of how the Robot came to FYP exhibition?
The answer is much more than just because I like it (and of course I do!)
Culturally, there are two opposing opinion of a robot – A western one which threaten us by stealing our and eventually bring us to annihilation, A Japan one which is seemed as hero and seemed to enhance the quality of life, since 16th century after the invention of karakuri puppet, the Japanese enjoys seeing something moving automatically and it is still really fascinating to see something that moves by itself now as we anthropomorphize the object unconsciously. I personally think that robotic will be the next advancement to the world as our computation power increase exponentially, the only physical way we could bring these newer technology into a good use is through something that uses technology and have a physical/tangible characteristic, just like a robot, albeit the term robot was loosely used, the general idea is similar- Physical object that moves without human through a set of pre-determined protocol.
This is because I want to be of some use to our FYP batch, Guiding robot’s main purpose is to serve just one function- to bring the visitor to a student booth, which will increase the exposure of the student. Even if throughout the whole show duration, my robot only managed to bring one visitor to one student’s booth and the visitor enjoyed the booth, I would consider my FYP a success as I helped someone(visitor or student) to experience the FYP show in a slightly better way.
For now, I will be building a lost guiding robot which need the visitor to help to locate the student’s booth, although it seemed counter-intuitive to make a LOST Guiding robot as the worst thing that a guiding robot could do is to get lost, however when I go the opposite way(metaphorical), the end result still serve the same function, a robot which guide(narratively, it will be guided) the visitor to the booth. This way, the user experience/interaction with the robot will be different as they will feel like they will be helping the poor robot to find and complete it’s task and the visitor will feel like they have a sense of duty/accomplishment when finding the booth.
How does this work?
All of these stems from the word “Altruism“- the belief in or practice of disintegrate and selfless concern for the well-being of others. In this case, sacrificing the user’s own time to help a random robot.(which by logical thought, they do not need help and does not have feeling, however human is a complex thing and probably will not do things by logic)
As helping others will give us a sense of purpose and satisfaction, I will want to instill this idea into my project to make the user to feel like they are really helping the robot and feel the satisfaction when they complete the task(which in turn makes a happier visitor and a memorable experience for them.)
This is to adapt the power of fictional narrative to change people’s attitude towards social change(robot in FYP exhibition) by using the method of narrative persuasion- a method that uses narrative transport to persuade us to change our mind, behavior and see the world differently and to put things into context even when the story is a fantastical.
Research to be done:
Interaction of human and robot
Social Robot
Programmed behavior
Slot machine reward system
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/human-robot/
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inhuman-kind/
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/robot-revolution/
The final Video:
During the process of adding digital to the analog version, there were more failure than success done throughout, let me start with these failures (and additional works I did which were not used in the end)
Right after the completion of the analog version, I thought of making a projection of animation from the back of the candles onto a sheet of translucent paper sticked behind the candle shelf, I tried to learn how to make an animation and so I asked my animation friends what program to use to do a simple animation and they suggested Autodesk Sketchbook, so I downloaded it.
And then the Fairy light I bought from china arrived! I bought 220V fairylight because they are cheaper, and I did not expect them to be these problematic to deal with due to the dimming issue and also 220V = risky.
as there are 297 candles, the coding to split each candle was simple but tedious, I am sure there are better ways to do thing, but the downside of using max msp was that the exact function to do things the better ways is really difficult to find, so… my mindset was “If I only know “IF”, I can also do unlimited amount of task, “IF” is as powerful as Hercules.” so… I had “IFs” my way through this project, literally. (just to be clear, I tried to find a better ways, and though I found them, but in the end it either doesn’t work or crashed my max msp.)
continuation from the previous part 2 post with some new ideas after the talk about the past FYP showcase from Assoc Prof Laura Miotto, I’ve been inspired to do something that focuses solely on the showcase, since the showcase will mark the end ADM life of all current year 3, I would like to do something for many of the peers that would enhance student’s FYP showcase capability as well as the visitor’s experience of the visit.
As the founder of Kimchi and Chips, Elliot Woods asked during the Emergent Visions Symposium,
“What is the work that only I can make?”
This question hit me like Tiger Woods golf clubbed me in the head…
Yes, what is the work that only I can make in this coming FYP showcase?
back to my first post, I’ve already know what my strength is at this point of time, I would really want my FYP to have an impact on others, why not use my strength into making other’s FYP presentation to potentially having slightly more possibility? Wouldn’t that be great?!
so, this will be an idea which I know that I would enjoy spending a year to complete.
Just imagine, every student have their booth while a robot moving around in the FYP show displaying their project on its screen, when a visitor saw it on the screen, got interested and wanted to see the booth, they simply click a “Bring me to this booth” button and the robot will do so. How much more potential exposure will that bring to that student?
And on another aspect viewing this project, what will be realer than an actual application of an FYP project during the FYP show? What the visitor sees is what was actually made specially for that FYP show, if it doesn’t work or spoiled halfway, it simply meant that I did not plan well/have a backup or do a good enough job but there will not be an imaginative scenario where “This FYP was supposed to work in another location” *I am not saying that that kind of project isn’t good, but just what I would not like to do*
To design a set of Robots that have the ability to move around while avoiding people/obstacles during the FYP show. The purpose of the Robots is to expand the presentation possibility of student’s project while enhancing the experiences of the visitors. Safety of the people around the robot should be of the utmost importance and under no circumstances whereby injuries caused by the robot should happens.
Although it will be really hard to do so, but I aimed to complete a project of this standard but the task which my robot will do is much simpler.
There were many considerations made for this aspect of the project, firstly, the Cost and Value Analysis of the system must be made, of course, if money isn’t a problem, then this part would be really easy as I will just get the suitable parts which I need for the FYP, but sadly that isn’t the case… Money is a problem in FYP.
So, how can I maximize the output of my project by using the minimum amount of money? I have to also consider about how strong/fast the system is, and how would I like to have the user interface (touch screen) to be incorporated into the system.
These are the types of computation system which might be possible for my project at reasonable price –
This is the latest Raspberry Pi 3. It features a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU with 802.11n Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1. Like Raspberry Pi 2, it also has 1GB RAM,4 USB ports,40 GPIO pins,Full HDMI port and Ethernet port. This third generation Pi is an excellent tool for hackers, makers and educators because of its small footprint, low power consumption, and low price.
Pi 3 comes with build in WIFI system so that would save me about $30 for WIFI module, output of screen is easy to setup(like a normal computer), runs on Linux system, which I have a slight experience on and as a bonus, I own one of this so that would save me some money too.
A LattePanda is a complete Windows 10 single board computer. It has everything a regular PC has and can do anything that a regular PC does. It is compatible with almost every gadget likw printers, joysticks, cameras and more. Any peripherals that work on PC will work on a LattePanda.
In terms of processing strength, completely overpowered Raspberry Pi 3, the price is however much steeper than Pi 3, also as an added bonus, I already own a Lattepanda and I would rather work on Lattepanda over Raspberry Pi as it runs on Windows system and that would save a huge amount of time for me, plus overall it is much faster at processing video and even runs Max MSP(a programming software) which is what I will probably be using. I am sure Latte Panda will be more responsive than Raspberry Pi 3 at the cost of more $$.
Yes, I praised so much about Lattepanda, but the cheap CPU nowadays is already cheaper than a LattePanda, although bigger,heavier and more power hungry, it is way cheaper than a Lattepanda at relatively same processing power and also, a cheap CPU usually comes with Internal HDD(atleast 128GB) while Lattepanda only has a mere 64GB(minus operating system installed, leaving about 40GB). Best part, Desktop CPU comes with built-in cooling fan, which overheating is a problem for Lattepanda.
*REFURBISH is the word here hence the cheap price*
since I don’t really need a brand new computer to get the job done. This is the normal sized CPU, which is rather big but I am sure it is small enough to be build into a robot.
For me, I think that this is the best system i could think of for now which I will need, firstly, touchscreen laptop meant that I do not need to purchase another separate touchscreen(which is usually really expensive) secondly, it comes with all the benefit of a CPU like cooling fan and such, also, laptop have a additional battery which reduce the load of the power supply, like if the main power supply ran out, there will still be time for the system to send out notification to the control system which then battery could be replaced. lastly, laptop will be slightly lighter and uses lesser power in comparison to a CPU, which make it really good over a normal CPU.
These are really good deal I think, I have been also browsing on carousell to find cheap and well condition touchscreen laptops, will update when I found some.
Since I don’t have sufficient knowledge in programming for windows system or app, so I also looked up for some online courses which I think I may follow during the holiday.
https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-windows-10-c-course-and-build-2-apps/
This will be useful for my own personal knowledge as well as for this FYP, courses are from Udemy and they usually have offer on their courses, I could just wait for the $5.99 or $9.99 sale.
If I were to use a car battery, I would get the deep cycle/marine battery as it is made for continuous discharge when connected to my computer within the robot/motors.
After the previous post here and presented it in the class, Kristy asked me about what group of people I would like to target for the direction of the FYP. I had not really thought about that before it, but after a week of researches and further thinking about the constraints which I will probably face while doing the FYP, I came up with a few criteria for choosing my target user so as to segment the broad differences of people around the world.
Firstly, people from the developed country. Because I am currently living in Singapore which is relatively advanced, my cultural upbringing, my daily life consist mostly of what a citizen from a developed country would experience, since I do not have sufficient understanding of what I am not used to and could potentially do more harm than good in a developed country, by targeting a people from the first world meant that I could get the researches done and the feedback I need readily.
Next, out of the developed country, my interest lies in Asia country, more specifically, Japan, South Korea, urban China, Taiwan and Singapore. As I am more inclined towards the cultural aspect of these countries, moreover, these countries are relatively cheaper if I am to go there do my researches(there’s a possibility that I might do so.)
For the FYP, I would like to produce something which could help the life of a students, this is because students are relatively similar throughout the countries which I am interested in. Also I would like to do something that could help the student of age 21 to 28, primarily because most of my friend falls within this category, this is also the age group who started to be legally labeled as adult, although none of the student would seem themselves as one (including me).
Mainly someone who would like new technology and with short attention span who are open to changes. This is because I would like to produce something at the end of the FYP which will be tapping into the current technological ecological system like the smart phone or computer, the short attention span of the millennials seemed like a negative aspect, but I think that there are potential to tap into these “negative” behavior and make it into the strength of my FYP, like how the fidget spinner swept the trend a year before, something that make no sense will seemed like an good product in the eyes of the beholder.
For now, I’ve got 4 ideas that I think that it might have some potential in it.
First, it is to create something that will help students in taking notes/writing/ drawing, like a Wacom Cintiq for computer application, or specially designed for note taking like the Wacom bamboo Folio or Sony Digital Paper, however the Sony digital paper and Cintiq were designed for professional uses and their price point is rather steep for students. The Bamboo Folio is placed in the zone for note takers and scribblers to write/draw on the paper and still have an digital copy of it at an reasonable pricing. These were wonderful technologies which helped greatly in the transition of going from the traditional paper to the digital note taking, which the millennials spent the first half of their life having notes on paper while the recent half in digital notes, while not all will prefer digital notes over physical one, it proves to be a really good tool as the cloud sharing enhanced the capabilities of these students.
Second idea is to create something that will help to manufacture prototype at a better standing, be it cheaper or faster. As I would like to create something like a 3D printer specially for design student who need to produce physical work throughout the course of their creativity studies, although the current 3D printers in the market generally which suits the need of almost everyone who needs it, there are still room for improvements for these wonderful machines like the ability to print in different materials at a cheaper price. How about 3D foam printer? 3D Glue printer? maybe, maybe not.
My third idea was the idea that I was considering for the longest time and currently is inclined towards, a human powered electricity generating machine which not generate electricity, it would generate digital currency that represents “clean energy points” which could be used in various digital function like an in game currency or the capability to exchanged into discount coupons to be used in real life shop. While this may seemed impossible that there will be any market for this, it might actually be used in the future due to a few reasons..
1) User could use this as an emergency charger to charge their smart phone, which the battery usually last only half a day and the millennials could not live without their phones.
2) The rate of obesity is rising and partly it is due to the lack of exercise, these human powered electricity generating machine could be viewed as a workout to promote better health, at least by a tiny bit. Also, Gamer rarely exercise, so if there’s a game that encouraged them to play by exercising, there’s a possibility that they might. (like what Pokemon Go did when it was first launched, Gamers are walking more than they usually would because of the game.)
3) Incentives will be given to the users and participating shops, by generating electricity through these machines, not only the user could charge their electronics, they could save a slight amount of bills and earn discount from the shop. While participating shop would gain more customer as by having their shop appearing in the app for exchanging, it serves as an advertisement to their shop. Moreover, by participating, the shop could have the positive label of “environmentally conscious”, “taking part to increase clean energy production” which it seemed like what a medium sized cooperation would do for their branding effort.
My last idea of this post is simplest and might be applicable to everyone rather than for the targeted audiences… I would also like to create playful machines, systems, or applications that make people smile through the interaction, if I went along with this idea, I will probably create a diverse series of artifacts(digital or physical) that is funny in hope that they will bring the happy memory along with them after the FYP show.
According to Neurologist David Eagleman, there’s a scientific reason why our first(few) idea isn’t usually our best one: Our brains are lazy, and the first idea we have is usually the handiest idea, rather than the best idea. I understand this fact that the ideas that seemed appealing to me now might not be the best idea, so I am still coming up with new ideas that could contest the idea I am currently having, but for now, that is all I have.
66 Meters Apart is a project that explores the disruptions in the train of thought when a speaker is articulating their words, as our brain functioned as it should, we’ve forgotten how complex the brain are in these almost instantaneous real time processing of information that we sensed. By using 66 Meters Apart, user will have personal experience of these disruptions within our thought and notice how easily it is to distract our focus even from simple task like reading out loud a few sentences.
The 66 meters refers to the metaphorical distance created between the mouth and the ear through digital latency of 200ms, which is the time for sound to travel approximately 66 meters. As we hear our own voice through bone conduction from our vocal tract to our ear (which is much faster than the speed in which sound travel in air of the same distance), the physical latency it took to hear ourselves speaking is almost instantaneous and we were accustomed to this. By introducing a 200ms latency of us hearing our own voice, it could greatly impede our concentration in thinking as well as speaking in most of us.
The system which I am using for this project is the Lattepanda, which is a hackable computer and I’ve installed Max MSP into it for this project.
As LattePanda does not come with a sound card for microphone input and the only headphone require input and output jack separately, I had purchased an USB soundcard on carousell and luckily it works.
I was prepared to write the slightly longer code which require to delay the sound from the input to the output, however I found out that there is a “Latency” function in the audio setting and so I used that instead, also, I’ve add an audio gain to the patch to increase the output volume of sound. This is the simplest piece of patch and it works just as I needed so being simple is really good!
To build the stairs for the candle, I’ve estimated the size of it to be 180cm long and each step should be 5cm wide as the candle is 38mm, so having some tolerance for me to drill holes to place the candle into each hole would be really good to prevent the candle from falling off the stairs. I’ve not decided the total number of steps but since they sell 9mm thick plywood in the size of 2400 by 1200, I could possibly get 22 planks of 1800 by 50mm strip of plywood when I give some cutting tolerance to it.
After calculation and calling around to find the cheapest plywood supplier that does cutting service at the cheapest rate, I found Ban Heng Long at Syed Alwi Road which the plywood is $20 and each cut is 50 cents.
After buying the wood, I measured and marked out the wood for drilling later.
100X speed and a total of 297 holes were drilled.
Sand sand sand at 100X speed
Sanding is so important for the finishing quality
after sanding the 9 planks of 297 holes in total.
after gluing done and excess glue cleaned up.
securing the frame at 300X speed
After that, I’ve purchase a 30m cardboard roll to build the dark room for my candles as I would really like to give a feeling of a customized space which one wont feel like in the same space when we are in the one I created, which actually is another space within what we are always used to, the IM room.
After dying, I brought the cardboard pieces up and decided a place to build my dark room… And I’ve decided to use the space that lesser people used in IM room which is the corner with lockers, however I have do do quite a bit of packing up and shifting of the tables to make space.
And finally, end of 1st process post.
carry on from the previous post, Process 2
this is the completion of the dark room and to add ventilation to it as i assume it will be really hot and there might be fire hazard if the hot air or smoke is not being ventilated out of IM room.
lastly, i realised that the air flow wasn’t that good so i detached a ventilation fan from my house and attached it onto the dark room.
And the dark room was done!!!
next post will be the final post for the Analog submission for this project.
https://www.udemy.com/windows-iot/
https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-design-course/
Painting the 8 piece of cardboard roll with waterbased wall paint at 300X speed. the paint is rather expensive so only 2 piece were fully painted in black while the 6 rest were only somewhat black.
