Projects – Basics

FYP Process 6: Robot Appearance Researches

show researched :

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..

next gen:

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.

Final space:

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.

altered carbon:

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 pilot:

Dragon + Robot, quite cool, except for the fact that the anime was good, there was nothing much for me to reference here.

Wall E:

classic, robotic sound can create emotions too, simple movement and eye from the robot could say alot.

Real Steel:

it is just an action movie with robot, nothing much here.

current Art Direction for explorer 27:

Friendly, empathy, not industry looking, not intimidating.

BY 26 OCT :

unity + touchscreen control master arduino

read book (I robot – Isaac Asimov)

By 9th nov:

drawing for concept

lidar(maybe)

head model (maybe)

Further Research Done:

“Mobile Robot Planning to Seek Help with Spatially-Situated Tasks
Stephanie Rosenthal and Manuela Veloso
Computer Science Department
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213”

Interactive spaces: Light and Darkness Ver2 Analog + Digital

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)

The unused Animations

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.

I started to draw the head supposed to be shine behind a candle that was unlit.

And I manage to make it move, although simple, this took around 7hours to make sinply it was the first time.

and this is the character that was supposed to be shined behind a lit candle, this is much faster, only took like 1 hour.

The Circuit that works,(or didn’t)

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.

The light light up really well! they are 10M each and I’ve bought 6 rolls.

and rewire them to a Solid State Relay, I thought this would work really well as they are relays that dont have mechanical parts, so in theory, they could handle PWM for dimming….

and I tried adding PWM code to run the LED, It did not work as there was no dimming, all it did was full flash at faster rate. SO IN CONCLUSION, SOLID STATE RELAY IS FAST, BUT NOT FAST ENOUGH FOR PWM!

Since the SSR alone doesnt work, I thought of adding a capacitor to the circuit, as it will hold and release charge, it should smoothen the flashing rate? thats what I thought. In reality, the flashing of the LED is still really obvious so I cant use it too.

I also modeled and printed a case for the SSR as they are 220V, my common sense tells me to cover all exposed 220V metal parts as much as I could.

As the SSR and capacitor combo doesnt work, I thought of using a Mosfet to control the PWM of the 220V circuit… and my arduino blew off instantly after i turn on the 220V switch. yeah, maybe I wired them wrong, but I am not going to try it again as it instant killed my Arduino… one Arduino down, a few left to go….

So I wasnt expecting this to work, I did alot of research about using the super small resistor I have on a 220V circuit, and everything on the web said that I should not use it, but I thought I might as well try to see if it blows up or get heated up really quickly, at most i lose one resistor, I could definitely afford that! so… WOW TO MY SURPRISE, IT WORKED! THE RESISTOR DOESNT HEAT UP!

AND 1M OHM RESISTOR MAKES IT DIMMER!!! SO YEP. IT WORKED LIKE THIS IN THE END. all those expensive components I bought couldn’t be compared to these small resistors… ALL HAIL RESISTORSSS

so I researched about how to calculate the resistance of the resistor, the more parallel there are, the lower resistance = brighter, so I could do a combination of brightness from a 2M( 2*1M in series), 1.5M(1M and 500k in series), 1M, 680K, 91K. With these numbers, i could do a huge variety of resistance to dim the light(like for example, 2M and 1.5M in parallel gives a net resistance of 857k) , i just need to connect these to the SSR(normal relay could work but since i have these already) and select the path to open to create the parallel circuit and hence controlling the resistance to the 220V circuit.

I’ve notice that there are 5 wires in each strip of LED, and only 3 is requires, and I also dont need to chain these 10M rolls anyway, so I decided to savage these wires in case I needed them afterwards.

and although it seemed simple, it took some time as there are a total of 60m.

I am really glad that i savaged these wires, as just nice Makoto needed this so all time savaging was really well spent!

The original adapter and controller have some problem with it as it will automatically switch mode, sometimes to flicker and such, which I just want to have constant brightness controlled through my arduino, so I decided to remove the chip within it by replacing this circuit.

so I tried to understand how this works and mapped it out

and then I re-soldered it to the circuit board

and in the end, this one doesnt work so I found 1 adapter for this kind of LED light and use that instead, which works!

The additions to my “Dark Room”

I’ve picked up this from near my house and thought that I could build a legit door out of it, so I did, and in the end i removed the wooden piece I screwed in and made it a folding door, I also added magnet to the door so that it will stay closed to reduce light leak into the room.

attaching the LED dtrips to the roof of my “Dark Room” is a big problem as the roof is too big for me to puncture a zip tie through it (i can poke one end through, but can’t poke it back to complete a loop), and tape is too not reliable for my project as i need to have it on for atleast a week, so I’ve use a lighter to burn a needle and bend it slowly to a U shape so that I could pierce it and bring it back to sew the LED strip onto the roof, and just the sewing of the LED took 2 days to complete, because I have to carefully organize where I am attaching each point so that it does not go into the line of sight of the camera I will use to sense the candles.

slowly but surely, I attached these LEDS to the roof and wall of the “Dark Room”

and I tried lighting up, the best thing about suspending the LEDs using a thread is that not only it will create a better illusion of stars, it will also prevent a fire hazard as there is a much lesser chance that any wire(220V) will touch the cardboard and setup a fire. so I am sure of the safety of this project.

Coding is a nightmare

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.)

the main patch consist of Jit Grab to get information from the webcam, a lens distortion corrector as I am using a 150 degree webcam, a crop to crop away all details which i dont need and to pixilate the average brightness within a certain region to a bigger area(to see is the camera capture a bright object within a certain area which can be used to see if the candles were lighted up indivitually or not.

the jit.cell which shows the numbers in every squares (33*9), which is the amount of candles I have

FYP part 5- Hephaestus Systems Planning + Software learning + Modelling + Gantt Chart

To understand what to plan for, I would need to understand the nature of the project. As the task for completing a physical + mechanical project differed far from a virtual-screen-based project like games and visuals. There will be more restrictions in doing a physical project than virtual one due to the nature law of physic, material and cost.

Money Problems:

As for building a few robots will cost me quite some money, budgeting will be even more important than time planning, as for where the monies come from, I will probably save up from selling things online and work studies and treat it like a commitment because I think that no one is forcing me to do anything and its all my resolution to fund my own project.
I had thought about asking for sponsorship and that may even happen if I have to. (especially for the batteries that I will be using in the robots, these little things must be of great quality due to safety issues while a good + durable + high capacity + low weight battery cost about $500 and up each and I would need at least 3(excluding spares), which I am totally unable to afford.)

During this few weeks, I had been learning Blender (3D modeling Software) from scratch, it is really difficult to pick up, but i think the potential of Blender is far beyond what I need, so I will stick to learning this super useful program.

I’ve tried to follow a few tutorial and learn the basic of Blender from youtube, this was my first blender experience in building a 3D model.

I stated to learn by building chest as it got similar shape of what I want to produce, and after this, I used the skills i learnt from here and applied into the attempt of my R1 Robot.

the overall shape of this is rather similar to the chest so it took a while to get used to this, however after building this, I realized that I don’t know how to make the top of the robot. So I progressed into another tutorial.

and this was the over shape that I made and I am pleased with it for a first timer effort, although it took me 2 days to reach here, after this, I continued to build the details at the side and front…

Side view

Front view

and I decided to make it like a production poster so I rendered another isometric view to make it to looks legit for my presentation.

In blender, there is a animation function and I thought it would be really cool if I can learn it, so I went ahead to learn it from an online tutorial and produced this.

After I feel that this is good enough for the presentation, I tried to 3D print the model out, it was then then I realized that my model was full of mistakes and it only look good, in actual fact, the surface of the robot was really badly made. So the effort I made in this 3D model got to the furthest here, I will definitely be modeling everything again for the actual robots that I will be building for this FYP as this model doesn’t work, however this was a good learning experience for me and understand that I need to build the model’s surface properly.

the surface detail was not able to be printed due to the mistake I made during modeling, which creates an non solid surface and therefore not printable.

and then it was attached to a small remote control car for proof of concept to be used during the presentation.

now, the Crowd Favourite…..
Mr Gantt Chart!

I started the Gantt chart at 1st of April 2018 as it was all research done till this point.

Within each task, there will be multiple small task which falls into the same category and I will explain them as well as a short description of what it is about here in this post.

Since my project will be physical+mechanical+ technological+ I need to get student’s FYP work early, it is really important to start the execution really early and throughout the holiday because building of the actual robot and troubleshooting the system will take quite some time, and I have to ask all FYP student to submit their work to me really early to make everything work.

Research 1 (1st -30th of April):
I think this is the most important factor of the project, good research done here will help me to reduce work greatly in the future.
Researches up till this point (16th April) – Similar Existing Products, potential parts, platforms for interaction, things I have to learn, Inspiration of artistic works, Parts price comparison, Target market and segmentation,

Skills Acquiring ( 10th April – 8th July):
There are many lacking knowledge and skills required for me to complete this project, like the list of things to learn, I need to learn a few of them to make sure that my system could work. Also, I need to pick-up 3D modelling skills as the knowledge I have now is insufficient, In the past few days, I’ve started to learn Blender, which is a free software for 3D modelling and is great for my project, still, time is needed to hone the skills hence the long period of time allocated to learn these skills.

Initial Purchases (25th April – 27 April):
One of the biggest way to save money is to purchase them from china, which will take weeks for the item to arrive, hence it is really important to buy research about the parts required and buy them early to use the least money for the best result. Also, initial purchases is set to 25th because I will be presenting on that day, if no major changes were made, I could only really consider what to buy after that.

R1 Prototype (Software and Hardware) (2nd May- 8th July):
This will go hand in hand with skills acquiring, as I need to have a goal of what exactly to learn, it is the best to do while learning and learn while doing. R1 is the first Robot that I will be building of the set of 3, which will be the bare-bone of the Robot basic functionality and act as a confirmation to the general systems and parts requires to build R2 and R3.

R1 Movement System Finalization (18th June – 29 June):
As movement is really difficult task to achieve while concerning about the safety of the people and booth, (It is really easy to make something move, but it is much harder to make it move while not destroying things.)
so I gave more time for me to think about how I will achieve this.

Research 2 ( 20th June – 4th July):
When I think of robots, I will think of Japan, maybe its just me since I was influenced by the robotic culture of Japan when I was young, so I will travel to Japan during this period to experience their advancement of robotics first hand. (Place which I will visit :National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), Unicorn Gundam in Odaiba, bot at Haneda Airport, Henn-na Hotel, Robot Restaurant (not sure about this).

R1 Movement Prototype (4th July-23rd July):
Start to prototype right after I am back from Japan from experiencing their robots and hopefully get to see how they works in Japan.

R1+R2+R3 Concept Generation and Refinement( 4th July -27th July):
Since by this point I’ve already understand what parts R1 requires and already have the measurement of parts and sizes like motors and screen size, I could think about exactly how each Robots will look like as they will look different and have different functionality.

R1+R2+R3 Secondary Purchase (27th July – 29th July):
Knowing what parts each robot needs, I could finally purchase the basic parts for R2 and R3, plus the add-on function for all 3 robots(each robots have different functionality so require different parts)

3D modeling(Aesthetics) (27th July – 20th August):
This will be the final appearance for all 3 robots, 3D modelling done in blender.

R1 Prototype(Aesthetics+ Software + Hardware) (20th August – 24th Sep):
3D printing of all R1 modeled parts, fix them together and make sure the software and hardware works, if it doesn’t, edit and reprint of the parts.

R1 Prototype Trial and Testing ( 24th Sep – 1st October):
when all parts work together, test the robots and system in a location to make sure everything work as expected and fine tune.

R2 and R3 Prototype V1 (Software and Hardware) ( 1st October – 5th Nov):
Since the primary component and system of R2 and R3 is the same as the already working R1, these 2 robots will require lesser time and the main portion of this 2 robot will be in 3D printing and executing the different function in them.

User Interaction Trail and Testing ( 5th Nov – 19th Nov):
Testing and making sure that there are no major bugs in the system, touchscreen and functionality works well.

FYP Student’s Work Collection 1 (20th Nov – 1st Dec):
At this time, all 3 Robot can roughly work and I’ve already document these robots, so instead of just verbally telling them I will help them in making their FYP better, It will be more stimulating if I show them a system which already work and ask them to prepare a document for this system for their own benefit. (it will not be easy to ask people to do extra work, so I need to make sure that I sell my Idea to them really early*That’s 1 semester before the end of FYP* by making these robots cool and they will be losing out if their work is not in the systems.) Also, at this point they don’t have to send me any work and it is already the semester break so they have some time to think about what they want to prepare for the systems.

Booth System Conceptualization.( 20th Nov – 3rd Dec):
By this time, I should have the system of the robots working and I need to incorporate that into booth for our FYP, and this will probably be the time which we will know where our FYP will take place(in school or in public) and this will change how the booth system drastically, so it will be better to place this at the end of semester break.

Booth System Prototype (Software + Hardware) (3rd Dec – 14th Jan):
after the conceptualization, prototype will come next and I hope to have this done before the start of semester so that I will have the fully working prototype done and having the whole semester to polish my work, troubleshoot and bug fix.

Software and hardware Refinement (14th Jan – 1st April):
Software and Hardware refinement will take up most of the time as the real problem will usually emerge at this point of time where some shortcoming of the project will be apparent, also, there might be good suggestion/advice by people along the way and this will be the time to incorporate these wonderful suggestion into the project.

User Interaction Testing 2(1st April – 8th April):
Testing of the final system, to make sure all parts and component work as it should. if problem found, atleast there are time to replace these components.

FYP Student’s Work Collection 2( 1st April – 1st May):
The final collection of (Hopefully) all of the student’s work and adding them to the system once it’s collected. At the very least, there will be the basic information of every student which is uploaded to the FYP website.

Aesthetic Refinement( 8th April – 29th April):
The polishing and painting of the 3 robots and making of props/items for the booth. (when all software and hardware is working)

Booth Preparation & Stylization (1st May – 8th May):
Production of prints for booth, name cards/postcards and such.

FYP Show Preparation. (8th May – 10th May):
The actual preparation of the Booth and to bring the robots down to the exhibition area and set everything them up.

FYP SHOW( 10th May- 20th May):
Make sure the show runs smoothly, on-site repair if needed.

FYP part 3, Initial FYP Idea – ADM Exhibitchine (Initial Project Brief, Specification, Moodboard & Researches)

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.

A set of robots(3 to 6) that will display student’s work in complementary of their booth where visitor could get more information(project info/booth location).

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*

Project Brief ver.1-

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.

Project Specification Ver.1 –

Each Robot should have a minimum battery life of 6 hours on single charge.
Every Robot designed should be unique and serves different function.
The Robots should be designed with ease of maintenance system that allows ad hoc repair.
The interface on every Robot will be touchscreen enabled to suit the behavioral characteristic of the targeted user. ( young adult of developed country)
Network between Robots and a Central Hub should be setup to enable a smooth flow of communication and for controls during the exhibition.

Similar Project :

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.

Moodboard:

this will probably a good gauge as a robot size which i will build.

of course, the screen wont be so big as the price would be expensive.

468_999 by ksenolog. I like the colour scheme of this type of robots,

bot by operion. Although it is rather dark here, but the top simplicity is rather cool.

bot concept design by chriss2d. I might build a similar robot like this minus the limbs.

catsbot by trudsss. colour scheme and friendliness

fishboxerbot by hubertspala. unique design that is out of the box.

giga bot concept by ultimatemaverickx. colour scheme, + shape

hammy the hammer head by andynd. I really like this cute robot and simple shape

business bot by milenplus. Colour scheme + the overall friendliness aspect seemed similar to what I have in mind.

mean frog by glaaarg. cool robot like this might be nice too.

mech 3 by astrokevin. overall presentation of a poster-like layout will be good on my FYP booth,

mech suit by flyingdebris. Overall shape and details minus the limbs

mekachu by trudsss. Colour scheme and cuteness.

mobile memory unit by tehan. I like this and the idea in which the walking camera is a “Mobile Memory Unit”

remember to by inkgummi. overall feeling + the screen head is nice.

robot by ahmadturk. Colour scheme+ details + shape.

sir crow by trudsss. Cuteness and the robotic like armor with organic head.

sniper bob by boxer18. details + colour scheme.

Computational System Research:

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 –

Raspberry Pi 3 –

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.

Latte Panda –

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 $$.

Cheap Desktop CPU –

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.

Second handed/refurb touchscreen laptop –

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.

By having a computer doesn’t meant that this project will work, of course, what I am going to do on the computer is all that matter.

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.

https://www.udemy.com/windows-iot/
since there will be network communication between the robots, this might be really useful for me.

https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-design-course/
another way to work around is to design an mobile app and bridge it between the computer with a tablet that will be used as the screen or simply just built an app which is fully functional within the tablet itself. I still have to do further researches about this.

Power supply Researches

Off the shelf high capacity powerbank:

Car battery:

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.

DIY battery from car battery:

FYP General Direction 1

In my initial general direction, I think that there many approach to consider what kind of FYP I would like to achieve in the end… Maybe instead of thinking what I can possibly do for my FYP, I feel like it is better for me to think about this question- “What can my FYP do for me?”

GIf from https://giphy.com/gifs/thinking-SabSYEpsVh0di

By this time, I already understand what is my strength and what I would love to do, I think that I am relatively skilled in handicraft, building physical object and would love to build challenging mechanism like my Obseleting Instrument I did for Interactive Devices in year 2.

But will doing what I am good in and what I like for my FYP really help me? It might look good in my portfolio, but at the same time, it simply means that I will be staying in my comfort zone, and I am not saying that there’s nothing for me to learn by doing so, but rather, it means that I am locking myself into just doing related project and narrow down on the infinite possibilities that could be ventured into an unexplored territory that I did not previously knew that I like. In the long run, doing something which I could achieve might not be that great afterall….

If I think about FYP as a “One Year Summary Exercise” for the 3 years here to showcase what I’ve learnt in NTU, the result of that FYP will be way different than if I were to think about it as “One Year Opportunity to learn and explore”. but the question here is….. How would I want to think about FYP as? And seriously, I dont know for now…

If we think about FYP in another perspective, It is a small label that will be attached to us upon graduation, we write this label ourselves, work hard to earn this label and once it is on us, there will be no way to change it. Of course, I am not saying that FYP will be super important to all of our life, but the fact that one year of preparation just for the moment of showcase, if its good, good for us, but if its bad, forget about it, there’s still many other things in life which will be more important.Label Yourself Before They Do

So, back to the question, “What do I want the FYP to do for me?”
Now I’ve got one year to do whatever I want,(I love Interactive Media~~)
this is the time to ask… What do I really want?
~~Doing something beautiful and looks nice with no meaning?~~ Definitely not my cup of tea.
~~Artistic pieces with deep meaning that people will ponder over it?~~ Maybe? But I am too shallow for this.
~~Pure visual/ sensory inducing project?~~ unless one that will help the scientific/medical field.. for art purpose, not interested.
~~something easy?~~
It’s easy to list down what I don’t want but what do I really want?
I can only think of one right now….

I want to change the world at least in a minuscule way and leave some footstep on the sandy beach(not literally) before I die. I would love to have an impact on people’s life in someway, somehow.

Big dream require small steps, maybe, just maybe, this FYP could be these small steps….

I have this A5 note as a motivational quote behind the desktop screen which I wrote long time ago for myself

“Create something that I want but unavailable in the market, not something that would sell.” – ZiFeng

Now, building on what I mentioned above –“One Year Summary Exercise” VS “One Year Opportunity to learn and explore”, now I’ll nominate a new contender – “One Year Opportunity To Make an Impact/Benefit Others” and truthfully speaking, I like the latter the best and for now, it will be what I would like to achieve for the FYP.

All the celebration GIFs you never knew you needed by MrM3on

Did I change my question from
“What I can do for my FYP?”
to
“What my FYP can do for me?”
to
“What my FYP can do for others?”?
Yes I did.
And I quite like my direction for now, unless I’ve got a better direction that I could come out with before the end of this semester, I will probably go along the path of “Impacting/benefiting people” and think of what I could do along this path. (I am already excited thinking to think of ideas)

Exercise 3, See Yourself Sensing: 66 Meters Apart.

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!

Interactive spaces: Light and Darkness Ver.1 – Analog

after the previous process, process 3

Thanks to Tiffany and Joan for the awesome snippets that were used as the featured image as well as in the videos, and helping with lighting up all the candles + documentations.

Also Thanks to Bao, Fabian and Suhwee for helping me to place all the candles onto the candle platform.

I’ve seen the actual project with real candles in the dark room the first time as the class saw it.

Light & Darkness was created to give a sense of alternative space within an ordinary space, in this project, I wanted to create a space so that the audience will forget that they were in the IM room, the room was build with pure darkness and stability in mind as nothing should collapse as I wanted to hang the candles platform instead of building a table-like structure to give a sense that all the candles were floating in space(which is also the reason why everything, including the candles platform was black), this worked really well as the candle platform would swing gently which increased the magical feeling to my space, Also, all of this will be enhanced in the digital version as I would add a series of stars(LED, not projection) to the room’s wall to increase the feeling of enchantment. The smell of the candles, as well the burnt smell created when extinguishing the candles worked much better than I expected, as I wanted to have smell that is not too overpowering, I’ve used 239 unscented candles with 60 scented candles, this combination worked like a wonder because there is only a faint smell outside of the dark room. another point that worked better than I expected was the random placement of the scented candles created a colourful candle array when they were all lighted up and this increased the overall aesthetic of this project’s analog version greatly.

After this analog version, I’ve noticed a few points to take note of, it is actually quite hard to light up all the candles so more lighters will be needed and the current lighter that I was using appears to be rather difficult to be used, so I’ll probably buy some more lighter which is much easier to be operated and uses lesser strength. Also, I would have to paint the metal wires that was used to hang the candles platform into matt black as the metallic would reduce the magical floating aspect of this project.

Interactive spaces: Light and Darkness Process 2

carry on from the last post, Process 1

I started building my dark room in the corner of IM room.

took this rectangular pillar and removed the top screws and wooden block to use it as the main structural support for my dark room

measure and screwed in the track that will be used to hold the metal pole for the main structure

carefully measured and place the triangular poles in a 2.5m square

slide the metal poles on top of the pillars

connect the metal poles with metal joins and tighten it to make sure that it will be stable as safety the main concern.

well supported H frame which will hold the weight of the stairs for the candles

sample for me to gauge the overall look of it.

After the structure is stable, I continued to attempt to secure the walls of the room onto the structure.

the bottom piece is really easy to secure using staples

however the top is really difficult as there is no support when i am securing one side.

Ive spray mount and tape it at the back on the floor before mounting the side wall as it is SOOOO much easier and nicer to do so!

ziptie were used to secure the flap onto the pole.

Ziptie were used to to make sure it looks nicer and does not collapse, again, structural strength is the main priority as this is made of cardboard and I am lighting fire in it, I don’t want anything to collapse onto the fire.

Afterward, I tied the structural loop which my candle stairs will be attached to it later, it was tied to make sure nothing collapse again.

Next, the sides of the candle stairs were secured with metal plates for hanging.

and its measured to make sure that it balances while carabiner were used in case i have to remove the candle stairs from the structure later. but i think it sure does look good here!

after I confirmed that the structure and overall look of the dark room, I proceed to build the roof of it, which is the most difficult piece to be build as it is really prone to collapsing and I did not want the structure to be seen inside, What i want to achieve was to have all structures outside of the dark room so it will feel legit like a room when you are in it.

then i tried to secure the bamboo for additional support

but remembered that i want the structures outside so i flipped the pole out

and then again, it is easier to do it on the floor then bring it up.

so I cut and tied the cardboard roof onto the support on the floor and bring it up afterwards.

but I’ve realised that I should not fasten the previous pole as this new piece of roof has to be ziptied onto the previous pole too

placing the ziptie through the small hole

and I sprayed it with adhesive just like all other cardboard overlap to increase strength and reduce light leak

the top of the roof with all cardboard fastened with ziptie.

I really like the overall appearance of it for now!

Interactive spaces: Light and Darkness Process 1

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.

i’ve waited for 4 hours to get them to cut the wood as there were many orders before that

and I just took public transport to school with the super bulky woods

After buying the wood, I measured and marked out the wood for drilling later.

drilling a small hole as the center point for accuracy.

I bought this hole saw at Banheng long and I al really glad that I did, although it was tedious but it could be worst

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.

Gluing in 100X speed

this glue is liquid nail and i assume its strong enough.

I’ve secure both plank with nails and it protrude out from the back

so filing was done to remove the sharp nails

after gluing done and excess glue cleaned up.

securing the frame at 300X speed

this seemed nice but the height of this might be too tall,

so I’ve reduced the distance bettween planks

marking of the point to secure initial nails

first I drive the nail through the side plank first

then driving the nail through the main plank

this was done by having bricks on the other side to hold it with constant adjustments

90degree support were then screwed to secure each planks.

then steel epoxy were added to increase the contact and triple secure each planks.

Next I brought it down to spray it black

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.

I cut the 1.2m by 30m cardboard into 8 pieces of 1.2m by 2.7m piece

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.

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.

after shifting of tables but before packing

after packing and arranging the space into a 2.7m by 2.7m space.

And finally, end of 1st process post.

Interactive spaces: Light and Darkness Process 3

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.