Week 4 Progress

Goals for Week 4:

1. Integrate fractals into RFID/lights/sound code so that different RFID tags change the colors of the fractal
2. Getting power supply working with lots of Neopixels
3. Advanced fractal visualization with rectangular format
4. Equalize audio tracks
5. Consult pottery expert (Nate’s aunt) on logistics and details for crafting ceramic tag holders
6. Consider interaction within the space

What We Accomplished & Learned:

1. Connect the fractal animations with RFID interaction

Since last week we got the sound and lights working with the RFID tags, and we separately got our fractal samples working, we wanted to integrate the two components this week. The goal was to get our RFID tags to change the sound and lights (which we had last week), but also the color of the fractal visualization. Luckily, our web server was already using p5.js to play the sounds (the same programming language that our fractal visualizations were written in), so it wasn’t too hard to integrate the two! After a few trial and error sessions, we had the tags triggering everything correctly. Check out a video of it working below!

2. Get power supply working

We were both a little nervous for this part, because hooking up our 5V 20A power supply was something that we had never done before and we didn’t want to cause an explosion or anything (or fry any of our electrical components!). We got a little bit of guidance from Libi in the BTU Lab, because we were a little worried that our wires would be too small for the 20A current. Libi said it should be fine, so we carefully hooked everything up and gave things a run with our test strip of Neopixels.

Relieved, we adjusted our code and moved on to the next step. We hooked up a much larger strand of 150 leds and tested that with the power supply, which worked just fine.

Now we were really in business. Things were looking good! As a final step, we hooked up an additional 150-led strand of Neopixels and tested with sending different colors to different strands to make sure everything was working properly.

3. Advanced p5 fractal animations using rectangular canvas

We also continued to develop our visualizations! As we looked more into applications of math, motion, and p5, we discovered flow field visualizations. Flow fields use vectors to guide particles with their own speed, velocity, and acceleration. If the p5 canvas is not redrawn every frame, the paths of the particles can be tracked to show their pattern. (The coding train tutorial was very helpful to us figuring out how to do this successfully). These are very mesmerizing to watch the patterns generate, and sort of remind us of water flowing or topographical maps. So, sort of a shift away from fractal spiral imagery, but still on the same vein of natural influence. And, we maintained the color customization since that was received very well last week during user testing. Our most current iteration for our project can be seen here. (An important thing to note is that you must change colorMode in both the sketch.js files and the particle.js file to ensure the color palettes match). We are excited to get more user feedback on this style of visualization, and perhaps combine more aspects of our spiral p5 sketches with the flow fields.

4. Equalize audio tracks

In our user tests last week, we realized that a few of the audio tracks for the environment soundscapes (beach, thunderstorm, campfire, underwater, and forest stream) were louder than others and some were quieter than others. Since we want them to smoothly transition from one soundscape to another, having jarring volume differences wasn’t ideal. So this week, we pulled all the audio files back into Audacity and adjusted the volumes until they all sounded relatively consistent, then re-exported them as mp3 files.

One thing we discovered during this process was that the audio files sounded very different when played on external speakers vs. the laptop speakers. For this reason, we may have to do some additional equalizing later on, after we finalize the set of speakers that will be used in the final installation. Depending on how different frequencies sound on the final speaker set, we may have to do some additional adjustments on the audio tracks.

5. Consider material

We also did some more thinking about what materials we might use for our enclosures, since we will probably be starting to fabricate enclosures soon. For the RFID tags, we are strongly considering using ceramic to form little housing containers in the form of organic, handheld objects. Ceramic would be more flexible to work with than the other options we’ve considered, like acrylic, wood, or stone, and it would allow us to create more organic shapes more easily.

To figure out what our options might be for using ceramic, Nate called his aunt, who regularly creates pottery and does her work in a studio in Boulder. We learned that there is a pottery place in Arvada called Stone Leaf pottery that will fire pottery items for you, which could be a great option. We also learned that there are differences between high-heat and low-heat firings, which each have their pros and cons depending on what we want our final result to be. Right now, we are leaning towards crafting our RFID enclosures out of pottery, firing them, inserting the RFID tags into each one, and then sealing the enclosures shut. For the rest of our materials, we are still considering a few different options. Wood might give more of a rustic feel, but be rougher on the hands, whereas acrylic would be sleeker and smoother to the touch but might give off too much of a tech-y vibe to our users. In user testing, the most popular material was glazed ceramic, with stone and acrylic next. People seemed to like wood less than the other materials, perhaps because of a fear of getting splinters when handing the wooden objects.

6. Consider the interaction within the space / space needs

One important aspect of our project we started approaching this week was considering the components of our project within the context of our space. A big part of this will of course be more tangible once we have a room locked down for us to build out, but it is important to think about interactions within the space as we develop our hardware and visualizations. We want everything to be cohesive towards achieving a meditative space, rather than seeming like a jarring combination of components next to each other in a room.

For example, we need to think about configuration of seating & placement of RFID enclosures (will the user be at a chair and small desk? on the floor with a cushion? something else?) as well as the projection. Paying attention to experience design in this way will help our entire Flow Room be much more impactful.

However, since we still do not have a specific space, at this point we are being as intentional as we can with our decisions and communication, so once we do begin to install our components we can do so effectively as a team.