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Final Prototyping

Documenting the trials and errors of the physical and tangible elements

Updated: December 10th, 2023

Finalizing the space for the installation redirected our design a lot. We will be using the IDM floor’s common study space, specifically the glass corridor with a projection screen. Which provides us with a new set of possibilities and challenges. 

The visuals

We got alot of inspiration from the LIVE! CODE! Workshop with Char Stiles, Sarah Groff Hennigh-Palermo, Kate Sicchio, and Olivia Jack! at CMU. We will be incorporating Hydra visuals to create surreal nature effects that react in real-time to the viewer. 

The physical elements

So this was where we were having some delays trying to pin down exactly what kind of effects we wanted. We decided to go for 

  • Large flowers opening and closing
  • Breathing Earth

My first instinct was to explore inflatables for these effects. I collected some of the packing inflatables from delivery boxes and experimented with a silicone tube best ways to attach it (tape or glue). Next, I observed which plastic materials responded the best to short air pumps. Finally, I draped a lightweight fabric on top to observe the overall effect. Now I have to wait until I get the pumps to test out the full system.

 

 

As for the flowers, my initial idea is to go for inflatables that open and close petals, but I am also thinking about simpler ways to mechanize this from a servo motor. 

Fuguo and I decided that our priority should first be the flowers and lighting with LEDs as they are crucial to the aesthetics of our idea. We also need to pin down the interactions exactly and sound to go with it

 

Experimenting with a wire mechanism for the flower

Since I have more experience with using motors and wire structures, I realized this may just be faster than waiting for air pumps. I referred to a few tutorials to quickly construct a wire structure. 

Creating the base of the flower. This is the structure that will hold the petals
The inner piece that will pull the petals up and down

I had to get wires that I could easily solder on. So this structure is mostly made out of brass wire and stripped solid core electrical wires. I used thicker copper wire as the stem that pushes the inner pieces up and down because it needs the stiffness to not bend under continued pressure. I tested with the servo motor programmed to rotate between 0 to 145 degrees to get the maximum amplitude for the motion to be noticeable.

Fiber optics and the petals

Next, we needed to construct the petals in a way that was lightweight, held its own structure, and had its own light effects. We referred to this tutorial to prepare and weave fiber optics into our petals. We used dark organza since it is lightweight, easy to weave fiber optics into, and highlights the colors within the fiber optics.

Lit up the fiber optics with RGB leds on one end and sanded down the length of it to make the light shine through stronger
Paper prototyping how the petals would look. We used this to test first and then trace on the organza fabric
For our petals, I combined all the LEDs to use less digital I/O pins on the Arduino

The video shows the first time we attached the petals with the optical fiber weaved in. We made some adjustments to the petal structure based on where it needs most support and completed our first petal.

(Left) the final look of the flower. (Center) How the optical fiber is weaved in. (Right) The base where the LED's will be taped to the end of the fibers and the mounting mechanism will go

We also tested out the projector in the space where our installation will go and fixed the placement of the flowers on the glass wall. We also fixed the resolution of the visual projection with respect to the size of the flower in that area. 

Next steps to be updated soon...
  • Finalizing the serial communication between  MAX and Arduino for the servos. 
  • Adding sound effects to the interactions
  • Creating 3-4 more of these flowers.
  • A better mount for the servo motor and flower attached to go on the wall. 
  • Program LED strips to connect with visuals Fuguo is working on and the flowers
  • (if we have time) complete the inflatable background with a fan I found in the lab.