Emo machine project

the redemption

2008-10-01T10:12:00.001-07:00

THE REDEMPTION

by

Nadia Tan

1 INT -- CELL -- NIGHT 1

A dark, empty cell. All silent. A lone figure kneels in the middle of

the cell, holding on to a rosary, praying. The cold moonlight that

seeps through the window beats down on him, casting his shadow onto

the concrete.

2 EXT -- FIELD -- DAY 2

In total contrast to the cell, an old man sits beneath a tree of a

wide-open field. He holds onto a baseball with his left hand, twirled

around his right wrist, a rosary.

The sun caresses his left check as the maple leaves start to fall.

All is calm. No one walks past. Not yet. A few moments passed, sounds

of dried leaves being crushed grow louder.

A young boy emerges.

Schoolbag slumped over his shoulders, and bits of perspiration

tickling down his forehead as the little boy ran along busy wondering

aloud in his own thoughts. As he scatters past the old man...

OLD MAN

“Young boy, you look like you had something to say, Is anything the matter? Could I be of any help?”

YOUNG BOY

“No, stranger. I need to rush home to complete my chores. I haven’t got enough time to sit around.”

Lifting up his left hand, he offers the young boy a worn out

baseball, tossing it up and down.

OLD MAN

“Here, take it. Spend some time with me before you rush off to your duties. That’s all I can ever ask for.”

YOUNG BOY

“No, I have better things to do. I would never waste my time to stop for useless play. Goodbye.”

Without much thought, the young boy turned his back towards the old

man and continued on his path, hobbling most of the way till he was

out of sight from the old man’s failing eyes.

Slowly, warm drops of tears trickle down the old man’s cheeks as he

let go of the baseball he once held so tightly to.

Sitting there, eyes closed, he waits.

3 INT – CELL – NIGHT 2

Awakened by the sounds of keys clanging against the iron bars, as he

peers through the slits of overgrown skin that partially covers his

eyes.

Two shadows covering the dim cell lights, walks over and lift

him up.

With much effort, he struggles a little and gets on his feet.

4 EXT – FIELD – DAY 3

Time passes as slowly as he wished it would before while the

weather becomes cooler.

Reopening his eyes to the sounds of another set of rushing

footsteps, this time to a much older man, one that belonged to

a man which looked no older than thirty.

He stretches out his hand as he stops the man from continuing

on his path and hands him the rosary.

OLD MAN
Please, hold on for a while.

The man brushes his hand away and sneers.

YOUNG MAN

I have got better things to accomplish, more money to make, what good is that of a mere rosary. He who believes a GOD exists is but a fool to himself. Give me material not sympathy, if not waste my time no more.

He tears the rosary for his hands and breaks it apart while

sniggering to himself as he hurries on his way.

Once again the OLD MAN bends down and closes his eyes.

5 EXT -- HALLWAY – DAY 4

Prisoner’s cries from each cell can be heard as he makes his

way out of his cell.

The hooded figure is being led through the hallway. He walked

upright at first, but with each step, his feet grow heavier.

He trips. Knees go weak.

The guards escorting him anticipated the prisoner’s legs to

give way as they near the gallows. They put their arms under

his armpits and dragged him the rest of the way.

The prisoner is now slumped. Unable to bear his own weight,

he rests the entire body on the guards.

Everything starts to disappear and sounds of the other

prisoners moaning slowly fades away...

6 EXT -- FIELD -- DAY 5

The slow glow of the sun starts to disappear behind the tree

under which he sits.

Lastly, a middle-aged man walks by and tosses a coin into his

cupped hands.

The old man takes out a picture from his pocket. Managing a

weak smile, he offers it to the man.

OLD MAN
Take this.

The man was too far away from him. The old man tries to reach

out, extends his arms.

OLD MAN
Please, this is important.

Man
?? What?

The man’s eyes keep shifting, he obviously isn’t interested.

He reaches out to grab the picture but it slowly slips from his grip and falls onto the ground.

7 EXT -- Gallows -- DAY 6

He pushes himself forward as the guards drag his body

alongside. The sinking feeling inside becomes lesser and

lesser. His limbs only wrapped with skin and bones made him

look fragile and lost amidst the dark surroundings.

He looks around. Trying to find a familiarity in anything he

sees. However, he finds nothing.

So much he wished for now, is all lost and wasted away.

As he climbs the steps to his final moments, he starts to weep.

Like never before, he felt a surge of utmost regret. His heart

piercing with so much pain. Pain in which he himself cannot

describe anymore.

He lets out his last breath as his last moments flash by him.
He passes on.

His hand releases a photo in which he held from the very start.
It falls to the ground, revealing the same man in which the OLD MAN last met. Himself.

FADE OUT==

Nadia's LAMP

2008-04-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

Progress So Far

2008-04-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

A brand new skin for my little lamp again. and here are some of the pictures taken:

Here is a short video when I connected it to the Arduino board & program:

Due to time constraints,
I tried to fix the lights to music using the technical way, however, it could not work:

Basically, I have the lamp, lighting and its outlook settled:
- Next, is connecting the sound input file to the lightings

Priority List Update:
5)Making a program that works on keyPressed to emit sounds [ ]
8)Touch Up & Presentation [ ]

new skins

2008-03-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Sound inputs

2008-03-26T09:58:00.001-07:00

What is the purpose of Sound inputs in my emotive lamp project?

Sound plays an important part in our everyday lives.
Without sound, it is like painting a picture without color.

Sound affects our reaction in every way,
for example, the sound of a car horn warning of any danger approaching.
When the loud sound waves travels through our ears, our heart pumps extremely fast and the blood flow increases, thus, we react. This is thus, portrayed in the lamp that i'm doing.

I've decided to create an interactive sound file which reacts according to the keys pressed on my keyboard. The different keys will be programmed to create different lighting outputs and vibrating effects on the lamp.

Some visuals to explain what the outcome will be like:

Blinking LED + Sound Input = Emotive Lamp

Here's an example:
http://www.tree-axis.com/Ess/_examples/spookyStreamSave/

PROBLEMS!

2008-03-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

I AM HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE ARDUINO PROGRAM!
sob..
Is there anyone who can help me?
The tutorials on the arduino website itself isn't clear enough.

As seen from the above is a screen shot from the webpage itself,
However, My program doesn't seem to recognize any USB input even though the wire is properly connected and the arduino board lights up.
Changed several wires but it still ain't working.

the final sketched lamp and its outcome.

2008-03-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

Finally decided on the lamp outlook
put to practice what i learnt in 3d foundation studies
joining the sides with superglue
the lamp done but unlit
final lamp
final lamp 2

inspirations and initial sketches

2008-03-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

blur image of other lamp mockup sketches
octostyle inspired drawing

My initial sketches in the ideas of lamps and changing some of my inspiration into the lamp:loops
inspiration from dna,springs,tentacles
blood vein into spiral lamp
artery structure into layers for the lamp

tree vines for the spira like feet

Day 10 - Up to Date

2008-03-18T12:46:00.001-07:00

The WEBSITE THAT DID ME GREAT SERVICE.

LEDs i bought *red and blue
Testing the difference between series and parallel
look of the Leds after being soldered together
testing out the lights(few got burnt in the process)
soldered the leds altogether via paralled and series circuit

IT IS WORKING!

Day 9- readings

2008-03-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Priority List:

1) More research on LED circuits and electronics [x]
2)Sketches on the Lamp finish[x]
3)Build Up the Lamp [x/x]
4)Research on sound files and music keynotes [ ]
5)Making a program that works on keyPressed to emit sounds [ ]
6)Researching on Arduino circuit board tutorials [ ]
7)Connecting the circuit to the Lamp and Computer [ ]
8)Touch Up & Present [ ]

Readings:
the seven lamps of architecture. by john ruskin

Day 8- Getting Started

2008-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

Products
1 x	Arduino Diecimila

What is it for?
used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be communicate with software running on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP.)

Managed to order an arduino from online today, will be getting it soon.
Tried to work on the processing language, but it still doesn't seem to be able to work.
Do not understand why the keyPressed function can't seem to work out, programming really isn't easy.

Tested out some LEDs and resistors today, managed to light it up accordingly, will upload the photos in the next post.

Day 7- Target Audience

2008-03-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

purpose: to make it simple to understand and workable with all ages.

Instructions: Test out my emotive lamp, play some music, it produces moods according to the LEDs that lights up.

Target Audience:
- To attract the older/younger generation to it and for it to work as a product in its objective(as stated in my proposal). Making it work as an easy interactive display of an emotional machine.

Day 6 - Some rough sketches

2008-03-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

Some rough sketches on ideas:

Initial idea: diff colors emited, to hack the device and re-program it.
Recreate a body for it to work better as a lamp.

Voice input in the microphone, LEDs light up according to the pitch/amplitude of voice.

-Diff layers involved: each layer representing its own color of emotion.
LEDs connected to a circuit via a breadboard.
Voice input in the microphone, LEDs light up according to the pitch/amplitude of voice.

Day 5 - references & research

2008-03-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

Book references: (product design for lamps)

-Brilliant Lights & Lighting by Jane Paritt

-1000 Lights by Taschen

Materials:
- Fabrics ( White Cotton, Natural Linen, Hessian)

-Paper ( Fibre, shuja)

-Metal ( Silver polished, Silver brushed)

-Glass ( Transparent Quartz Glass for Lamps)

-Parchments ( Cells, Ice White, Granite)

LEDs
-Multicolor LEDs:

Bicolor LEDs contain 2 dice of different colors connected back to back, and can produce any of 3 colors. Current flow in one direction produces one color, current in the other direction produces the other color, and bidirectional current produces both colors mixed together.

Tricolor LEDs contain 2 dice of different colors with a 3 wire connection, available in common anode or common cathode configurations. The most common form of both the bicolor and tricolor LEDs is red/green, producing orange when both colors are powered.

RGB LEDs contain red, green and blue emitters, generally using a 4 wire connection with one common (anode or cathode)

What I might be looking for is:

LED lamps (also called LED bars or Illuminators) are usually clusters of LEDs in a suitable housing.
Another Example is the typically known Christmas decoration lights.

Day 4 - Problems

2008-03-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

Initial skeches of the lamp, by using the laptop as the screen emitter.

However, I realised there are some disadvantages:

1. The lighting of the screen is not strong enough

2. If the screen is covered even by a semi-translucent material, it won't produce nice results.

3. I would have to cover the entire laptop including the keypad, thus the further it is away from the screen the harder to see the light intensity

4.If i do not cover the whole laptop, the lamp would not work as a lamp instead it would just be a program.

5. Covering the whole object woud make it look bulky and inconvinient.

Thus, I did more research and decided to create a lamp myself.

What I would look into is "disco lightings" , Led usage, and "lamp" product designs.

More sketches would be uploaded in next few posts.

Day 3- Workcheck

2008-03-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

WorkCheck Week09

-Title (Done )

-Intended Outcome(one sentence) (done )

-Target Audience(half done )

-Progress:

[proposal, (done )
research, (half done)
references, (half done )
sketches, journal ( )
Readings, ( )
Experiments(blog)] (process )

Day 2- R&D

2008-03-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

Research & Development:

Areas on which i will be touching on,

Product Design
-lamps
-covers(lids,covers,rough sketches)

Sculptures
-shapes(coincide shape with laptop screen)
-sizes (portable?) : things to note [restrictions, length, space]

Emotions
-human beings
-definitions(dict/creative view)
-nonliving things
-virtual pets with emotions(neopets, face book..)

Sound Detectors
-computer mic
-microphones

Micro-controllers

Processing
-sound testing: pitch & amplitude
(vol, rhythm, whistle, high or low voice)

Target Audience
-Age, gender, purpose and outcome

Lighting
-colors
-intensity
-light with sound(disco lights, deejaying, sensors)

Programme
-To try out a simple program that reacts to sound
i.e: color change according to the pitch / amplitude

Day 1- Project Proposal

2008-03-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Lasalle College Of The Arts (Faculty of Media Arts)

Project Proposal

Name: Tan Mui Lyn Nadia

Stud ID: 8989

Class: IA4A

Emotive Lamps

Lighting affects a person more than any other design detail in your home. The choice of lighting fixtures, light bulbs, and color of light makes a difference to one's emotional and physical comfort. Lighting is both an art and a science. Thus, I decided to create an emotional machine that produces emotions when in contact.

In this project, a lamp will be created. To switch it on, the user has to input his/her voice through a microphone. The machine will recognize and analyze the tone of the voice depending on the pitch/amplitude that is input into the system. The machine’s emotion will be its “unhappiness” by reacting to the tone of the voice input. For an example, a high amplitude sound may mean you are shouting at it, thus, it lights up a hot LED color in its process like the color Red.

It acts as a robot, but is programmed in a way that shows an unhappy emotion when being rude to.

Objective

The objective of my project is to allow people to recognise the emotions that can be triggered in machines in various ways. It is also to show how these emotions can be potrayed in lights as well as sound.