Changing the Mall Experience

Building on last semester’s studio project, I’m exploring creative and alternative uses for retail spaces. Specifically, I will bring attention to vacancies within malls by intelligently attracting people to stop and engage with a space they are normally diverted from. An underlying goal is to prove that foot traffic can be retained near vacant store fronts with the addition of interactive displays.











Mall Futures - Redacted

A redacted version of our research and design solutions for solving vacancies that have been appearing in malls over the past decade and a half. An essay concerning my experiences while working on this design team can be found here. You can open the publication to take a closer look.

Robotic Head Part 2

This is an update on a previous post, the robotic head part 1. I added eyes today and stabilized some of the jittery motions in the neck. This project was particularly inspired by Golan Levin's opto-isolator and double-taker. Watch the video for a demo.


Robotic Head Part 1

I've finally gotten around to combining opencv, processing, an arduino, servos, and a webcam. I've placed two servos perpendicular to each other, and then mounted a web cam on top of that. As of now I've got the entire system zeroing in on any face it sees and then maintains that face at the center of its field of view. I'll be adding a face very soon, with eyes that will follow a person and eye brows to make it more expressive. Watch the video for a demo.

Tutorial for how to build a robotic head using opencv, arduino, and processing.



Tutorial: Using the Emotiv headset with Processing and the Arduino

You guys might remember the Mind Controlled Crane I developed. I've also put together a brief tutorial with source code.

There are three parts to this project: the Emotiv software, the arduino software, and the processing software. The arduino code I used is found here on letsmakerobots. I used processing to then act as an interface between the arduino and the emotiv headset. My processing code can be found here. I believe there are still some bugs in my processing code, but you're more than welcome to use it. The EmoKey mapping that I used for the Emotiv Epoc can be downloaded here. Since I used the free Emotiv SDK, my EmoKey mapping is really busy with key commands being sent to processing, and my processing code is messy and lacks comments.

I will update this tutorial once I have more time to sit and write a detailed explanation. For the time being, feel free to download my code. I will also try to answer any questions as soon as I can.

Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman discussing positive psychology and arguing for human flourishing by way of changing education, government, and our personal lives.



A Light Based Instrument - Prototype 1

Quick and dirty prototype of a light sensitive instrument. At the heart of the circuit is the 555 Timer IC. I originally built it with a potentiometer, but moved to a photoresistor to allow for proximity sensing of the hand. Watch the video for a demo.







A New Arduino Project

I just received my arduino mini 04 in the mail. There was some difficulty uploading code since this Arduino Mini 04 has the ATMega328. Apparently, the list of boards in the Arduino IDE doesn't have the specification for this new Mini. Fortunately, I found the solution in the forums. One needs to modify the boards.txt file. I uploaded the servo sweep example, and I'm hoping to start a new wearable computing project. I'll post pictures and videos as I have time to work on it.