Light Sensors, Breadboards, Potentiometers, LED's etc...

Useful Links:
http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/ - Some basic Arduino tutorials.
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/Tutorials - More tutorials.
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/Tutorials - Uh, yeah, more tutorials.
http://dma.ucla.edu/senselab/node/350 - How to get an LED turning on with a button.
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/LEDSensor - Use an LED as a sensor.

Went into town today and got Potentiometers, Breadboards, thermistors, Phototransistors, jump leads, LEDs

Stephen:
Found some tutorials in hooking up a light sensor but it seems we need a light-dependant resistor (LDR) instead of a phototransistor.
Here's a little schematic... http://www.libelium.com/squidbee/index.php?title=Adding_a_light_sensor
It states here that it'll read values from the analog input... 0-1023 - SUPER SENSITIVE!
A video demonstrating the sensitivity of an LDR. http://youtube.com/watch?v=pXtD9wx7mjc It's mad !!! :)

Arduino Arrived!

Received Arduino Boards

MaxMsp & Arduino

Downloaded and installed Max/MSP for Mac. Only 40MB. 30 day trial. Costs $59 for a 9-month student licence. download link

"Arduino Diecimilia" is the name of the board we are using. It's the latest version. Initally thought we'd buy from Sparkfun.com, but they are based in the US.
Maybe pcb-europe.net is a better place. Based in Italy. (Where Arduino is made) €22 each. Quicker Shipping?

More info at arduino.cc Tutorials, blog, exhibition, etc.

Electronic Inputs

Interesting Links:
http://www.pixelsumo.com/ - this is a site with loads of cool projects
http://www.pingmag.jp/ - another cool site, make of it what you will.

Further research into electronic inputs and sensors online i.e. equiptment - sensor boards etc. The group has decided to invest in 3 sensor boards to begin prototyping.

Brain Storming Session

Continued idea brainstorming and online research into exisiting installations/physical interfaces.

Some Ideas included:
Pyrspects screen with projection of life sized mirror image of user. LED lights/motion sensors allow user to trace their own image. Screen diveded into grids so that one area can be zoomed in on for more detailed tracing.
Outdoor installation with long-term progression. Subject will be affected by both outdoor elements i.e. temperature, light, percipitation tec, along with human interaction, detected through temperature, light and motion sensors and solar power etc. Subject will grow/progress depending on the level of interactive components, project will start with two identical prototypes in two different enviroments to show how the subject interacts and progresses depending on input elements.
Walled projection in dark room, with illusion of light created through LED/Motion sensors, to reveal some kind of world/images created to the medium of video/animation.

New Group Member

Group was joined by a third member - Síle Brehony.

Discussed common interests and abilities in relation to what direction we want to take the project. All three of us agreed that we would like to create a piece that has a physical presence outside of a monitor and keyboard.

Discussed further possibilities regarding the use of touch tone screens, voice/audio and light recognition. All group members will brainstorm and think about possible ideas for a concept, to be ready for Panel Presentation - Monday 15th Oct.

Physical Interfacing

Discussed the use of PIC microcontrollers, LED Lights, light sensors, sound sensors, Tilt sensors etc. and combining it all into a USB HID device.

Initial Resources - via hackedgadgets.com

How to build a USB device - click here
How to build a simple electric motor - click here
Autonomous Blimp (IR Sensor) - click here
How to build Microcontroller projects (a lecture) - here

First Meeting

First proper meeting regarding the game. Spent some time in the library looking at past project. Projects that applied to us were:

Brand New Page AKA BlowAway
Reminiscence
Shadow Realms
Hyperion

We spoke to Declan Tuite about our Project at we were encouraged to pursue developing a custom control interface alá BlowAway.
The Justification behind this was that large commercial corporations would not invest money into researching something like this