The purpose of our project is to capture the essence of lava in the form of a light fixture. To do this, we created a hexagonal fixture with moving parts that are triggered to show the juxtaposition between the solid rocks that lava creates and the free-flowing movement of hot lava. We accomplished this by making eight moving arms for our light fixture that create a hexagon shape when turned off but move freely and randomly when turned on. 

Natural phenomena can be beautiful. Yet, many people don't have the chance to experience rare occurrences in real life. By making a light fixture that mimics some of the aspects of lava, we're attempting to make a fairly inaccessible phenomenon more accessible. By using the colors of lava and mimicking the slow flowing movement, we hope to artistically represent some of the most beautiful aspects of lava. When the light fixture is off, it rests in a hexagonal shape, representing the harsh solid shapes of cooled lava. But when the fixture is turned on, it lights up in orange begins slowly moving the arms randomly. The arms move in different directions: up/down and side to side, creating uncertainty in the movement they will produce.

Our project began with the idea of creating a geometric base with colored tubes running through it to represent the interesting curved patterns that lava flow creates. However, we eventually decided that the tubes would clutter the project and that we could actually represent the flow of lava with the original base we had designed. After making this decision, we focused on the mechanical movements of the base "arms" and how this movement could mimic the slow flow of lava.

The problems we ran into throughout this project revolved around the mechanical movement we wanted to achieve. While working on the mechanisms we ran into problems with creating the shape we wanted to achieve with the correct angles. Since the basic code we wrote made the servos spin freely, we had some trouble figuring out how to design the mechanism to stop at the correct angle when the light fixture was turned off. This is still an issue we're working through that probably can be fixed in the code. 

Another issue we ran into was diffusing the light in a simple way that could mimic lava. We initially thought it would be interesting to use acrylic, but ended up running some tests with wax paper and normal printer paper as well. We eventually decided that printer paper was the easiest to use while still giving us the light effect we were looking for. This decision was primarily based on our time constraints. However, we still think that using acrylic in some way could make the light fixture look more professional. 

Throughout the whole project, we went through a couple design iterations, two of which are shown in the slideshow above. The first iteration shown was our second prototype after we decided we wanted to focus on the base shape rather than include winding tubes. After finalizing this prototype, we could feedback from the coaches that we needed to simulate the movement we were envisioning in the final project. So, we then took apart the prototype and began the next iteration where all the arm pieces could be moved. The movement aspects were done using screws and bending cardboard, creating a rudimentary simulation of what our mechanisms would do. After completing this iteration, we mostly focused on the individual arm mechanisms, prototyping those over and over again. In the end, we spent most of our time working on the movement aspect of our project and not changing the original design shown in the second iteration. 

Our intention with this project was to abstract the experience of seeing Bio luminescent algae .  Our Bio Lanterns are a  interactive  light fixture that encapsulates the feeling of seeing and interacting with bio luminescent algae. When given that task of abstracting the Bio-luminescent algae we  looked at why and how these creatures light up. Upon investigation we learned that when these plankton are introduced to the oxygen then would light up,. This gave us the idea of using touch as a component in our project.  By touching the lanterns  you are disturbing them and introducing them to oxygen thus lighting them up . The Mechanical aspect of the project was to have a series of flex sensors that upon the lanterns being moved they would  send a signal to LEDs placed among the lanterns to light up, creating that blue light you would see with the algae.  When developing this project we started with just an array  of felt to led enclosed in fabric. to a series of interconnected tubes that contained LEDs. One of the main challenges we faced was  the flex sensors. there was not great way of housing these LEDS to they would remain flexible enough to still register the lanterns movements.  This made testing of the lanterns very difficult.
     in our first iteration we ended up with just LEDS placed in the fabric and that would be the  container for the lights. This was a simple choice but not one that we wanted to continue with. It didn't hold the LEDs away from the fabric at a consistent rate so  the dampening of the light would be uniform. Secondly the joint we designed for this section was a series of spine like 3D printed objects that would hold the lanterns and the flex sensor. This would lead to inconsistent movement among the lanterns as the strength of the spines was different.
    One of the later iterations ,made use of laser cut disk to hold the fabric away from the LED creating a much more consistent light coming from the  lanterns secondly we continued to use the spines for our connection piece, Hindsight being 20/20 we can now say that the flex sensor and the spines were not the best way of going about our intention.
 

Fabulous Job Everyone!! You will be giving a 3 minute presentation first thing on Monday. You need to create a new post called the Project Summary.

You will be creating your presentation on the NuVu Platform.

Things to do/think about:

• Your presentation should be located in the Portfolio tab of your project.
• There should be (1) post titled Process with all of the slides.
• If needed, you can have (1) post of a video of your project in action.
• All slides should have a title. You can add titles when editing the post
• With the exception of the Title slide NO TEXT SHOULD APPEAR ON YOUR SLIDES.
• Only (1) image per slide. NO GOOGLE DOCS!!!
• Be sure to add your team members as collaborators and make the (2) posts Public.
• Only one team member can edit a post at a time!
• Presentations should be no longer than 3 minutes. PRACTICE!

1st Post : Process

Absolutely no more than 8 Slides!

1 Intention Slide. For build projects, describe the Problem and Solution. For conceptual projects this can be expressed as Intention/Solution. The slide should include the name of the project and a one sentence statement of both the problem and the solution.

1 Brainstorming Slide. This should be a clean sketch of your initial ideas. If you do not have a nice drawing or lost yours, create one now!

2 Iteration Slides. These slides should show early prototypes of your design. Focus on big changes. You do not need to show tiny Changes.

3 Final Slides. These should show clean images of your final project.

Text:

In the text section for the process post, write a paragraph introducing the design problem or the main idea and how you are tackling it. Then, describe the main story or theme, mechanics, development, challenges, and other parts of the creative process you experienced. Each iteration should have a paragraph describing how you how you modified the project after receiving feedback.

1. Design Problem and Solution:

You should begin with a clear statement of the problem and the solution as both a one sentence description and a short paragraph expanding on the solution.

Here is an example from the Reaction Shelter project:

• The Problem: Over 300 natural disasters occur globally every year, displacing 32.5 million people on average.Domestically, 99 federal disaster declarations were on file with FEMA in 2011.
• The Solution: The Reaction Housing System is a rapid response, short-term housing solution.
• Detailed Solution: The core sustem components flat pack to provide extremeley efficient storage and transportation. The systems can be deployed within hours of an event without the need for tools or heavy machinery.

2. Further Ellaboration:

• Main Story or Theme: describe in further detail the reason for your project and the overall way you are solving that problem
• Mechanics: Describe how your project works and what it is doing
• Development: Briefly explain the progression of your project
• Challenges: Describe technical and design challenges you faced or are still facing. 

3. Iterations

Each iteration should have a paragraph describing how you how you modified the project after receiving feedback.

Here is an example from the Backcountry IV Project:

• In our second iteration, we redesigned the cylinder so that it actually had two compartments that would screw together. Though there were two compartments, there would be a small piece in between the two that would screw them together, so that they remained the same diameter and size. We designed the piece to fit exactly between the two compartments so that it wouldn’t be visible when the entire piece was together. The part had triangular shaped spaces cutting through it where the IV tube and wires for the technology side of our studio fit. In the upper cylinder, the holes remained for the UV lights, but there was more space underneath for the Arduino. In the bottom compartment, we created a hole in the middle designed to fit the IV reservoir and tubing, and small spaces directly next to the reservoir where the resistors to warm the reservoir sat. This spacing for the pieces worked well, except that the entire reservoir piece took up too much room, so much that all of the compartments didn’t screw together. Underneath the inner part designed to hold the reservoir and resistors, there was room underneath to hold the arm cuff and the excess tubing. We also designed two caps to close together the whole piece. Except for the fact that it was a bit sharp and there some minor fitting issues, the caps worked well and made the entire piece compact and portable. For the next iteration, which was the final one, we made a few critical changes.

2nd Post: Video

Upoload a short video showing your project in action. Do not count on your project working as you expect during the presentation.

The Problem:

It is challenging for doctors to collect accurate self reported information from children about their level of pain due to lack of communication skills, fear, anxiety, and discomfort. Traditional 1-10 pain scales do not fully address these issues, often leading to uncomfortable children and inaccurate symptom information.

The Solution:

Penelope the Pain-O-Monster is a plush toy that uses integrated pressure sensors to allow children to express their source and level of pain through play. An additional “Fun” mode provides distraction from pain and anxiety.

Detailed Solution:

The stuffed animal has force sensors in different body parts that light up from blue to red depending on how hard they are pushed to show the child’s pain level. There is also a game mode with an interactive lights game to take the child’s mind off their situation. 

Further Elaboration:

Main Story or Theme: Our project is a spin off of our Emotion Owl project which was for kids with autism to express themselves. We thought about making a different stuffed animal to help kids in hospitals, we realized that the pain charts that patients used to express their pain could be made more interactive and easier for a child to use. We read that playing with stuffed animals can take the children’s mind off the pain so we decided to incorporate a game mode.

Mechanics:

We have a switch that turns the stuffed animal off, puts it on the pain-o-meter mode or the game mode. It is connected to an exterior power to be able to power six LED light strips and six force sensors. Everything is connected to an arduino which is basically a small computer we programmed. The lights and force sensors are matched up to different body parts. The child would press where it hurts with as much pressure as it hurts and the light in that body part will turn on. The color goes from blue, not that much pain to red, the most pain. The game mode has a random strip light up and the child has to press the corresponding force sensor in that body part as fast as they can before they restart.

Development:

We started out by having many ideas about what we would put in the different modes, like a heartbeat and rainbow colors. We also thought about sound and smell but those were all very ambitious. We liked the game where different colors light up in a pattern and you have to press the force sensors in the same pattern, each round the pattern got more complicated. This was hard to generate randomly because there was no simple way to repeat the past exact two colors again in the same place and then add another random color. We decided it was still fun to have  limited amount of time to press the force sensor corresponding to the light that lit up, there was no pattern in this game but there is a random aspect because the lights lite up in a random order after you press the right force sensor. In the pain-o-meter mode we knew that we were going to have the color go from blue to red depending on the amount of pain. We decided to make a stuffed animal that looked like an alien with a heart pocket. We had two iterations of our ‘alien’ we ended up choosing one that looked more like a monster.

Challenges:

We faced a various programming challenges. First we had to find a way to connect the arduino board to an external power source, we used a portable charger and cut an USB cable to connect the wires to. It took us a while to set up the three position switch and have all the power connected to the board so that the LED lights were controlled by the switch and not the portable charger directly. We also had trouble connecting the two modes and getting them to work correctly. Robin helped us a lot with the coding and helped us use arrays to keep track of all the different light strips and corresponding force sensors. We couldn’t quite get the game as sophisticated as we first envisioned but we made a game that is still usable and fun. We also had so many delays in the program that is messed up the two independent timers for the heartbeat. We decided to not use a heart beat.

This design is comprised of a base to hold all of the LEDs, a reflective cone to project the light and a distance sensor. The idea is to have something that projects light upwards and when you put your hand through the light it will change color and it will make a sound all depending on how close your hand is. It projects light upwards by have a one made of mirrored acrylic and felt surrounding the circular base. With this project we are trying to make space more tangible. When you walk through space normally nothing happens. We want to be able to actively affect the space around us. We hope this project will make people be more conciencious about the space around you. We want to make space something you can influence and change.

We created an experience of floating dodecahedrons. We were inspired by Tai Chi with its slow motions and movements allowing the body and mind to be in sync with each other. We wanted to simulate this experience but for an everyday person who does not practice Tai Chi. We did this by creating dodecahedrons that have lights inside. A light turns on and the user has to slowly move their hand towards that dodecahedron to turn the light off. The light slowly fades as the person gets closer to the dodecahedron.

We made the dodecahedrons out of laser cut balsa wood and all the light and sensor work function with an Arduino. The dodecahedrons have a wooden frame on the inside and the panels are woven together with white thread.

In our studio, Products for Wellbeing, we looked at different ways to ease or alleviate stress, and improve wellbeing. We focused on stress because it is extremely prevelent in today's society, especially in young adults. Our group decided to create a Shower of Lights, or a light cocoon to help mitigate stress. The shower of lights extracts the stressed out user from the outside world by inserting them into a light cocoon that can be used in various places such as offices, classrooms, bedrooms and other stressful areas. For one to achieve perfect bliss, we created a stress free way of turning on the light cocoon by connecting two magnets from the bottom of the white bed sheet together.

The lights in our cocoon provide an color changing scheme that is calm, mollifying, relieving, and in no way ardent. Our product is important because there a few other products that address stress reduction in a manner that is portable and attractive to young adults. No other product encompasses the ease of turning the product on, the same intricate array of therapeutic lights, or the alluring net that makes the lighting opaque, keeping the user within the cocoon.