Project Design [First Phase]

Navigational Flow:

The poster:

Technical Issues.

Hello world.

Yesterday did a collaborative experiment with Anwar on the Pachube input and ouput. Using my com to input data (light level) and his com (Mac) to output (LED brightness). It was thrilling to see the LED blink according to the lightness of my room. We had fun, i guess. Thanks Cheese!

Some problems identified from the experiment(for now):

1. Connection.

2. IP address issue and port forwarding.

3. API key rate-limit.

4. How i am going to show the data (visually).

I think i should start thinking about number 4 now as to confirm the visual/art piece feedback.

Content Development #3 [Pachube to Arduino]

As promised, did another tutorial on how to use Pachube output to control Arduino. In this case, the brightness of the LED (in pin 9) will be determined by the realtime electricity demand/frequency in the UK. Every 5sec the data will be streaming in to the arduino. Before that here is the simple set up:

Make a simple circuit of LED(pin9) with transistor.

Open up your Processing and paste the code in.

Then the brightness of the LED can be control by the mouse-x value

in the grey window. (arrow there)

As i drag the mouse around, different value are detected and

the LED will blink accordingly. Higher, lower value. Lower, higher value.

After testing out and everything working fine, time to use Pachube output to control the LED:

The feed of UK realtime electricity supply.

I use the value of demand,MW. [ID 0]

As you can see from the Processing, it track the value right now

is 165. So the LED brightness is now the value of 165 too.

Now i change the output to frequency of the electricity:

Frequency is much lower than the demand,

which is 40+.

So the LED light dim accordingly.

This is how real time data affect the physical space.

:)

*Probably need 2 Arduino board for my installation. One to input, another to output.

Content Development #3 [Arduino to Pachube]

Hello! I tried out the tutorial from Pachube on how to connect your Arduino to Pachube and using Arduino to create Pachube input. It took me 4 hours to trial and error and finally get to stream my data in the internet! I play with Processing, Arduino, Pachube and EEML.

First i set up Arduino with a simple circuit, light sensor that can detect light value of the environment.

Lightness detecting device!

I got the Arduino analogue sensor working but can't

get the Processing to retrieve the value from the sensor.

From the tutorial, it states that first upload the StandardFirmata to Arduino. I tried and tried and is not working anyhow. So i read back the book that Cheese gave, and found a similar coding which is the SimpleAnalogFirmata. And it works! This is the trick!

Finally after a looong struggling, finally got Processing

to trace the value! Right is Arduino/Left is Processing.

Check if the localhost can detect the data:

The light value of my room.

EEML. Extensive Environment Markup Language.

After everything finally working, time to feed it to Pachube! They need the ip address of our computer connection to feed the data. Well i am using wireless so i try to get a host but is not working. Instead i put the url of my IP address plus the port forwarding.

Data feeding in! This is my feed.

The bottom part with the graph shows

the quantitative value/data.

The lightness of my room. haha

The data collection is not instance i think or my connection is very slow.

Next, is a more exciting project. Using a Pachube output to control Arduino. Yesssh virtual/internet controlling the physical object/Arduino.

Do visit my "Light Up in My Room" to check out the if my room is dark or bright. Okay this is lame.

Goodnight fun world. Back to SRI.

Content Development #2 [I am in!]

Wootz! I am so excited! I just got the Pachube invitation code, my API key and full access to the site. I checked out the tutorial and I saw lots of coding going on in it..Apparently, i still need to study on Processing and PHP....

Currently i am downloading Processing, because Processing is needed to control my Arduino to process all the data formatting and serving to Pachube. Well if i have Arduino with Ethernet shield then my Arduino will be able to connect to the internet. So for now, Processing will do the trick.

Here is the sketch of how the flow of the installation:

My installation.

If this is possible.

I think i got the overall idea now, just need some eq and stuff to explore more.

&

62.9mb file(Processing) need around 2 hours to complete, but is almost 4am now. So I will continue on tomorrow (at least one of the tutorial) after the class and my google thingy.

Oh and sri report. :) Writing is entertaining...for now.

Content Development #1

What my content should be?

Line for my installation:

Wormhole connects two different space, heartbeats generate the communicate pattern.

From bit to heartbeat. Every bit you send, light up someone's heart. A sense of presence.

* Did experimented with the Arduino but lacking some equipment(IR emitter etc) to proceed with the heart beat sensor testing.

As for the art piece:

I wanted to make the artpiece similar to this:

Arduino + PHP + Led RGB from Bruno Soares on Vimeo.

This which require php knowledge which i not familiar with at all. Then after searching in google looking for more references, i stumble upon Pachube. Pachube is a web service that allows us to store, share and discover realtime sensor, energy or real-time data from objects, devices or buildings. (Refer from Pachube) I think is a very cool platform to experiment more on how the exterior environment affects the data. & they have very good tutorials too.

Connect with datastream~

Image via Pachube.com

Since Pachube is still in beta-test, invitation code is needed to sign up. I am still waiting for my invitation code from the admin. Cross finger!

Idea Development #3 [The Installation]

Which platform is the best?

After getting my idea around, is time to decide how would i want to implement it, in what kind of platform? From the sketches above, i have 4 options. I wrote down what i thought about the 4 options in the sketch. Personally i think the 4th will be the most interesting because i can explore on how virtual digital space affects the physical art piece. (technical technical)

Overall idea for the implementation part is there, but i remember the lecturer said that do not so fast decide the final outlook will be like. So this will be develop from time to time.

My favourite willl be the 4th idea, for now.

Precedence Study for the technology

Ways to collect the data i wanted:-

HeartBeat Sensor

HeartBeat Midi Controller

HeartBeat IR sensor

Research

Heartbeats + Emotion

How

Controlling Arduino via USB using PHP

Idea Development #2 [Mind Maps]

Wormhole's Mind Map.

Heartbeats' Mindmap.

I link back the ideas with each other in the WHY part of the mind map. Click on the images for a bigger view!

Idea Development #1 [This is it!]

When everything fails, just keep moving forward. Inspired by my fren's facebook status "..follow your intuition.". Sometimes idea just pop out from the littlest thing. Finally now i can move on with my idea!!

After last week consultation, lecturer got me questioning myself: what kind of data i wanted to collect for my project? How is it going to show my idea? That time i wasn't sure yet...cause i thought mine was like the total rip off from this awesome artist and was too general in a way.

Lately i have some muscle tickling problem on my palm, and it sync with my heartbeats. I think is quite disturbing for me cause it lasted for quite a long time. So i googled around and i found this very cool project by Makezin in youtube:

Infrared Heartbeats Sensor! It able to detect the bloodflow in our fingers which shows the heart pumping the blood and so, the beats of the heart are able to be retrieved into data form.

And back to the question, why would i want to collect heartbeats? Because all human beings they have feeling and emotion. Our heartbeats reflect back to the different type of feelings that we are feeling. It betray us sometimes, but our heart never tells a lie.

Like i say in my essay, human are like computer now, we just accept and deliver information. Data transfer in bytes, megabytes, bit by bit, just like our heartbeats. We all connecting with each other with our heartbeats.

Pulse rate of our heart can be determine by simple time calculation. For my installation, here is the overall idea:

My post-it ideas.

Wormhole connect two different world like veins connect to heart. The greater the hearbeats bring us closer to the future. When our heart stop, we literally stop. Staying alive and pumping fast takes us further.

i. Collect positive feeling heartbeats to move forward, negative heartbeats slow down the process.

ii. Different movement/methodology to visualize the data.

iii. Crowdsourcing.

* Like what Dr.Khoo said, it might not be a global thing,for this installation people in the exhibition will be the contributor of the data. i think.

*Not changing my proposal, just add-on of what data i wanted to collect. :)

* Yes, the post-it notes are too small and blur, need a scanner!

Project Planning.

After much indulging in my own sweet time, here are some updates on my project! Here are the Ghant Chart for my final 2 sem, FYP1 and FYP2. Wiseman said:" Plan ahead" haha.

I will try my best to follow the timeline i set for my project. *cross fingers*

Some sneak preview:

The only thing i love about Ghant Chart

is the colourful timeline.

For assessment purpose, here are the files to download my Ghant Chart:

Madmazelle's Ghant Chart Workshop Version. ( Best View in this version)

or if you are still using the old 97-2000 worksheet, grab this one instead:

Madmazelle's not so old Ghant Chart Worksheet Version. ( The format might be a little bit off)

If the file can't be download, please do contact me and i will send thru email instead :) My email is momento.madmazelle.mori@gmail.com thank you!

Cheers.

*Files updated !

Precedence Studies

Concept/Design Approach:

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

Hey, they even have a book now! http://wefeelfine.org/book/

Jonathan Harris' work inspired me and open up my mind to the beauty of collective data. The visual representation of the data are simply beautiful and smooth. I really like the concept and the style of WeFeelFine:

From the application, they introduce a few methodology to view the data. For example, murmurs, madness, montage, metric etc. Each different category shows different approach of conveying the data.

Another project by Jonathan Harris that caught my eyes is I Want You To Want Me:

http://iwantyoutowantme.org/

This time they used touch screen which allows the user to navigate the information. Same as the previous project, he used different methodologies to show different data and representations. I think both are amazing and effectively translate the story and details with impressive visual.

Other than that, his another work, The Whale Hunt. I like the way he tell the story by using the technology. He recorded his heart beats and take every photos for 5mins. If he gets excited and the heart beats faster, it will take more pictures. All the photos are compile with the data and visualize in a very stunning interface. Is like a non-linear movie telling story. As usual, he provided few modes for user to choose to view the information. Creatively awesome.

The Whale Hunt.

Technical:

This is the project that trigger me to use my Arduino to create a physical interface that affects by the virtual world (web). The creator said that:" .. every time somebody visits my website, a LED light blinks once in my room, and i get a warm feeling of a visitor :)" I would like to create a physical environment/ art piece that affects by the web-based information.

http://hacknmod.com/hack/website-visitor-blinker/

Other than that, some of the similar methods are use for different approach and i think is interesting to research on too:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/tweetawatt_our_entry_for_the_core77.html

http://subzonepen.blogspot.com/2009/01/arduino-webcam-servo-project.html

This is the approach that i trying to achieve, visually but i would like to use colors to represent different time, space:

This is how the virtual world affects the physical environment:

or another different approach of the physical feedback:

Selected Proposal.

Topic

Wormhole and Heartbeats

Background

Scientist have been looking for wormholes, a theoretical tunnel that connecting two different paradigm of points in spaceworld. The 'ingredients' to create the wormhole sounds impossible from our current technology but maybe wormhole already exist, in our very own - cyberspace.

"Cyberspace is the realm of no space: it is a type of wormholes which instantaneously connects realms otherwise geographically distant" (quote from a guy which i forgot the address of the website).

I use the Internet metaphoric as a wormhole, a hypothetical tunnel bridges the web worlds and the real world connecting human a hearbeat away from each other.

Instead of connecting the individual in terms of their geographical locations, my installation will connect the user in the context of their heartbeats.

Just like the internet, a platform like wormhole connecting two different world, bending the time and space of human in cyberworld, a world that full with the richness of information, culturally grounded, dynamically experienced and constructed with data, what makes it workable is because of the journey, the route of millions data that transfer around the Internet, from bits to bytes. Just like the veins in human heart.

Is the space between the human feelings that i want to explore in, the invisible space between two different people that most of us been ignoring.

Wormhole = Internet, Data = Heartbeats

Problem Identification

In this technology driven era, we take advantage of the technology and neglect the basic human to human communication ways. People nowadays are indifference or lack of emotion and feeling towards each other, this phenomenon can be associate with computer. Why? We are like a computer now, we just accept and deliver information, avoid error and hassle. Always looking for the best connectivity with the internet and not the connection between human.

Project Title

Wormhole Communication: Bits to Heartbeats

Ideation & Concept

For my project, i want to create an installation that allows user to input their heatbeats rate and form as an art piece.

Aim & Objectives

- To connect human-human feelings with each other with technology.

- To provoke the emotion of space and time between people.

- To experimental with Benjamin Walter's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction theories.

Motivation

I always love to explore on the Internet and human emotion kind of thing. So by doing this installation i think it will strengthen my understanding towards the topic. Besides that, experimenting with the technical part is quite challenging and interesting too. I hope to learn a lot and growth as a digital artist. And the best part is just to have fun in my FYP by doing something i love to do.

I hope to tell my version of the story to the world. :D

"I believe in technology, but I think we need to make it more human. I believe that the internet is becoming a planetary meta-organism, but that it is up to us to guide its evolution, and to shape it into a space we actually want to inhabit—one that can understand and honour both the individual human and the human collective, just like real life does." By Jonathan Harris