Invisible Technology - scottgarner/workshops GitHub Wiki

Invisible Technology

What is Invisible Technology

  • Craft and materials are central.
  • Technology recedes rather than intruding.
  • Creates magical experiences.

Some of My Work

The 20th Century Future

  • Buttons and screens everywhere.
  • Sterile environments.
  • Totally intrusive devices.

Late 20th Century Reality

  • Intrusive plastic rectangles and tech.
  • Traditional spaces remained largely unchanged.
  • Unimaginative engineers and consumers.

Early 21st Century Reality

  • Clumsy technological experiences.
  • Massive friction between user and hardware.
  • Still intrusive, often somewhat regressive.

How Humans Live and Communicate

  • We like warmth, tactility, real materials.
  • We use speech and gesture to express concepts.
  • These patterns have remained for centuries.

Anatomy of an Interaction

  • Input (Sensors and Conductors)
  • Processing (Brain)
  • Output (Indicators and Actuators)

Overview of Simple Sensors

  • Think of human senses, but multiplied.
  • Huge array of sensors for specific tasks.
  • Often inexpensive and relatively easy to use.

Indicators and Actuators

  • Lights, sounds, etc. to indicate.
  • Motors, solenoids etc. to move.
  • Actuators are often more complicated.

Brains of the Operation

  • Microcontrollers and tiny computers.
  • Web services and communication.
  • Piecing together existing elements can work wonders.

Electromagnetic Spectrum (Invisible Communication)

  • Everything is electromagnetic.
  • (Except sound...)
  • WiFi and light are the same "thing".

Media and Tools

  • Leverage all aspects of traditional craft and art making.
  • Conductive fabrics, threads and other soft materials.
  • Conductive inks, copper tape, metals and other hard materials.

Tech Craft Resources

Hardware/Material Resources

Service Resources

Invisible Technology (Session Two)

Problems and Solutions

  • Identifying problems vs. solving problems.
  • The purpose of art vs. what is art.
  • Creating things: Useful, interesting or beautiful.
  • Tolstoy, Wilde, Vonnegut art definitions.

Simple Sensing

  • Sight with a photoresistor.
  • Touch with capacitive/resistive sensing.
  • Hearing with piezos/vibration sensors.

The Circuits and Code

  • Analog vs. digital.
  • Serial communication.
  • LED output (digital or PWM).
  • Multimeter.

Using the Data

  • Processing via serial.
  • Unity via serial.
  • Other options (keyboard input, wifi, bluetooth).

Arts and Crafts

  • Copper tape, foil, conductive thread, conductive ink, graphite, wire as conductors.
  • Paper, wood veneer, vinyl, fabric as substrates.

Arduino Examples

// Touch sensing example.
// Requires capacitivesensor library.
// https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/CapacitiveSensor?from=Main.CapSense

#include <CapacitiveSensor.h>

int LED_PIN = 13;

CapacitiveSensor cs = CapacitiveSensor(4, 2);

void setup()
{
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);

  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
  long csLevel =  cs.capacitiveSensor(30);

  if (csLevel > 1000) {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  } else {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  }

  Serial.println(csLevel);


  delay(10);
}

// Vibration sensing example.

const int PIEZO_PIN = A0;
const int LED_PIN =  13;

void setup() 
{
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);

  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() 
{

  int piezoLevel = analogRead(PIEZO_PIN);

  if (piezoLevel > 12) {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  } else {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  }
  
  Serial.println(piezoLevel);

}

// Photoresistor example.
// https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-use-a-photoresistor-or-photocell-Arduino-Tu/


int PHOTO_PIN = A0;
int LED_PIN = 10;

void setup() {
  pinMode(PHOTO_PIN, INPUT);
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
  
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {

  int photoLevel = analogRead(PHOTO_PIN);

  if (photoLevel < 200) {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  } else {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); 
  }
  
  Serial.println(photoLevel);

  byte data = photoLevel/4;
  Serial.write(data);

  delay(1000.0/30.0);
}