Arduino: 3 (ART 350: Advanced Digital Media)

My goals for this week's critique were to choose the materials to be used for my interface and to develop a working prototype. I met both of my goals.

1. Materials

I have decided to use binder's board to build a kiosk-type interface for my project. It will basically look like an upside down box, except the top will be slanted to look more like a typical interactive device. The "box" will house the Arduino and be a way to hide much of the wiring.

I will cover the binder's board with decorative paper. I plan to make my own paper using bubble art. The way I plan to do this is by mixing paint, dish soap and water together in a dish. Then, using a straw, I will blow a large bubble to the top of the bowl. I will place the paper over the bubble in order to decorate the paper. I will then layer sheets of paper with this effect to cover the binder's board.

I think the idea of bubble art will match the concept nicely. Since life is never perfect and can hardly be planned, the unpredictability of the bubble art goes well with the text on my project.

I practiced this effect to make sure that my idea will work. Here's a few photos of the process and some of the sheets:

2. Working prototype

I had hoped to import my own sounds using the Waveshield. After putting together the Waveshield two weeks ago, and then testing it throughout the past two weeks — I have decided that this will not work for the time constraints of this project. I somehow compiled it wrong and because it is soldered, would need a new shield to correct the error.

Instead, I will use the tonal sounds through the regular Arduino board. I think I can still get the project to work with my concept using this. The sounds will still be powered by buttons. The sound played will be based upon what the user selects as their "word or phrase." And the sounds will still loop while the user is filling in the blanks. The sounds will stop about 5 seconds after the user is done.

I actually think the tonal sounds might work better than my original idea because they will sound better together when looped with multiple sounds of the same nature.

I decided not to keep the loop going for more than one person because I think it will get too jumbled and take away from the personal nature of being able to hear the sounds the individual user chooses.

Here is the video clip of all the sounds I made:


The last thing I need to do before building my interface is to get the sounds working with input. I looked up the code I want to use for it, but am waiting for my buttons to come in. They were supposed to be here Friday but had not arrived when I checked before the weekend.