Research + Inspiration
Disability, mobility, and movement has always been an inspiration to my work and I feel the need to continue this thread into an EDP graduate level project. Inspiration comes from the want to do a future project with the adaptive athletes that compete in Life Rolls On events every year. My wish is to create a waterproof sensor system (in the form of a wetsuit) that can interface with the athletes and send data to a program via a wireless connection. In order to accomplish this project I need to gain a better understanding of working with sensors, sending code to a Processing/P5.js sketch, and then visualizing that data with code.
In order to gain some inspiration of what the visualizations will look like I jumped on OpenProcessing.org and first looked through the sketches that have received hearts Visualization and Particles sections. From those sections I found that I was drawn to the sketches that incorporated circles as the primary element.
Other visual interests that I have currently that I would like to explore in this project include sine waves and topographical maps. Much like the plotting projects we are doing in Digital Fabrication, the ability to visualize depth in a 2D environment fascinates me and I would love to incorporate that into my code for this project.
Some sketches that I like include the following: Sine Waves, The Circles, Circle Twister, ccFest Particles, Sine-light on a circle, and Sine Explorer.
Process
The process of creating the proposal for our first Grad Critique project was interesting. I talked to others in the class throughout the process to hear what they were doing for their project and how they were approaching the proposal. I received different answers from everybody which I chose to take as a good sign. It meant that everybody had their own way of doing things which I always like. I have had this type of idea in my head for a while so as soon as I knew we were given the time to make a more intensive project I jumped on the opportunity to pursue it. Like I mentioned above in the Research and Inspiration section I went onto OpenProcessing.org to see what people are doing with P5.js at the moment. There were hundreds of sketches to go through but soon I became drawn to the more organic visualizations, those including circles, curves, and waves.
After I got some visual inspiration I needed to get some physical inspiration so I went over to Sparkfun and looked through all the sensors to get an idea of what was possible. The options are endless so this is definitely an area where I will need to seek out advice from classmates and professors in the EDP program. This is both exciting and nerveracking. I then began to sketch this idea to get it onto paper and out of my head–the first step in making anything real in my opinion. My sketches are pretty basic and include some general drawings of the components I think I will need. I hope to develop my sketching skills and have more detailed and functional sketches in the future. Now on to the writing, which I can confirm helped to organize my thoughts and further the process of making it real.
Proposal
What
I intend to create four prints that will provide the ability for the viewer to compare and contrast the movement of different activities performed by individuals of different mobility levels. In addition to the analysis of the different movements there is the desire to just create something beautiful from data collected solely from different movements. The prints will be of pressure sensor data visualized through a Processing/P5.js sketch. The sensor data will be gathered from four sensors placed in pairs into a set of insoles that are small enough to fit in the shoes of multiple individuals. Different individuals will then wear the insoles which will either send/save data via a microcontroller which will be stored in variables and then utilized in a visualization algorithm.
Why
Movement has always fascinated me. I have been around individuals with varying levels of mobility most of my life and I have wanted to capture the various movements and visualize them some how. Not only to visually compare them but to allow them to drive an artistic project that represents that movement in abstract and beautiful ways. As I stated above I have a long term goal to incorporate this movement data into a project with the Life Rolls On Foundation and to allow visualization of their adaptive athletes while they are surfing and skating; this is the first step to making that dream a reality. Aside from the artistic elements of this project I am becoming more and more interested in Physical Computing and Wearables and want to take any opportunity that I have to further my skills in those two areas. I feel that combining the artistic and educational pursuits in this project will make for a special experience. An experience that I am extremely excited for!
Skills Needed
- Soldering (Skill to be improved upon)
- Wiring
- Processing/P5.js coding (Skill to be improved upon)
- Python coding (Skill to be learned if necessary in this project)
- Printmaking/Plotting (Skill to be learned)
- Project presentation (Skill to be improved upon)
Resources Needed
- Microcontroller – Arduino or Raspberry Pi 3 (To be determined by further research + conversation with instructor)
- Pressure Sensors (4)
- Wiring
- Insoles (2)
- Processing/P5.js sketch to receive and visualize inputs
- Printer or Plotter (To be determined by color complexity of visualizations)
- Frames to display final prints (4)
Deliverables
- 4 Framed Prints/Plots – Each individually created by combination of generative code and pressure sensor data
- Processing/P5.js sketch source code
- Insoles with pressure sensors, wiring, and microcontroller
Sketches
Goals + Schedule
Week 0: | Goals/Tasks: |
1.13.18 |
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1.14.18 |
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Week 1: | Goals/Tasks: |
1.15.18 |
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1.16.18 | Class all day |
1.17.18 |
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1.18.18 | Class all day |
1.19.18 | Grad Critique |
1.20.18 |
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1.21.18 |
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Week 2: | Goals/Tasks: |
1.22.18 |
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1.23.18 | Class all day |
1.24.18 |
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1.25.18 | Class all day |
1.26.18 | Grad Critique |
1.27.18 |
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1.28.18 |
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Week 3: | Goals/Tasks: |
1.29.18 |
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1.30.18 | Class all day |
1.31.18 |
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2.1.18 | Class all day |
2.2.18 | Grad Critique |
2.3.18 |
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2.4.18 |
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Week 4: | Goals/Tasks: |
2.5.18 |
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2.6.18 | Class all day |
2.7.18 |
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2.8.18 | Class all day |
2.9.18 |
Grad Critique – Project Due |
Reflection
The experience and process of creating my first Grad Critique proposal was rewarding. Since this is still only the proposal stage I feel that an evolution, if not multiple evolutions, will be inevitable. Due to that inevitability I wanted to propose something that would require me to learn skills in which I have a newfound interest. The desire to push my limits is why I’m in this program to begin with. I have always been able to interact with technology and sensors on a consumer level and I know have the desire to create these devices.
The opportunity to discover inspiration around this project has been enjoyable because it is an opportunity where I get to explore what others are doing in our field and at the same time let my imagination run to potentially build upon what others have done or create something entirely new. Either way, I’m excited to see how the finished product will materialize!
Proposal Update (1.13.18)
After the initial presentation of my proposal there are some small updates that need to be made to certain sections of the proposal. Since I want to keep the original proposal intact as part of my process I will be including the updates in this section.
What
The primary focus of this project will be to create a pair of sensor clusters to collect usable data from several individuals all performing the same activity to generate interesting and beautiful visualizations that allow the viewer to compare and contrast the movements between the individuals. As an addition to the pressure sensor data I will be incorporating data from a gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnemometer. At this moment the use for this additional data has yet to reveal itself but it could play a potentially significant role in the visualization. While I’m motivated to turn the visualizations into prints I’m letting that component of the project become less prominent.
Why
I know that the “why” is a part of my projects that I need to work on. While creating something beautfiul is great in and of itself I’m beginning to understand that the piece needs to have the ability to spark a conversation among those who view it. At the moment I’m not sure what that conversation will be but I would like it to center around the different ability of the individuals as it relates to the potential of movement.
A lot of the ideas surrounding the future iterations of this sensing project were very inspiring and I believe that the big why will evolve throug the ability to provide a visualization of memory for those adaptive athletes. At this point I think only time will tell what the why really is.
Additional Inspiration
Thanks to my classmates I’ve discovered additional inspirations that lie in a similar vein to what I’m trying to accomplish. The data gathering and visualization from both the Nike Fuelband and Dataviz projects are incredible and can serve as a proof of concept. I believe that the Nike Fuelband visualization presents an end product that is closer to what I have in mind but there will definitely be a uniqueness to my visualization.