Nien's ITP Blog

Elemental Stick

Nien — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:06:31 +0000

Using your breath, you will remotely control the 3 elemental forces of nature, wind, fire and water, through a 6 foot bamboo cane.

The idea is based on the Chilean rainsticks that recreate the sound of rain when they are flipped over. The Elemental Stick allows for control of the sounds of wind, fire and water by the use of your breath. Mother Nature or God would perhaps use this type of interface to control the elemental forces. As you blow into the remote (shorter bamboo cane) the sounds of wind, fire, or water coming from the long bamboo cane will grow louder and the lights will become brighter. Twisting the remote, ie. altering the tilt, will change the control between the 3 different elemental forces.

Alien Target

Nien — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:20:24 +0000

An After Effects movie starring JCVD.

After Effects Snowman

Nien — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:18:46 +0000

An small movie done in After Effects to help get into the holiday season. I found the snowman illustration online.

Final Project Idea (Update) – Elemental Stick

Nien — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:09:48 +0000

After getting feedback from class, I’ve changed my idea a bit. So instead of a device that tells you the weather, I created a device where you can control the elemental forces of nature acting like God or Mother Nature. Using your breath, you will remotely control wind, fire and water. The project is made of a 6 foot bamboo cane that houses the electronics(w/ Xbee), a speaker and fiber optic cables. The remote is a shorter bamboo cane you blow into. It houses a Xbee, a thermistor and an accelerometer. As you blow into the remote, the sounds from the long bamboo cane will become louder and the fiber optics will become brighter. Twisting the remote will allow you to change between the 3 different elemental forces.

Testing Electronics

Testing Elemental Stick

Elemental Stick and Remote Demo

Infographic – My DVD Collection

Nien — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:17:19 +0000

The infographic assignment for class was a good excuse to catalog the DVDs I’ve collected over the years. I created a bubble chart and a wordle based off of the different genres and film titles.

Film Genres

Film Titles

Final Project Idea – The Weather Stick

Nien — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:37:43 +0000

For my project I’m creating a device that tells you the weather forecast. Using sound, and possibly visuals, I plan to create a wireless device which will get the latest weather report. Based on the report, it will translate this into sounds. For example, if it is sunny out it will play sounds of the beach, or if it is cold it would play the sounds of wind blowing. My idea and interface is based on the rainsticks that come from Chile or Peru. These sticks are normally made from cactus filled with pebbles. When flipped over, the pebbles bouncing to the bottom generate what sounds like rain. Instead of cactus I will be using bamboo, which is easier to find and work with then cactus, and embed it with speakers to create sounds of different types of weather. An accelerometer inside the stick will detect the motion and play the tracks when the stick is flipped over. I may also add a visual element using fiber optic cables that change colors/brightness in correspondence with the weather/temperature. The general goal of my project is to create something that tells you the weather in a more interesting and visceral way.

The Neighbors

Nien — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:50:13 +0000

A short movie made by Soo Yun Yun, Alexandra Kuechenberg, Lucas Werthein, Adib Dada and myself.

Media Controller – Double Agent

Nien — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:30:23 +0000

For our media controller, Patrick Hebron, Don Miller and I built a video game using Processing and the Arduino micro-controller. The game allows up to six players. Players work together to control a tank’s x-movement, y-movement, turret rotation, firing rate and force-field. We designed the game to work as a platform. Any media controller that sends out 2 digital bits (00, 01, 10) can plug in and control one of the tanks attributes. The game is called Double Agent cause when a tank is struck by a projectile, one of the players from the side which got hit will swap to the other side giving that side an increased advantage. When a side has no players, the game is over.

The controller hub and controllers.

Download the Processing/Arduino Code

Color Theory

Nien — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:04:07 +0000

Surround a color with a less saturated color and it will appear more saturated.
Surround a color with a more saturated color and it will appear less saturated.

Color Settings (Hue, Saturation, Brightness):
Center Squares – 180, 67, 60
Left Outer Square – 0, 0, 60
Right Outer Square – 0, 100, 60

By altering the saturation and brightness while keeping the hue the same, it is possible to make the horizontal block look transparent. Keep in mind that there are actually 3 horizontal blocks adjacent to each other, each with a different setting for saturation and brightness.

Storyboard for “The Neighbors” aka “Scary Nuclear Website”

Nien — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:50:36 +0000

Alex Kuechenberg, Sooyun Yun, Lucas Werthein and I are developing a 3-5 minute movie for our class. The title, which we didn’t pick, is Scary Nuclear Website.

Click on storyboard for larger image