Overview of the Paper

After having the final presentation today, which I think went quite well, the paper has officially come to an end.

Overall, my preferred assessment was the app one, mainly because I am majoring in Visual Communication Design, and designing an app interface really appealed to me. In terms of the second project, I didn't really enjoy it quite as much, although nonetheless it was a good experience figuring out some basics to electronics and breadboarding, along with seeing just what we are capable of. It was quite interesting to think about the potential for future concepts, and what we could experience in a few years time. In terms of our project, the active alarm, I think it was quite successful. Our idea was quite a creative, quirky, and experimental one which allowed us to have a bit of fun with the project.

Our group worked fairly well together across the two projects, and made sure to meet up on a regular basis to discuss and share ideas with one another. In both projects, the workload was split roughly 50/50.

With this being said, overall it was a good experience taking this paper as an elective. In terms of feedback, I would possibly suggest to have a day where the paper is promoted and explained in-depth, as when I signed up for the paper (based on myMassey descriptions) I assumed it would be revolving around web design, app design, and forms of coding etc. 

Powerpoint for Final Presentation

With the final presentation coming up tomorrow, I thought that it would be a lot better and make our design look more professional if we had a powerpoint slideshow to present the class while speaking about our 'active alarm', rather than just talk about it and show the video. Therefore, today in my spare time I decided to make our group a powerpoint, which has a few brief descriptions, bullet points, and a video, which we can explain in more depth during the presentation.

Presentation Video

This afternoon, after finalizing our electronics and bread-boarding circuit, I went back to The Cube and did some filming for our video. I used my mate Fraser Malpas as the 'model', and tried to get some interesting shots to make the video a bit more exciting to watch. The video isn't meant to be completely serious, and is meant to be a bit more playful. I decided not to use any shots of the circuit we had made with bread-boarding, or of the cardboard catapult, as I felt like the video should be showing how our product would be used in a real-life context, considering we have the proof of concept (electronic circuit) and a storyboard to present along with the video. This way, they all do their own part in presenting our conceptual interaction, rather than all showcasing the exact same aspect of the design.

I feel like the video is quite clear in showing exactly what "The Active Alarm" is, and our storyboard then gives a bit more insight into how the electronics actually work.

The video has been attached below:

Following the completion of the video, storyboard, and proof of concept, now we are all set and ready for Friday's presentation. 

Electronics - Fixed

Today we met up in the Fab Lab, to set up our electronics and breadboarding circuit again, to check for any issues. Once we had set it up, it was working perfectly, which meant that the magnet glued to the classroom desk must have been interfering with the reed switch, which was causing it to react weirdly at times. We were glad that there was nothing wrong with the circuit itself, which seemed to be working perfectly today. With that acting as our proof of concept, now all we have to do is make the video before Friday's class/presentation. There are some photos below, attached to this blog post, showing the final set up for our circuit.

   

  

If we were to make this in real life, out alarm clock would consist of a similar set up. However, there would be a couple of small differences. The electronics would still be the same, and reed switches, resistors, magnets and an arduino would still all be used. In terms of the Arduino, instead of requiring a computer or laptop to supply the code, we would use a small Arduino Bootloader to upload the code. The code would consist of having a function which reverses the reed switch, which would cause the alarm to activate once the magnet moves away from the switch (just as we had done in this circuit). With regards to the trigger/catapult itself, we were looking at using some sort of servo, and speeding it up, in order to trigger the catapult. It would be quite small, with a sharp, speedy spring action to shoot the ball across the room.

Printing Storyboard

After I had drawn up each page for our storyboard, Alfred then whipped up a quick storyboard on Photoshop, which we got printed today by one of the University's large format printers. The storyboard is looking pretty good, and explains how the electronic side of our alarm will work.

Tomorrow, we will meet up to set up our circuit once more, and see if the reed switch and magnet/ping pong ball are working properly, seen as in Friday's class there were times where the reed switch would play up. However, we are fairly certain it was because there was a large magnet randomly glued to the table, which may have been interfering with the reed switch.

A video will also be filmed and made for Friday's presentation, which is our final lesson for this paper.

Class - Week Eleven

During class today, we mainly spent the time refining our design, and sharing idea with the other groups, and then finished off by working on our A2 storyboard to be presented next week.

While we were playing around with the circuit, the buzzer and reed switch weren't working 100% as they should, possibly due to loose connections in the breadboard, or another magnetic field affecting the reed switch. Therefore we spent a lot of time trying to resolve this apparent issue.

Towards the end of the lesson, I drew up a few more pages for the storyboard, which we will possibly use for our A2 storyboard. I will look to put these into photoshop and put them all onto one page, which we can then use the large format printers at the university to output. The newest drawings for the storyboard have been attached to the bottom of this blog post.

Over the course of the next week, before our final hand-in, we will look to figure out what was wrong with the circuit, and refine it so it is functioning properly, print out our A2 storyboard, and whip up a video to show how our alarm clock works. 

Independent Work - Proof of Concept (2)

Following on from the previous blog post, once we had sorted out a couple of ways to put the magnet inside of the projectile (in this case, the ping pong ball), I then proceeded to make us a basic cardboard catapult, which would be a simple yet effective way of showing proof of concept for our design. That way when the catapult is loaded, the magnet is touching the reed switch, and the buzzer is making no sound. Once the catapult releases the ball/magnet, the alarm will begin to sound, until the ball returns to the loaded position.

The catapult was made with double layered corrugated cardboard for stability, with the arm being created with a pencil, and then cardboard to hold the ball in place. The tension for the catapult arm was created from a rubber band, which stretched across the width of the structure, and was twisted countless times to increase the tension.

I have attached a video below, showing how the basic catapult structure works. We weren't too focused on the distance the projectile was thrown as this stage, as we were more just looking at showing the effect the magnet has on the reed switch, and using the catapult as extra proof of our conceptual design.

Once I had come up with this catapult design, and created it to a functional standard, we then went on to look at positioning the breadboard and arduino in a way that would allow us to have the ball/magnet touch the reed switch once the catapult had been loaded. Once positioned, I took a video of the catapult in action, which shows the buzzer start sounding once the ball has been fired, and then the sound turns back off once the ball returns to the catapult arm.

We will present this proof of concept in class tomorrow, and see what feedback we get. We will look to refine our storyboard, along with create our short video demonstration early next week, ready for hand-in.