Pressure Project 2 – Kenny Olson
Posted: October 3, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »For project 2, I made a Randomized Nicki Minaj Meme Generator Hydration Station System. The system set up is: a water glass reseting on a metal tray, and when the glass is picked up off the try, a random Nicki Minaj Meme audio clip is played. The mechanics of the system involve a Makey Makey. With one set of alligator clips connected to the metal try and the earth (or grounding) connection on the Makey Makey (the green wire shown below). With another alligator clip, one end is connected to the space button on the Makey Makey with the other alligator clip end taped to a water glass (the yellow wire shown below) with a metal conduction string in the alligator clips mouth. The sting goes under the glass and is secured on the adjacent side with more tape. When the water glass is placed on the metal tray, the string on the bottom of the glass makes contact with the tray, sending a signal to the Makey Makey telling it to trigger the space bar.
Inside of Isadora, a “keyboard watcher actor” (with direction set to: UP) triggers an “envelop generator++ actor” with a one second rate with a starting rate of 0 and an ending rate of 100. When the “envelop generator++ actor” ends, the end trigger goes in two directions. Direction one triggers and displays a number, counting the times the system is triggered. The second direction triggers a random audio sound from a preselected list of ten sound. Direction one works by, the “ADD” on a “counter actor” with a min value of 1 and max value of 101, and mode set to wrap. The output number is then fed into the line “Text/ure actor”. The text document connected to the “Text/ure actor” (accessible when the actor is double clicked) has a list of numbers from 0-100 displayed vertically. Finally the video out of the “Text/ure actor” is fed into a “projector actor”. Direction two works by, the “envelop generator++ actor” triggering a “random actor” the “random actor” produces a random rational number between the values of 1 and 100. The value from the “random actor” is then fed into a “float to integer actor” to get a natural number. This number is then sent to ten deferent “inside range actors”. each “inside range actors” is set to only trigger if the number given is between the predetermined values. Each of the ten “inside range actors” are set incumbently to only accept 10 numbers. So the first “inside range actors” only accepts numbers “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10” and the next “inside range actors” only accepts numbers ” 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20″ so on and so forth until 100. Next each of the “inside range actors” is fed to its own “envelop generator++” from the “inside range actors” enter to the “envelop generator++” trigger. The “envelop generator++” output is then connected to the play length of a “movie player actor”. The result is, when the “random number actor” is triggered, and formatted correctly, each “inside range actors” will read said number and determine whether or not trigger the “envelop generator++” to then play the audio.
In the end, the system will run something like this: a person picks up the water glass from the tray, with a one second delay, a random audio sound will play (in my case a Nicki Minaj meme), and a number will be displayed, counting the number of times the glass is lifted or “drank from”.
Reflections:
Originally I wanted a sound to play after I opened my desk drawer and also count the times said door was opened, however, I found trying to make a button with the Makey Makey difficult with the limited arts and crafts tools I have. Inside of Isadora, Changing the direction of the “keyboard watcher” from down to up was a crucial and important revelation. Also, finding a way to visualize the automated counting system was the hardest part of this project. Once I found the “Text/ure actor” everything became much smoother.
Crutique:
During the critique, an interesting discussion about culture came about. “what if instead of a meme sound played, a video of someone needing water was projected, when someone picked up the water glass?” in the right setting or context a simple gesture with relatively simple tech could have astronomical cassations and implications.