Finished my RFID project and presented it yesterday with the Bill Buxton there. I think it went really well.
On the left top is my desk with the prototype going, and on the left bottom there are some of the artifacts of the finished project. The colored circles represent the instruments and each color represents part of a song. So magenta being rhythm, peach: lead, blue: melody and so on. The cards represent the three genres that you could choose from. It is unreal how these simple artifacts make the idea so much more real than the prototype. In fact all that was done is the electronics (just how they are in the top pic ) where shoved in a styrene box, and stickers were placed over the RFID tags, but it took this project way beyond where it was and made it so real.
How it works:
You go into a party, and you reach into a jar and grab a token. By placing it in the stereo like device it adds to the music. But being colored, you know that you can remove one of that color, and replace it with the one you have, or you can add to it. One of each makes the best song, but you could have it play only drums if you really wanted to, or all 20 instruments all at once. If you dont like the gene of music playing you could just swipe a card it would change.
After everyone was done presenting, Bill Buxton talked for a while. I think it was the greatest part of class we have had, and some how he managed to touch on almost everything I had been thinking about in the past few weeks, and all that had been bothering me. My friend Molly even came up to me and said the same thing.
Anyone interested should really read his book: Sketching the User Experience.
Here is a video of the prototype in action: (password: risd)
This is a 6 channel touch sensor that I soldered a week ago. I was missing a part to see if it worked, but I just got it in. I hooked it up and it works perfectly. I has quite happy. This was the one I soldered that went so well. After hooking it up I took a pic and it just came out so nicely, so I decided it needed a larger pic.
This weekend I have been doing a bit of programming for my Multi-touch table. I gave a presentation on it on tuesday, and I guess people where much more interested in the questions I posed about it than they were with the table. I guess that is a really go thing, because they are the questions Im trying to figure out by making/ using one.
I have been documenting how to make simple multi-touch apps in ActionScript hoping that others will see they can do it too. My dream is that people are able to make much better applications than are already out there. Im really tired of everything just moving around a bunch.
In class I am finishing up an RFID project. I dont think it is the best idea, which is really sad because the infamous Bill Buxton will be there to critique. Sad when a personal hero is there to see not your best work. But I got the short end of the stick in a way.
My RFID project is just a simple box that looks like a stereo. While hosting a party, everyone that comes in would be given a token. They then place the token in this stereo like device and it would add to the music. One may be guitar, another drums, and even some synth or horns could be on that chip. If you dont like how it makes it sound, you just take it out, and that instrument stops playing.
The hard part was finding a way that the songs made would not be repetitive and make it so when you add an instrument it always matches the beat/tempo and plays along with the song, and not against it.
Finished my RFID project and presented it yesterday with the Bill Buxton there. I think it went really well. 