Description



Steel Ice & Stone is a multi-media interactive installation.
Nine suspended LED panels and sensor-triggered sound create an environment for memory recall.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Some of the Gory Details

The longest month of my life: That's what I call this Kickstarter campaign. The emails, the facetime, the tweeting and posting. Wow, this has been intense. I'll write about it at length in the near future after I've had time to process the information.

What's important now, even though I haven't secured funding, are the components. Three things are at the forefront:

The LEDs, the Images and the Electronics. Since I got the working breadboard last night, I'm showing it off, totally psyched.

Electronics gurus might snicker, but I believe I owe some explanation to others.

Item a) is the motion sensor for chip b). Similarly, f) is the motion sensor for chip e).

Item d), tucked under one of the blue cylinders, is a small chip Dr. Marantz discussed earlier to regulate the data (sound) from each piece. This allows both sound chips to play simultaneously yet independently when their corresponding sensor is tripped.

Item c) is the microcontroller. I understand the basic principles and will attempt to explain them below. Engineers Dr. Marantz and Remy Cucui volley ideas about which model of the arduino is better suited for this project. I'm an avid listener, smiling politely as they discuss the subtleties talmudicly.

Item g) is a dummy speaker; the final one will be a speaker bar that uses a remote to control the volume. Nice.

Item h) is the code on Remy's cell phone. He has the app installed and can change the programming on the fly. The code goes through an encoder, Item i) and the code goes to the arduino via the UBS (coming in from the top of the image). 

How it works:
The arduino controls the operation (hence the term micro-controller), working from a series of commands input by the code. When purchased, the little computer is a blank slate, capable of giving electronic commands to all kinds of devices according to the code that's programmed into it.

It's hard to see in the photo, but the arduino has a several rows (pins) of input and output terminals into which wires are plugged in. When instructions are programmed, they're linked to a specific pin so the wires plugged into that pin send the programmed instructions to the corresponding component or pin on a microchip.

Each chip has different functions, and the ones used in this project are sound chips like the ones used in talking toys and answering machines, so they're set up to record and playback sound. I've used chips like this in other projects and the chip has remained more or less unchanged over the years. What has changed, however, is the ability for the chip to store more data = longer sound messages or sound bytes.

The chips are  connected to the breadboard, the white perforated rectangle. Impossible to see, there are little conducting wires throughout it that channel the data from the arduino to the chip. Their function is fine tuned by the other components like resistors, diodes, transistors and capacitors.

The code, written on a cell phone, is processed into a signal the micro-controller understands. Also programmed is the sensitivity of the motion sensors--defining the circumstances to trip the chips to begin playback.

Those little intricacies bring the installation to life, and it's the culmination of the work. Right now, I just wish I could get this thing funded.


2 comments:

  1. I think that we need to collaborate. I'm NJ based, and very interested in your work. I proposed an installation just like this recently to Artworks Trenton.

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  2. Thanks for writing; this week and next will be very busy for me, but let's keep in contact. The opening reception is December 14, 5 PM. Hope to meet you.

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