media mediators

A host machine in the cupboard

2005-09-20T17:53:00.000+01:00

Tom wants to have a linux machine in his cupboard to talk to all his objects and connect them to the internet.

Loving and hating roller

2005-09-20T17:23:00.000+01:00

Tom explains to Tobie that they learned to love and hate the unpredictability of roller.

Functionality is not the point

2005-09-16T16:57:00.000+01:00

Tom and his housemate discuss the functionality of the objects and conclude that that is not what cake, roller and paper are about.

Making cake even more beautiful

2005-09-16T16:49:00.000+01:00

Tom and Sarah use spaghetti to to create a visual spectacle.

What we can do with paper and cake

2005-09-16T16:44:00.000+01:00

Sarah and Tom have come up with some ideas for the use of cake and paper. Better watch out if they invite you over for dinner next time!

Tom explains the objects to Sarah

2005-09-16T16:34:00.000+01:00

Tom has adopted roller, cake and paper for a week and is having Sarah over to discuss how they work and what you can do with them.

I give the objects a personality

2005-09-08T14:47:00.000+01:00

After a while the behaviour of the objects entices Duncan to give them a personality.

The objects are powered by data

2005-09-08T14:40:00.000+01:00

Duncan reflects on his past days with cake and roller, and likes the idea that they can represent hidden data in his home.

Duncan adopts roller and cake

2005-09-05T17:35:00.000+01:00

Andy and Tobie drop off two objects at Duncan who is going to live with them for a few days. Tobie explains what he can do with them.

Roller has a freshly cut brass piece

2005-09-02T17:53:00.000+01:00

Andy has cut a weight for the roller with our new Modella MDX-20 and is showing off how well it works.

Making the mediators more robust

2005-08-03T11:01:00.000+01:00

Andy is improving the mediators before they go out to enthousiasts who adopt them for a while, to play with. Have a look at the insides of cake and roller! You can still be one of the adopters, just drop us an email.

Objects Moving to Video

2005-07-29T10:32:00.000+01:00

Demo of paper, cake, roller and drop in Eindhoven, first time to see them all working!! Additional to this clip is a quick walkthrough of the methods we used to control the objects. The first is via a simple web page, the other is from a film augmented with movement commands.

Last minute testing of cake

2005-07-05T14:20:00.000+01:00

Before flying, cake electronics have to pass a final test.

Flying to Eindhoven

2005-07-05T13:59:00.000+01:00

Paper, Cake, Roller and Drop get ready to fly to Eindhoven for a workshop at Philips.

Protocol

2005-06-29T09:47:00.000+01:00

The moving objects are sent messages wirelessly which trigger movement in them. I'm sending these messages in a particular format so that the prototypes respond a predictable way.

These messages can be sent from anywhere, but to provide a start point I've built a USB device, which plugs into a PC. The PC sends messages to the USB device, which broadcasts the message wirelessly. The message is divided into 4 parts, each part is for a particular prototype. This provides a flexible structure, where the objects can be independently controlled

This is a first attempt at a protocol for movement, it's very simple. The messages provide a way of moving individual motors. The rolling protoype has 1 motor, while Paper (this moves 5 strips of paper) has 5 stepping motors. Each motor is controlled in three ways; direction, speed and number of steps. There is not yet a way to describe acceleration or deceleration.

The idea is that if this protocol is well documented, and works well, there is the potential for creating very flexible systems of movement. The events on the PC which trigger the transmission of data to the objects are depend on the imagination of the user.

I'll upload a diagram of this system, and an initial description of the protocol soon!

Assembling the paper roller

2005-06-08T17:38:00.000+01:00

Andy invents his own tools to assemble the paper roller.

Ready to assemble!

2005-05-18T10:37:00.000+01:00

All the parts for the first 4 moving objects are back and we're ready to put things together. The initial proptotypes are Drop, Paper, Cake and Roller, images of these are below:

Here's an image of the acrylic and stainless steel parts back from the laser shop, and the finished breadboards of the electronics:

Bas is going to film some of this building activity, and we'll follow up with some footage of the prototypes movements. Here are some hi-res rendering of the prototypes.

Designing the electronics

2005-05-10T11:15:00.000+01:00

Tobie Kerridge explores what exactly is needed to make the mediators move.

Harvesting stepper motors

2005-05-10T11:06:00.000+01:00

Tobie and Andy are always on the lookout for good steppers; printers, scanners and drives are all fair game. Some are harvested, others are bought on ebay.

Laser-cutting the parts

2005-05-09T17:10:00.000+01:00

Andy visits Lloyd the laser-cutter on Acre Lane in Brixton.

Designing components

2005-05-06T18:36:00.000+01:00

Andy Law designs the components for the 'birthday cake' and prepares the drawings for the laser cutter.

Rapid prototyping with powder

2005-05-04T19:03:00.000+01:00

Martin at the RCA workshop prints with powder and an ordinary HP inkjet printerhead on a ZPrinter310 of the Z corporation.

Preparing for 3D printing

2005-05-03T15:52:00.000+01:00

From 3D sketch of the roller to a solid that can be printed.

Movies of the prototypes

2005-05-02T17:51:00.000+01:00

Andy used 3DS Max to create animated visualisations of the prototypes. This movie here weighs in at a hefty 18 MB, a smaller version at 2.4 MB is here.

These might help you think about the relationship between the movement of these objects and a source of data, what is this phenomena that effects their behaviour? What makes them move, and how do they move? This is up to you.

We are being a little experimental with the codecs used in the movies we post here, fire off an email if you have any problems!

3D sketching

2005-04-26T15:44:00.000+01:00

Sketching the roller in 3D Studio Max and making it move.

2D sketching

2005-04-26T15:38:00.000+01:00

First ideas for moving objects in words and sketches.