New Conception Toy Car

New Conception Toy Car <Driver your car in your imagination>

Have you ever played with the RC toy car? From now on, it is totally changed. Just sit in front of your computer, and suppose you are driving your car, hold your steering wheel, try to turn left or right, and enjoy the scenes in your room through windshield glass of your car!

Concept

This new kind of remote control car is basically made up with Arduino and a laptop. It uses Arduino and Max/MSP/Jillter to finish the communication between the Arduino and the laptop. The insight camera of the laptop can track users movement when they are in front of the laptop and transfer the movement into digital or analog signals which can be used by Arduino. Thus, the users can use the supposed steering wheel to control the toy car. On the other hand, the toy car carries an Arduino board with it to reply users’ signals. Besides, there is an optional groove on the car for carrying a smart phone. The laptop can open the web camera on that phone and get the scene through the phone. Thus, you will see a lively scene on your computer which really looks like the driver’s sight in the toy car. The whole system will provide users a new special experience about driving.

Materials

Name           From          Parameter

Arduino board   RadioShack

Laptop          Apple Store     MacBook Air 1.7GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB Memory

Jumper wire     Amazon        Several, different length

Usb cables       Amazon       

DC motor        Amazon       

Servo Motor     Amazon

Resisters        Amazon        200 Ohm

Diode           Amazon       

Bread board     Amazon        *2

Smart phone     AT&T          Samsung galaxy note

Wheels *4       Amazon       

Gears kit        Amazon        Different size

Timeline

1)   Component test (Done)

2)   Max/MSP/Jillter test (Done)

3)   Make up prototype (Week 10)

4)   Simple test (Week 10)

5)   Prefect function and appearance (Week 11)

6)   Refine accuracy (Week 11)

7)   Add extra functions (Week 12&13)

8)   Finish final product (Week 14)

MealBuddy

http://prezi.com/ceh73er8r46d/mealbuddy/

Cellphone Cinema CHASE project

Confused DC Motor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfBiwBZ8Pa0

All the followings are from flashpointofthought.tumblr.com

http://flashpointofthought.tumblr.com/

Every Kickstarter Is A Story

Today’s guest lecture was the last one of this semester, and we met Stephanie Periera who is a Director of Art Programs in Kickstarter. She talked about the run mode of Kickstarter, and then showed some videos to us which impressed me most. Because the video is another way to make Kickstarter different, and it is also the way to advertise.

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects, and it uses a special way to help creative projects’ owners to get funds. Just as Stephanie Periera said, “Every Kickstarter is a story.” Kictstarter uses videos to record creative owners’ experience and their great products. This seems like a win-win strategy that not only the project’s owner will be introduced in the video, but also Kickstarter will be stand out in this way.

This was the last lecture in this semester, but it was the most special one in this semester. Compared with all the former companies, in some degrees, Kickstarter is a useful tool for those owners of creative projects to get money. They can make their dreams come true under Kickstarter’s help. Thus Kickstarter is special because it is a kind of media company which provides a platform for other companies. .

Kickstarter have videos to record its guests, who are creative projects’ owners. Each video not only uses a humors way to introduce a person, but also shows the relationship between this person and Kickstarter. I believe that not every kickstarter is a story, but everyone is a story. However, only a few people realize it, and Kickstarter is one of them. Kickstarter then uses video to record everyone’s story and everyone’s great idea.

In terms of me, once I talked about my dream about my own media business, I said that there were three key words for a media company. They are inspiration, idea, and action. We can get inspiration everyday, and some of them are useful, while some are not. We need to refine them and change them into ideas. Ideas are the things valuable and we can make them come true. However, it’s not enough just to have ideas. We need to take action according to ideas. Only when we make our ideas come true, we can say that we get benefits from the idea.

However, in terms of Kickstarter, it happened to do the similar three steps, and finally gets a video mode to tell people’s stories. I really like to watch the videos of Kickstrarter. They are interesting but meaningful. I can know a novel project and its owner clearly from a video, and I can also know what Kickstarter can do for them. Sometimes, I can get my own idea from those videos.

All in all, Kickstarter uses a special way to advertise itself, and it also produces special function to a creative idea. Meanwhile, as the last guest lecture in this semester, Kickstarter impresses me.

Which one do you prefer, programing or being programmed?

Program or Be Programmed

Ten Commands For A Digital Age

Douglas Rushkoff       

I prefer this book to Where Good Ideas Come From, maybe because I am a person with a background in Programing. However, Douglas Rushkoff’s book not only talks about the programming world, but also discusses the digital world nowadays. That is to say, this book is not only against readers who know programming, but also against all the people who live in the technical world.

I believe that all the people who have already read this book must be impressed by “Programming is the sweet point, the high leverage point in a digital society. If we don’t learn to program, we risk being programed ourselves.”

This book is also known as Ten Commands For A Digital Age. The ten commands are Time: Do Not Be Always On; Place: Live in Person; Choice: You May Always Choose None of the Above; Complexity: You Are Never Completely Right; Scale: One Size Does Not Fit All; Identity: Be yourself; Social: Do Not Sell Your Friends; Fact: Tell the Truth; Openness: Share, Don’t Steal; and Purpose: Program or Be Programmed.

In fact, these ten commands look more like a rule of living for people in the digital world, especially for us media people. The last two commands attracted me most, and I think they are more important in media area.

One is about the openness, which means share, don’t steal. I think this part told us how to operate our business in a good position in the real world. Also, it is another way to introduce “Good Ideas”. The world now is an open world, just as the Android System, which is an open source system. Programmers can develop anything they like based on the Android frame. However, the only way for programmers to earn profits is to develop their own creative work, not copy or imitate. It is what Douglas Rushkoff said “Share, Don’t Steal.” Programmers can get inspirations from others’ work, but if programmers steal others’ work, they cannot succeed, even be punished.

The last part is the main part of the whole book, “Program, or Be Programmed.” From this part, I have a feeling that if people know nothing about programming in the digital world, they look like robots, and they will be controlled by technology. Besides, these people will lose a lot of opportunities in the competition. However, Rushkoff’s purpose is not let all the people become programmer, but make more people know what happened around them. For example, most people use computer everyday, but how many of them know how to build up a system? How many of them know the hardware of their computers? Even how many of them know what program language is?

This book happened to make me think about some field trips in this semester. One is EMUSIC, another is Women You Should Know. The similar point is that they both talked much about the connection between technology and media. The engineer of EMUSIC stressed that be a person knows program and design, you can do whatever you like. Meanwhile, Jennifer Jones and Cynthia Hornig, the cofounders of Women You Should Know also said that because they didn’t know computer during their growing up, they became harder to run their own company. It obvious that in the digital world, knowing technology is important in a career.

We media people have to catch up with the development of the technology because the media area is developing towards digital media. Maybe before, to a media person, a creative idea, a critic mind and a pen are enough. However, nowadays, a media person cannot find a job if he or she cannot use a computer. That is our technology, our world.

Which one do you prefer, programing or being programmed?