Day 2 – Arduino and Brainstorming

The day started with Arduino. It is the heart of our projects. With Arduino we can control lamps, movements and much more. This is possible through a programming interface on the notebook. It is a mixture of programming with C or Java. Afterwards the notebook transfers the final function to the Arduino. After we examined a few examples from Arduino Playground the first function we tried to control was to let a lamp blink. It was our first feeling of success with Arduino. The rest of the morning we made experiences with Potentiometer and Servo.

 

After the break we got our topic for the final projects. The topic is “Gute Miene, Böses Spiel(zeug)”. In the afternoon we had time to do a brainstorming. So, each group thought about an appropriate project to do. Here are the following findings:

 

Group 1

The name of group one’s project is ‘Rescute’. It is about a teddy bear wich turns out to be a life safer. In this teddy bear several functions will help persons to safe their life from attackers. First step of defense will be barking sound. The next one will be blue light and noise of the police which comes out of the bears’ head. When the attacker is not yet scared the next step will be pepperspray which comes out of the teddy bear’s mouth. Optional the last step would be an emergency call to the police. The teddy bear will be small and fits in each bag.

 

Group 2

The centric toy of group two’s project is the toy railway. On this railway there are several balls loaded. When the single trains get connected to a railway it starts. After a few meters the balls will start to fall apart and jump around.

 

Group 3

Group three uses a teddy bear as well for their project. The sense is to connect two persons which have a long-distance relationship. The teddy bear has a blinking heart on it and the lover’s fragrance bottle in it. Every time one person receive an email from the other one the bear’s heart will blink. Additionally, fragrance bottle starts to spray. By clicking on the off button the functions will stop.

 

Group 4

Looping Louie is the chosen toy from group four. It is called “grantiger Alois”. The sense is to attack one special player and to spare the others. This is achieved by using high sensors, a regulated motor, position and hit detection.

 

Group 5

Group five will work with the ball labyrinth. By inverting axes, attaching a latency, a vibration, magnetics to deflect the ball or moving walls the game will be manipulated.

 

Group 6

Group six has still two options not sure which one to take. The first option is to manipulate a polaroid camera. When someone takes a photo there will be ghosts  in the background of photo or the camera won’t take a picture and instead makes crazy other things like pup sounds. The second option is the mole game known from amusement parks. Normally you have to hit these moles with an hammer. Group six wants to come out a hammer from the mole’s mouth to hit the player.

 

Day 3: Sun is shining, brains are storming

After gathering ideas over the weekend, the today’s session was all about designing and developing our project concepts. To optimize this process, we divided the day into three phases:

Phase 1: Preparations

Each Team discussed their project proposals and wrote them down for a following presentation. Together we gave some advice and tried to help finding proper projects.

Fully automated ventilator

Physical dropbox

Phase 2: Brainstorming

After succeeding in picking the best project concept each team started to brainstorm and develop their ideas. Therefore we formed larger groups and helped each other. After lunch we presented our results as you can see in the following pictures.

Team 1: Midi toaster

Team 2: DJ Teddy

Team 3: Walkman remote

Team 4: The oscillograph

Team 5: Physical Dropbox

Team 6: The unnamed orb

Phase 3: Technical aspects

At the beginning of phase 3 we got a first look at the lab. That helped us to figure out what we are able to build from the technical point of view and if we need to order some additional pieces. Finally the long-awaited moment came, the teams started to construct the first parts of their project.

Day 3: Concepts

This was the last vacation day for laser cutter, soldering iron, drilling machine and all other tools that will have to work tremendously hard till the end of the week.

The day began with the presentation of each groups first vague ideas followed by a short discussion which idea should be realized and how it could be improved. We heard about vuvuzela traffic lights, unhittable footballs and computer mice, that force the user to ride the bike.

Armed with post-its and whiteboard markers each team spent the next hours with brainstorming and elaborating their most promising idea.

At the second presentation in the afternoon most vague ideas had become concrete concepts.

So, let’s make some noise!

Day 3: Brainstorming

The results of the brainstorming as .pdf:

GLOWWORM LOVE

BLOWFISH

LIKE A BIRD

AMBILEON

FLY TRAP

Keyframes

After lunchtime we had almost two hours to continue developing our idea of a project which can be found under the topic of “communication”. Each team continued working with one idea of the brainstorming phase. It was important to draw six sketches about one user scenario.

 

The Results:

Group A:

Anna Follmann, Beatrix Vad

Keyframes Group A

Group B:

Johannes Preis, Chadly Marouane

Keyframes Group B

Group C:

Verena Lerch, Frederick Brudy

Keyframes Group C

Group D:

Maraike Stuffler, Robert Rödler

Keyframes Group D

Group E:

Kyun-Jing Park, Lorenz Schauer

Keyframes Group E

Group F:

Verena Hillgärtner, Bernhard Hering

Keyframes Group F

 

Brainstorming

Brainstorming, an Impression

The Results:

Group A:

Anna Follmann, Beatrix Vad

Brainstorming Results Group A

Interactive Wardrobe – Screaming Handbag – Enhancing Privacy (Phone / Door)

Group B:

Johannes Preis, Chadly Marouane

Brainstorming Results Group B

Group C:

Verena Lerch, Frederick Brudy

Brainstorming Results Group C

Coffee Brake – Interactive Mailbox – Interactive Music Wall with Ball Game

Group D:

Maraike Stuffler, Robert Rödler

Brainstorming Results Group D

Group E:

Kyun-Jing Park, Lorenz Schauer

Brainstorming Results Group E

Group F:

Verena Hillgärtner, Bernhard Hering

Brainstorming Results Group F

Day 3, Introduction

The Agenda for day 3:

• Presentation of Homework:
• Theoretical background of brainstorming technics
• Brainstorming
• Presentation of Results
• Lunch
• Continue to develop the Ideas of the Brainstorming
• Presentation of Results

In the morning, the students were asked to present their homeworks to the others. Each group had to find a Youtube Video which shows a good or funny arduino project. So all of us saw 6 videos about projects which already had been realized and which served us as a motivation to create our own projects during the next days. The presented videos are linked here:

Squeezebox

Tabletalk

Arduino + Lego NXT

Cheap Thermocam

Arduino und Gmail

Eyewriter

With that great motivation we were ready for the brainstorming phase. For that purpose, the lecturer gave us a short introduction about techniques of good brainstorming.

Each team (one team consists of two persons) had more than one hour to collect ideas for their project and to write them down on flipcharts. The topic of these projects is Communication. They have to be finished until friday, march 18th at one pm. For more information about that brainstorming phase, see our other post “Brainstorming”.

Before lunchtime, each team presented their charts and choosed one of the ideas to develop it more in the afternoon.