New prototype

We started this weeks work with making a new prototype to test the possibility of bigger cubes. This prototype contains storage places for the cubes as well. Bigger cubes emphasize the focus on the materials, we want the user to feel the characteristics in addition to hear them.

The RFID readers were again connected to this prototype, this time four of them. We have also acquired a Arduino Mega and we have established a serial connection between the Arduino and the Pi. A lot of work have been done in PureData. The wav files are stored and the speakers are playing the beat bar by bar. Things are beginning to work quite well.

The music is also coming together nicely. Luckily for us, the melody is transformable to other instruments, that means that the different materials will have the same music, but with different sound qualities. This holds for the music in the middle slider as well. Until now, the middle slide has been a little undefined; how could it compliment the music and at the same time be independent and interesting? But now it has the rolle of some kind of accompaniment or soundscape that present the bass line of the music. The music is saved as one bar wav files so that PureData can play them in order and easily switch when the cube is changing position.

The final model is being planned simultaneously and we are doing some research of how to make cubes of the different materials. We are discussing how we could place the RFID chip inside the cubes. In one way or another we have to make a hole. We can get some difficulties if one cube for example is made of aluminium. The RFID chip needs protection and by now, the best solution is to have a plate of plastic over the chip. This will also clarify which side of the cube that should point down when placed on the mixing table, and thus, ease the use of the product.

In terms of the lighting, things are in progress. We are using one LED strip through all three slides. The LEDs are connected to the RFID with the same pins so that the RFID controls five LED lights when activated. The five lights will have different intensity to make the light more smooth.