Interactive Object: Final

 My interactive object is now complete, for this blog post, I'll go through my concept, show some photos and videos, and reflect on the process.

The idea for my interactive object came about from three main things: arcade games, AI-generated text, and six-word stories. Arcade games are the most random part of this, but when I think of interactive objects, the most fun ones can often be found at the arcade. Within my concept, the idea is that arcade games, especially the ones to get many tickets, are rigged. I think AI-generated text also shares some of these 'rigged' qualities. It is all sourced from existing work and ideas and doesn't seem to have much variety in outcome despite given prompts. In my object, I attempt to make fun of this with a game that is dependent on user input, but relatively narrow in the results it can produce. Lastly, the idea of a six-word story was introduced to me in middle school and I have always appreciated how a small narrative arc can be created in just six words.

Overall, I wanted to make an object that is fun to interact with and I got the reaction I was hoping for when my sister starred in my video documentation. When she was done she for some reason said: "I can imagine whipping this out at dinner parties." And though I doubt many others would relate to that in particular, but I'm glad she found it fun enough to want to share the experience.

For my object's interaction, the viewer must press the green button, this will stop the light in one of the sections of words. The colour of the light corresponds with which layer of the word they person should use for the first word. Then the colour will change and they will have to do the same thing six times. If they use the provided sticky note and pen they will be able to add their generated story to the collection around the object.

Here is the video of my sister demonstrating the intended interaction (I did not have to explain to her what to do, but she was also familiar with the concept beforehand, so I'd be interested to see how people interact with it without any context):

Here are some photos of the final object:

And one of the interior (the SAIT logo thing is a portable power bank):

Underneath the button was too hard to get to again, but it is just using copper tape and a small spring in the hole of a playdoh container's lid.

Here is the circuit diagram for the above mess of wires:

Here is the code I used for this object:

  #include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h> #ifdef __AVR__ #include <avr/power.h> #endif int red[] = { 0, 200, 255, 255, 255, 0 }; int green[] = { 0, 0, 0, 60, 255, 255 }; int blue[] = { 255, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0 }; int currentWord = 0; #define PIN 6 #define NUMPIXELS 60 Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels = Adafruit_NeoPixel(NUMPIXELS, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800); float counter; int currentPixel = 0; void setup() { pinMode(2, INPUT); pixels.show(); pixels.begin(); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { int lastPixel; int buttonState = digitalRead(2); if (currentPixel >= 59) { currentPixel = 0; } pixels.setPixelColor(currentPixel, pixels.Color(red[currentWord], green[currentWord], blue[currentWord])); pixels.show(); if (buttonState == 1) { delay(2000); currentWord += 1; if (currentWord == 6) { currentWord = 0; } } else { delay(10); } pixels.setPixelColor(currentPixel, pixels.Color(0, 0, 0)); pixels.show(); currentPixel += 1; }

To reflect on this process briefly, I became better at soldering, which was nice. And I improved my coding skills, but I still feel like I have a ways to go to understand coding better. One thing I learned as a general rule in this process was that (much like visual design) coding requires just as much editing as writing. I found myself overcomplicating a few things and then Peter was able to show me much more straightforward ways of getting the same result.

In terms of 3D printing the object, I was happy to be able to create most of the object this way, I have only used 3D printers for mockups or scaled objects in the past, but it was fun to use it in a final piece.

Overall, this was a fun project, and I hope that more people enjoy interacting with it as well.