Abdul
From Wiki
Laptops and circuits and Chips and processors, virgins and music and really hot professors.I wouldn't care as long as their there.
'Cause these are a few of my favorite things.
Contents |
6th July '09
"An introduction to the course. Environmental awareness.It seems that a lot more people are aware of the environmental hazards facing us today. And it feels great that through this course I can lend a helping hand, be a part of the change, not just be a hypocrite. I am also a lot more aware..... of my actions."
Air, water, soil, smell, electromagnetics. All these can be polluted. It was a surprise when they said light can also be polluted. But it seemed so obvious. Light pollution from the cities. Now, finally I have an explanation for all those starless nights. And maybe i could help do something about it.
Process of Detection
From the air - The sensors. Then the data travels from the sensors to a computer, where the information is processed. Conversion of the analog world into a digital.On the sensor is a micro controller called "[Arduino][1]". "Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments."
"There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all."
~Robert Orben
7th July '09
Sensurreal Experiences!!!
Blinking Led Arduino?
The first program every programmer learns consists in writing enough code to make their code show the sentence "Hello World!" on a screen.
This is its equivalent to a microprocessor.
Interesting Facts.
8th July '09
Processing
Learnt a little language..... refreshed memory..... for loops, integers, if conditions etc,. 9th July '09
Bread boards and Arduinos, circuits and L E Ds. Process process. Yashas "Let there be light". And then there was light. God just used a program. There's no magic to it. He's just a really brilliant programmer.
void setup()
{
size (universe);
universe = 8.80x1026
}
void draw()
{
for for for for for for for for
loop loop loop complications stone ice MAN
13th July '09
Today...... A lot of reading..... a little bit of programming..... too much velapandi....
Music is my saviour.....
14th July '09
Finally did it, with a confidence i didn't have. Made random numbers appear on the middle earth map. Use the Noise thingy
I've lost track of date and time.
I've lost my future to destiny.
Boards, noises, electronic noises, they bug me, annoy me, why is everyone so out of tune. I've lost track of my senses.
(the above is just a sorry as excuse to stop putting the date from hence forth. But it's true.)
More programming, lots more. But we're finally getting to the part we're gonna use. We're basically copy pasting it. Not that we can do anything about it since don't know enough. Damn those sound boxes. These electric noises annoy me. Solder. Solder. Balls of metal. Liquidated.
We're splitting up into groups now. I'm gonna be working on the Chimera now. I'm the only core skills in that group. I find myself more comfortable working with them. I guess I do know them better.
The Chimera
The initial idea. The original idea for the chimera.
So initially there are six chimes of decreasing size. The sensor senses the pollution levels and sends the data to the arduino board and then the arduino tells the motor to lower individual bars of the chimes to show the changes in pollution level and also bringing harmony or disarray to the sound depending on wether the pollution is good or bad.
The idea was good on paper and in the imagination. It always is untill the time you decide to get practical. Lots of problems it was too heavy for the motor. It somehow became circular. Came up with the idea of using a gong in the center that is powered by the wind mill to hit the chimes. The pipes we were using were too heavy. Later realized that the gong would get tangled and there wouldn't be enough power to hit the pipes properly. It was too random. We had to rethink. Had a huge brainstorming session. I like brainstorming sessions. I realised i might just take product design in my third year. Came up with a bunch of ideas should be putting up the pictures soon.
Thought about a lot of mechanism. Practicality and all. Left it hanging. Went to Dastakar. Saw a lot of cool things. I saw wind chimes. It struck me to either use cow bells or ceramic ones. It would solve our weight issue. And it did. Found lots of cow bells. I hope they are safe they are extremely highly emotionally important to the ones they belong to. Are you reading this people. Please don't lose them.
So finally this is what the product is going to be like:
After a lot of iterations finally the product. There is a central pole and on the top half there is a circular disc with grooves going from the outsid to the inside. On top is a crossbar with fish wire hanging from them and going through the grooves. And at the end of which there are bells. Cow bells to be precise. Once the sensor senses pollution, the motor turns and brings all the bells inwards entangling them and muting they're sound showing unsafe levels of pollution in and around you.
My goup is gone. They're far away now. There's no one left but me. They went for design yatra, Bombay. Working on other projects now.
Did a little soldering
some more soldering
cut up a few wires
Hey i got my old laptop back. Finally have a computer.
Reinstalled windows. Went through a lot of trouble for it. My computer doesn't have a cd drive so had to boot the software onto a pendrive and install it.
Had to reinstall it again this virus kept coming back.
A lot of learning from this experience as i re-installed it. Again!
Not much i can do with this computer though. Low configuration. Not much i need to do right now either.
Found a new OS. Well I've known about it for a while now. Its called Ubuntu. It's a linux based os.
Installed ubuntu finally. Faced the same problems. Had to boot it through a pendrive.
Had to re install ubuntu. I fucked up with the partitioning. Although i'm quite good at installing OS's through unusual methods now. Did it for my house mate too.
Oh finally, it's time to take the products out onto the streets. We're just doing the T-shirt for now. Oh about the T-shirt, basically led's in the shape of lungs, stuck to the t-shirt and changes color according to the pollution levels.
We started at garuda. The security chased us away. Bomb threat maybe. I can tend to look like a terrorist sometimes. Hey there's a terrorist with my name on him.
Anyway coming back to the shirt.
Saurabh had an advertisemental shirt on him. Led screen saying “Your fumes are killing me. Visit etc.bangalore.blah”
and Dhruv had the lung shirt on. It was quite funky we walked down brigade road. Saw the reactions. Not a lot of people approached us. There was one security guard who was more interested in this young couple holding hands than the funky glowing t-shirt.
What are we doing wrong here? We're not ready to go all out. There is no space to do such things in such kind of an environment. I felt like we didn't have a strong backing up. Okay we mangae to find some people who are interested. A few of them even manage to mail us. What then?
Do people really care about the environment? It seems to much of a hassle to do so. I mean it's so in the distant future. I dont what people are thinking, We'll deal with it when it comes our way. I wonder if it'll be too late. Doesn't the next generation have a right to start afresh? Literally?
I guess we'd just have to wait for the right time and face and live with the consequences. I'm begining to get extremely good at that. Facing with the consequences. Or am I?
Some Serious Working. Testing the mechanism and seeing if the sensor works.
Some hard ships are to be endured. If not for your sake for the sake of others. Even if it means to lift the whole world on your head. We just scrapped our initial ideas and i managed to find some bells(with a lot of sentimental value. So these may be my last words) to continue our plan to rule the world with hypnotic bell sounds. Not really, but, we were still figuring out the mechanism and its practicality at this stage
Testing out a prototype.
We came up with the idea of having the rings in the center to pull and suffocate the bells when the pollution levels were high.
Eureka! it's alive. Although a little ugly, but nothing we can't handle. We are designers after all, and it is our job to make things look good.
Introducing Yashas. The man behind it all.
Soldering is not as easy as it looks. I still can't do it.
The circuit is set and we're ready for some real world cigarette testing with the sensor.
We got a few people to blow the smoke. Cause' we're non smokers you see. It can get really injoorius to your health. The sensors aren't that reliable. Or is it our programming. Most of the times it works. Our design is different. I mean our final prototype from what we started. Evolution of design. A lot more practical effective and better looking. Some sketches of the ideas are listed below.
