New Arduino project...with blog

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anthrolume
 
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New Arduino project...with blog

Post by anthrolume »

Hi everyone,

I'm working on an Arduino-based art project for this year's Burning Man. I've got a project blog at http://anthrolume.BANNED.com that I update pretty much every day.

A BANNED:
Image

I'm gonna need some help with power soon ;-) I'll be asking about that here, when the parts arrive. :-)

Thanks,
Bryan
aka anthrolume

jeremysdemo
 
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by jeremysdemo »

looks great!

I am certainly going to keep any eye on it! although this does look strangely similar to what the Black Eye Peas had on one of their gigs (New years eve 2009?)....

would be interested in stats on this project, components/software and cost are the things that interest me in particular, and what is you plan for use/application once it is all done?

me I would want this to interface with a Theremin of some kind, making ones body movements the program and rhythm the lights and music are triggered by....but that's just me.

keep shinin

jerm 8)

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anthrolume
 
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by anthrolume »

Thanks Jerm,

Actually it was inspired years ago (2004) when I found the Cubatron Jr. on the playa at Burning Man. I wanted something like that, that I could wear, and that might take sensory or other input from the wearer.

The Blackeyed Peas had some crazy light outfits at the superbowl, and they were cool and certainly more aesthetically under control. They seemed to have RGB LEDs, and a lot of them, but I think they were only block-addressable, rather than individually addressable like my rig is. It was a great effect though.

I got the full quarter-scale harness working last night:

Image

There's a video on the blog of some patterned animations too.

-Bryan

jeremysdemo
 
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by jeremysdemo »

individually addressable that's awesome!

I could see a musical application for this, OSC, DMX, MIDI etc etc.
turn your arms into a virtual guitar and trigger loops with your legs...but I digress..

sounds like you are having fun! :D

keep shinin

jerm 8)

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anthrolume
 
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by anthrolume »

Actually, yeah, there will be some musical tie-in.

Ultimately I want the suit to be able to directly react to ambient sound, but that requires some signal processing that's beyond the capabilities of the Arduino Uno I'm using right now to control the thing. Since I've only got until September to build it, I'm going to instead allow button-triggers for some animations, which will allow me to manually synchronize animations to music.

I'd love the suit itself to be able to display spectral information. If I could get the microcontroller to sample from a microphone, I could use three IIR filters to get basic spectral power in bass, mids, and highs. Then I could, for instance, make the chest pulse red when there's bass energy, the extremties pulse on mids, and the head pulse on highs. Or a million other interpretations.

-Bryan

jeremysdemo
 
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by jeremysdemo »

Have you taken a look at all at what ONYX is doing with his Xbee wind controller?

http://onyx-ashanti.ning.com/profiles/b ... oller-mk-i

it took him a few months but he got over the hurdle of multiple bi-directional communication; I forget if he is multiplexing the 6 or so Xbees he is using to receive and transmit....but some of what he has already done might be applicable to your goal.

His project kinda disproves the notion that what you may want to do is beyond the Arduinos capability, he is using firmata and OSC if you want more details about how he is doing it there are more detailed steps on Facebook, there are also other forums on the net that he got a lot of his technical answers on early in the project.

keep shinin

jerm 8)

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anthrolume
 
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by anthrolume »

That is mighty cool. I have just started thinking about control, but his controllers are beautiful. I hadn't really considered using bluetooth for the controllers - that's brilliant.

One idea I wrote in my notes was to allow the entry of binary numbers using fingers. If you put a digital line on each finger, and a ground on your thumb, you could enter four bits with each hand. The problem is that you need an additional latch input to tell the controller to latch the low bits on the digital inputs. While I could probably make this work, I decided to shelve the idea. ONYX idea is definitely better, since his thumbs become independent inputs.

Also, I have an I2C buss running all over my body, including to my wrists. It feels like a waste to not somehow leverage the presence of the I2C buss so close to my hands. I also like the idea of having one battery to monitor, that runs everything.

Thanks for the pointer to ONYX blog. Will be great ot follow that.

-Bryan

jeremysdemo
 
Posts: 52
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Re: New Arduino project...with blog

Post by jeremysdemo »

we will do what we can to keep your blog alive as well. :D

I do try and follow ONYX, accepted member of his stellar ribshack, haven't posted yet, honestly I can't even get two of the Xbee's to communicate with one another yet, let alone use them for anything musical.

keep shinin

jerm 8)

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