Social Security

Forward

2009-05-10T01:17:00.005+01:00

Forward, foreword,

I have moved forward considerably since the last time I checked! We tried our products out in the Vision building this week, and they all look great!

Lulu book is being printed, product is working, and has shown to be infront of Jon, and I have just spent a small fortune on PP3 batteries, why are rechargeable batteries only 120 mAh, someone should sort that out. I won't do it just yet though!

But a least it works, and I can get a great signal through the roof of the vision building, we really are in a lovely spot.

Auchmithie and the Outdoors

2009-05-03T17:36:00.003+01:00

Followed Amy Holden on her journey to Auchmithie using a Displacement Engine. Got some really great insights, of which I will blog soon, but mainly wanted to put up some nice images. Also went for a walk myself this morning, and took pictures of viewing the world through the glass.

Let There be Light!

2009-05-01T15:04:00.005+01:00

Tested the light out last night in a dark cupboard, and it was a magical transformation!

I decided to use a warm bulb so that it is slightly more comforting in the dark wilderness (or wherever you have ended up getting lost!), but reflected off the grey/blue paint it still appears slightly bluey.

I have decided that I actually really love this thing, it is beautifully uncomfortable.

Testing is Testing

2009-04-29T23:31:00.003+01:00

Went to the Brae Riding Centre today to catch-up with my volunteer testers, but unfortunately Mel and Avril can't help me out tommorow with testing and filming. Arghh I'm going to have to get some other testers soon to get the photos in my Lulu book.
On the plus side I have next Monday, hopefully I can persuade Jon to postpone our Lulu hand-in for one day, fingers crossed!

Play Abandoned Due to Rain

2009-04-28T19:42:00.006+01:00

Took one of my oldest and dearest friends for a walk with my Displacement Engine, but it rained, heavily and we couldn't get a good enough satellite signal so we were left wandering around on a busy road! hmm, fine weather from now on please.

They Keep Breaking

2009-04-28T19:37:00.002+01:00

I've managed to break a grand total of ALL of my tiny glass segments which sit in the top of my shell. This is mainly attributed to the thin edges that I assumed would be easy to cut (no they were not) and easy to sand and polish (they were not).
I have fractured the glass quite badly on one piece, and the other is not so bad.
Must remember to stop dropping very delicate and important things!

Brand New Coat and Some Shiny New Glasses

2009-04-28T19:29:00.004+01:00

Homo Ludens and Curious Things

2009-04-28T18:42:00.005+01:00

Just realised that although Pete e-mailed me this pdf ages and ages ago, I still managed to forget blogging it!
So this is what I should have blogged...

"One distortion of current technologies is to make it seem that all of life is work. The stove that guides us through gourmet recipes, the electronic photo albums that prompt us to contact our loved ones regularly, the TV that allows us to save and replay programmes, all join a conspiracy of productivity. But we do not just engage with the world in the form of problems to be solved and tasks to be pursued. We are also playful creatures – Homo Ludens, to use Huizinga’s (1950) term. From this perspective, we are characterised not just by our thinking or achievements, but also by our ludic engagement with the world: our curiosity, our love of diversion, our explorations, inventions and wonder."

This is from Bill Gaver's paper on 'Curious Things for Curious People', concerned that life is all about work a theory of Homo Luden society can be adopted for the purposes of trying to defeat the 'all work and no play' ethic that has arguably been on the rise in a technology and media driven culture.

Bill actually came up with the concept of a (de)tour guide, an audio device which (via GPS) works out your heading and surprises you with what you might find around the corner, and you can programme it to let you get lost for a bit, hmmm a little bit too close to my own ideas, and something he didn't mention when he was up here! Still I think we differ greatly in our approaches to the subject of diversion and exploration.

Ludic theory has great interest for me as it is not (as it's name suggests) focussed on being lazy - i.e. a ludite. But it is instead a concept of creating room in our lives for creative exploration of space, time, places and objects. Being more playful and childlike we can throw away generic values designed for generic groups of people. We can be personal an inventive by getting rid of homogenised-mass-appeal stuff which has no real value at all.

http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/interaction/pdfs/36.gaver.curiousThings.inPress.pdf

Meeting With Chris Speed

2009-04-28T17:59:00.002+01:00

Jon gave me the contact details of a friend and lecturer at the ECA, Chris Speed. I e-mailed him and he seemed keen to have a look at what I have got.
So I made my way down to Edinburgh, unfortunately the button on the engine had fallen off during transit and I couldn't show it working, but Chris was happy to chat about what he did and how this product would possibly fit into the research areas that he was esspecially interested in.

We had a really great talk about theorists and practitioners in such areas, a look at the Situationists which I was researching into back at the very beginning of play. Ideas of plotting my product on a line as such:

Sat Nav --------------------------------------------------Dérive

Dérive being a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects. This is a Situationist practice of urban drifting. Thus I am leaning more towards the Dérive end of the spectrum, but not entirely leaving behind the Sat Nav, the idea of surveillance and purpose still exists.
Another very interesting concept which Chris is working on at the moment is recording and tracking journeys and geography with time/ emotion. Emotional Cartography and Biomapping are explored by vavious practitioners which I still need to look into properly, and the work of Nigel Thrift really intrigues me (so much so that I've just bought two books, Patterned Ground and Spatial Formations).

Must also look to the work of De Certeau, De Bord, and Henrik Ekeus.

de Certeau, M. (1987) OPractices of Space¹, in M. Blonsky (ed.) On Signs.Oxford:Blackwell.

http://www.biomapping.net/

A project by Christian Nold which records emotioal responses (via a Galvanic skin response device) from people walking around areas of towns and cities. On the homepage is a plotted graph of people walking around Dundee.

http://www.softhook.com

Christian Nolds portfolio page.

http://www.satellitebureau.net

Chris's colleague Jen worked on a beautifully tactile and interactive tracking installation called 'Running Stitch'. Subjects were sent for a walk with a satellite tracking device, meanwhile observers back in the gallery watched as a line began to form projected onto a blank piece of material, the journey was then embroidered with delicate stitching by vistiors to the gallery.

http://x2.idat.org/~cs/

Chris's portfolio page.

http://www.vimeo.com/user712728

Henrik Ekeus's space visualisation videos.

http://qik.com/video/1362803

Live streaming of video of news events as it happens, but not from media broadcasters, a different view.

http://walkingthroughtime.eca.ac.uk/

Chris's current blog walking through time.

As I say I have to really read up on my theoretical thinking, and shall muse upon it further!
I've been invited by Chris to go back to the college on the 4th May for a workshop and to show my working product, and to go to the 'This Happened...' lecture in the evening (the one which Jon is involved in!)

What Neon?

2009-04-28T17:48:00.003+01:00

Dean said this to me back in February, 'you should paint the needle and the buttons some really bright neon pink or red' (I'm obviously paraphrasing!!), I liked it but wasn't sure about it so left the decision until I was forced to make it!

Jon made the very compelling case for the needle being a bright definate colour because it should be very certain that it is pointing you in the correct direction, it is certain even though the rest of it is slightly sketchy!

So we tried number of neon coloured paper needles, blue and pink seemed to work the best so all I have to do is buy a massive can for one needles worth of paint, hmmm.

Spray Wizardry

2009-04-28T17:36:00.004+01:00

To get a finish a hundred times better than any I could acheive with a paint brush or can of plasti-kote I enlisted the help of the Spray Factory.
The coating is 10% sheen, just enough to prevent mucky fingerprints, but not gloss!

However for some unknown reason I am not happy with the colour, and I think the stress is getting to me! So my plan is to get a darker shade of the same blue/grey sprayed onto it, once I've filled all the marks and dents I have inflicted on it!

WALK and TALK

2009-04-28T17:13:00.004+01:00

Blue-Edged Glass

2009-04-28T17:09:00.005+01:00

Just an aside note to appreciate the beauty of this glass, I am actually in love with it's coloured edges, especially against the grey.

I am petrified of the time when I will have to put glue on it's edges and ever so carefully drop it into place.

Grey Foggyness

2009-04-27T22:33:00.002+01:00

Taking on the advice of some harsh critics and a chat with Jon, I think I'm going to paint all but the top surface grey/greyblue to emphasize the foggyness of it's purpose.

After some tests covering the shape with grey sugarpaper, I'm really happy with the way it looks next to the lime wood and instrument glass.

Published

2009-04-27T22:29:00.001+01:00

Press and Release

2009-04-27T22:28:00.000+01:00

What is this all about?

2009-04-27T22:20:00.002+01:00

A bit of a long hard slog of a day made me realise that I do know exactly what I am making, who for, and why.
A 'post-it' barrage made me stop thinking negatively and forced me to write and think what I actually feel.

This is a Displacement Engine

It is for a bored, disillusioned and fractious person who dreams far too much and works far too much.

It was designed because sometimes we need to be given a bit of a push to lose our track of time and space, and explore our environment more. Because routine is repetitive and dull.

It generates a desired heading for you to get home, disregarding any distance/ time/ and normal roads & paths & routes.

Reflections on MAKE

2009-04-27T22:18:00.001+01:00

Some feelings about my presentation at the crit were that I was presenting my product in a negative light, and also that it should be less woody!

Strange Objects

2009-04-27T22:08:00.003+01:00

Hello My Name is...

2009-04-27T22:04:00.003+01:00

...'A Displacement Engine'

Steel Nets

2009-04-27T22:03:00.004+01:00

Cinematic & Film Light Meters

2009-04-27T21:57:00.003+01:00

Box Brownie

2009-04-10T18:12:00.002+01:00

Influenced

2009-04-10T16:22:00.001+01:00

Downsizing

2009-04-10T16:19:00.001+01:00

Circuit

Ordering Glass

2009-04-10T16:10:00.001+01:00

Fine Needlework

2009-04-10T15:56:00.003+01:00

This is my original needle movement, very large and very rectangular, with no proper way to support it. I really wanted to use a vintage movement in a new housing, so I made my first purchase on ebay (I know, it's taken this long to break down my fear of paypal!). I bought a lovely handheld voltmeter and a boxed GPO galvonometer, and a brand new car voltmeter, all fantastic but their movements were far too big.
In the end I had to modernise and bulk buy school supplies! Voltmeters with tiny movements, and tiny needles which I will replace with my own paper or aluminium needles.

Lime

2009-04-10T15:44:00.004+01:00

Not just a tasty fruit!

I took a little roadtrip to Oakley, to browse the sheds of Scottish Wood.
http://www.scottishwood.co.uk/index.htm

I'd been instructed by Gus to look at lime wood as a possible option for the shell housing of my
product, because of it's linear and lightly coloured grain (which also has threads of grey grain in it).
Looking at the rough bare wood I didn't believe him, but looking through samples of sanded and finished woods it was clear that the subtle hints of grey would work well for my product.

I bought some oak too, it was only £1.

I set to work straight away and cut 8 blocks bigger than the size I needed (lets be honest I'm going to mess a lot of them up!) and I drilled 50mm holes for the glass.

Milling and it's Hazards

2009-04-10T15:40:00.006+01:00

Card Wood Glass

2009-04-10T15:40:00.001+01:00

I Heart Glass

2009-04-10T15:39:00.003+01:00

Timepieces

2009-04-10T15:38:00.002+01:00

What's a Matchbox?

2009-03-30T21:01:00.006+01:00

What is a matchbox? A handy container for lighting implements or for keeping pet ants? A tool in a magic trick?
Or is it a pocket-sized memento, an interactive firestarter, which needs such a precise action to create the spark that keeps you warm/ satisfies your nicotine craving/ lets you see when the power has been cut off?

The latter is my favourite, when you're sat in an electrical storm and the lights go out there's a kind of strange transformation and you huddle round the fireplace, carry lit tapers or candles from room to room. You fall over the dog and end up making each other laugh (at least you do in my house).
Mainly because there is nothing else to do but also because suddenly you're free. No television, no internet, no twitter updates...without electricity and media we are entirely defunct beings in this modern world, and as such we have to actually communicate rather than instructing our laptop screens to deliver our dull messages to an ever so noisy and increasingly deaf world.

I think that's abstract enough for now, but my point is media led technology only severs us from our actual 'role' as living beings, we occupy our time with pointless blabber about action while we sit passive and catatonic.
We transmit our message every single moment of the day, where we are, what we are doing, how we feel, but blogging that is just like holding up a camcorder lens to a supernova, concentrating on the focus and the framing but failing to realise your imminent death.

Too dramatic? Well no actually, however engaging you are in your writing that can never compare to really experiencing something or indeed talking to your friends about it around a fireplace in the dark.
Getting out there and experiencing it is the only thing that will make us human beings again.

My product is a matchbox, a device that sparks the imagination which lets you see when all the lights in your head have gone out. And it doesn't need an internet connection.

"Distribution of time is the role of technology today. Technology doesn't give us any greater intensity, but it interrupts us differently" Paul Virilio - Timepieces I shall talk about "Timepieces" in the next blog, I've taken up enough space today already.

The matchbox just keeps your matches dry.

Trust Me...

2009-03-23T16:52:00.005Z

Lasercut models really helped me to visualize my design quickly, and I knew I had to change some of the main dimensions.

And it seems I've decided on a form (well until I get it made and tested!) I'm really happy to have a simple shape, which will be abused and critiqued by my users.

Trust me on this...

Navigation Control

2009-03-23T16:42:00.007Z

Shapes

2009-03-23T16:35:00.003Z

Seethroughness (new adjective)

2009-02-27T16:57:00.002Z

I want to describe the feeling of looking through something to reveal another thing underneath, like a magnifying glass on a fineprint book, or a magnifier on a 35mm slide. revealing something through glass is exciting and gives depth. I want a needle that will be the main interface for a user, to be suspended between two glass plates, like a nautical compass floating and hesitating in the enclosed air.

What will I be?

2009-02-27T16:40:00.007Z

It's taking forever to get a viable and realistic design for the appearance of my product, but I suppose all this iteration will lead somewhere!

A few of my first ideas revolved around the concept of straying away from normality and normal routines but still having a link to your home.

Obviously Impractical on many levels, having a piece of string tied to your home is not a good idea, but this is part of the metephor I'm trying to get across. Take risks because you're always going to find your way back home, no matter how long it may take.

Changing Mood

2009-02-09T15:02:00.005Z

Finds

2009-02-09T14:57:00.004Z

Often found late after lunch haunting antique and charity shops, I picked up some things to make me think about what I'm actually doing, here are some pretty photos of them:

Still thinking about scales, and dials and all things circular or cylindrical...

Dandella

2009-02-09T12:58:00.003Z

I am still scratching my head trying to decide the form and absolute function of my object.

Richard Banks had a little look at it in its current form this afternoon, and liked the idea of the blips in accuracy (as there is discrepancy in accuracy with geocaching). He showed me the concept of Dandella, a pair of devices which change blue or red depending if you are hot or cold in reference to a certain point or destination:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/16/dandella-handheld-gps-devices-simplify-navigation/

Review

2009-01-31T12:21:00.007Z

After a slightly shaky and worrying presentation yesterday, Jon was talking about the notion of Home, and trusting an object to get you home, this has prompted some doubt in my mind (still) about what constitutes 'risk' and 'safe', am I giving people freedom to do what they want without worrying about getting home? Or am I showing people the freedom they could have if they trusted an object to take them somewhere they weren't expecting? Tricky stuff...

On the note of safety Tom sent me a link to an RCA alumni page with this object on it:

http://www.interaction.rca.ac.uk/people/alumni/07-09/hayeon-yoo/projects/project2.html

It's a compass which points to a loved one (who is carrying a similar compass) and also works out the distance and displays the length of time it would take for them to meet, providing a boundary of ‘relief’, ‘intimacy’, ‘freedom’, or ‘surveillance’ depending on the relationship. This is lovely and I especially love the dial but what does it mean for my project? I am slightly scared of the 'surveillance' aspect (as noted in previous blogs) but want to spend this week chatting, gathering, and sketching to understand my own point of view.

Where to Next?

2009-01-30T01:50:00.003Z

The only way is up (as Yazz and the plastic population said) and I am more determined than ever to make my project a success. I want it to be beautifully made so I will have to brush up on my making skills, and although I still have no idea exactly how it will look or work I know I have to make these next three weeks before design lock as exciting, gruelling and challenging as possible if I'm to be satisfied with what I have achieved.

Guiding Fate?

2009-01-30T01:45:00.002Z

Jon and I discussed the purpose of my device the other day, which is still not really decided, and he mentioned using my 'compass' as a blind-dating tool. Meeting and missing people and making and breaking relationships is the foundation of everyday lives and this could be a possible direction for my project.

Here is a website sort of on the theme of exploring the outdoors and dating like minded people:

http://www.thedateoutdoors.com/

Plan for MAKE

2009-01-30T01:16:00.004Z

Cannot be doing with excel Gantt charts so this is my preliminary plan for the MAKE stage.

Networking Through the Medium of GPS

2009-01-29T23:37:00.005Z

There are so many tons of networking tools and apps on the web and devices that it's a wonder we venture outside at all, but perhaps surprising to some people networkers are always inventing new ways to meet people and see places. Nothing new there really, everyone throughout history has strived for discovery but the difference in modern times is that everybody wants to tell the world what they have seen, and instantly, there is no waiting, no expectancy, and hence a lot of noise...

Here are some tools which use geography to meet and show off:

http://www.geocaching.com/

http://www.inbetwixt.com/

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

Explorers

2009-01-29T22:22:00.003Z

Looking to the stereotypical vision of explorers and navigators trekking across uncharted lands is reminiscent of a bygone time when parts of the earth were inaccessible. I want to recreate that feeling of discovery and uncovering new things through exploration by using my device.

Someone Watching Over Me?

2009-01-29T22:10:00.006Z

Track your loved ones? This has always sounded creepy to me, yeah you can keep tabs on your child, but you can't do anything about it if they get kidnapped. And this has so many sinister applications it's surely more and more evidence for an over-security-concious and surveillence society. It shouldn't be allowed.

Exploring Luggage

2009-01-29T21:52:00.005Z

After success with cutting up a much loved book I am beginnning to come around to the idea that this object is something you'd find in an old-fashioned explorers backpack, a little bit battered and broken with handles and straps. I'd like it if it was something rather larger than an average handheld device or wasn't hand held at all, if it was attached to clothing or worn like a tie or socks then I think it would appear weirder and more interesting.

Am I Going the Right Way?

2009-01-29T20:09:00.005Z

I was walking into university and thought I'd turn on my model to see if I could either lead myself the correct way or get completely lost. Progress was somewhat hampered by the early rush hour traffic and buldings/ fences getting in my way, (I am quite a clumsy person without these added hazards!) But I did end up where I should have been - the studio - although it did provide me with a 3 storey building to scale, perhaps altitude should be a factor...

There are a few little bugs lurking in the code, which make the needle spin back to zero, this means that the direction isn't as clear as I'd like, but I know this is only a coding problem and shouldn't take too long to wring out.

Lose Yourself

2009-01-29T15:30:00.001Z

Get Lost, Lose Yourself, Find Yourself. Lables and community tagging.

Book Navigation

2009-01-29T15:27:00.003Z

Putting things in a book to protect and to disguise.

I was turfing out all of my cupboards trying to find a suitable box or recepticle to putmy circuit in and to protect it while I test it. I had a brainwave and cut out the centre of an old book (feeling almost trecherous) but it seemed to do the trick and stopped all the leads from falling out or getting damp, also less suspicious when I walk around in public...

I also cut out a hole for a dial to be set into the book, giving it the look of some strange old fashioned inventors cast-off!

I was worried at first that the GPS module wouldn't be able to 'see' the satellites underneath lots of pages and a thick binding, but not so, the module works just as well and I really want to develop this idea of sneaking away the unsightly electronics, and making it seem as if the unit works by using something other than GPS or electric jiggerypokery!

Mock Mittens

2009-01-29T15:12:00.004Z

A pair of mittens which glow on the right or left depending on where the device calculates you should go.
Just another way of displaying orders or data to the user.

I've Been Driving in my Car

2009-01-29T15:12:00.003Z

I nestled my little GPS circuit into a book and took it for a test drive, literally!
I hooked up my laptop to the circuit mounted on the dashboard of my car and started driving to see that the data pulled up on my screen changed as my position changed ( I am amazed that the unit is so precise, after only a few yards on the road the units speed calculates that my heading has changed).
I stopped and parked on a street and hand calculated my heading and roughly calculated the heading I needed to get 'HOME' and then cross-referenced it with the readings from my unit. When I was to the East or the West of 'HOME' then the microcontroller gave accurate heading calculations, but when I was either North or South it gave crazy figures ranging from 1000 to 7000 degrees, hmmmm I think there is a bug in the code somewhere!

I then drove on farther afield up to the Kingsway, and had good intentions of filming the unit on the dashboard but I witnessed a robbery from PC world and didn't really want to advertise my very expensive equipment! Nevertheless this has given me new hope that my unit will work.

Signposts

2009-01-29T14:53:00.002Z

Signposts, and misleading people. This area was something I wanted to look into in much more detail but haven't really had the oppourtunity. Obviously I want to send people off into the 'wilderness' to make their own paths but I have to give them some kind of guidance, giving away nothing doesn't make an exciting trail. Maybe games like sardines or hide and seek could help me hmmm...

Trails and Tribulations

2009-01-29T14:50:00.003Z

Following a trail, getting off the track, less travelled routes.
I'm not entirely sure how I want my product to work, or indeed what is the best way for people to interact with it, these are questions I need to answer in the next section of the design process as I move into make I need to decide on exactly what it will do.
Various examples of data overlay on GPS information have already been explored by others.
A postcode scanner made by Andy Law, highlights a group of postcodes in London when you point in one direction, you can calculate how many people live in that direction, and perhaps meet them:

Over Christmas my family and I walked on a couple of different trails, one around the Eden Project (half with ice skates on...) and another in a managed woodland near home, these sorts of established tracks are great for those who wish to follow structured and I suppose 'safe' routes but when I wandered off the marked path in the woodland we found a frozen lake that we had never seen before - despite living near the woods for twnety years.

Social Flares

2009-01-29T14:47:00.001Z

Letting other people publicly know you are in a network, you are searching/ finding.

Just some other ideas I had for Visual Beacons, message spreading and social flares. Using a memorable red balloon to 'tag' yourself or your possessions or your phone, and setting off the flare to alert, surprise or distract others. Also you can't help smiling at a cheerful balloon!

Another way is visualising messages and directions as floating (on water or in the air) objects which bunch up and get crumpled, corrupted, and sometimes don't reach their destination. Like these paper boats and swans they get caught in corners and become extended and their original meaning confused.

Behaviour Etiquette

2009-01-29T14:45:00.000Z

Pictures of how it might work, what can it do?

Other FINDs

2009-01-29T14:43:00.002Z

Let Me Play, and Sewn-in connection patches are still ideas i'd like to hold onto, mostly because I like the subtlety and hidden nature of the patch, and the showy and proud essence of a visual beacon.

FIND makes PLAY

2009-01-29T14:40:00.006Z

Moving onwards into PLAY promised to be fun, but with all my electrical problems I'd not really had time to think about what the thing would look like or what specifically it would do.
This group of concepts all came from one set of insights that were striving for change, whether it was a life that needed direction, or a choice that needed to be made a lot of the people I talked to wanted something to urge them to make a decision.

Finding lots and lots of things and creating 100 ideas made it really difficult to cast some aside and focus on the best. Of course it was easy to chuck the bad ones but I've never been very good at letting go of ideas that I put a lot of effort into creating. from talking to all the visitors from Microsoft, Nokia and NCR I felt re-vitalised about the prospects for the framework of my project.

Hearing Bill Gaver talk about the research conference he is planning on attending, I became intrigued by Jonthan Grudin and his theory of how ambiguity and sloppiness has been lost through the contemporary means of communication. There is no longer a grey area for lies and forgetfullness because the technology is demanding honesty and makes not doing something unacceptable.

I want to re-assess this but by possibly changing our view of technology as a higher being which is infallable, perhaps sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it becomes something else, darker, more unreliable and more likely to lead you astray...

Sketching broader directions for my project took up pages and pages of my sketchbooks, but I'm still finding it difficult to decide where to go.

Basically my project is still about risk but I think it is more about trusting yourself to take a risk and not follow set rules, maybe to waste time, maybe to lose sight of the horizon for a little bit, maybe breaking away from one network to find another better one.

Controlling a Needle

2009-01-29T14:38:00.000Z

The dials that I bought from various junk shops all work differently but in one way or another they all respond predictably to current, I chose one of the electrawind dials to use as a simple demontrating pointer for my model in this stage of PLAY. After working with PWM codes in previous years I felt safe with just plugging a dial into the circuit and tinkering with numbers to change the output voltage, but this certain dial was very sensitive and I had to quickly tone down the voltage I was giving it.
A PWM or pulse width modulation will change a digital on/ off signal into analogue voltage, by switching a pin on a microcontroller on and off very quickly you can effectively create a proportional voltage depending on the ratio of the on/ off cycle.
In this way I can control my dial and make it point straight on, left or right simply by altering the effective voltage it recieves.

main:
PWM 13,39,255

SOHCAHTOA and all his Friends

2009-01-29T14:36:00.000Z

Bearing theory seemed pretty simple in my mind, I remember orienteering on Dartmoor as a kid and calculating a bearing angle was as easy as finding a point on an OS map and then correlating it to my current heading.
And really this should be exactly the same when using a microcontroller, but of course an electronic device can only do what it is told, if you are too vague or expect the device to make illogical decicions then all you recieve is gobbledegook!
And so began a week of stumbling through GCSE maths, trigonometry, and lovable pythagorus!

To start I began trying to decode and deconstruct a few online samples of code for calculating headings, from this early stage it was obvious I needed some help, Mike Shorter came to my aid and we tried to work through the code together. Firstly we decided we needed to divide the hemisphere around a point called 'HOME' into four quadrants, one NE, two SE, three SW, and four NW. And to know which quarant we were currently in we had to get the bs2 to decide whether our latitude was higher or lower than Home_Lat, and whether our longitude was higher or lower than Home_Lon using > and <>

By taking away the Home_Lat from Current_Lat and Home_Lon from Current_Lon we could triangulate our position and 'draw' a right angled triangle between Home and Current positions. Knowing two lengths we find the other by using Pythagorean theory: a2 = b2 + c2, we asked the chip to calculate the hypotenuse length, and then by using SOHCAHTOA ruling we chose to calculate the angle so: sin Angle = Opposite/ Hypotenuse.

Theoretically by knowing our current heading, we can ask the bs2 to decide whether or not to correct our heading clockwise or anticlockwise and to show us by hooking up either a dial, set of LEDs or a servo.

This took the best part of a day to get our heads around and a further week and a half to tinker with the code but in the end I have a code which I fully understand and it works! HURRAH!

I know exactly where I am...

2009-01-29T14:30:00.000Z

Getting the GPS to work at some points has seemed really tough, but by having some snippets of code from parallax was a great help.

The code I had from before Christmas needed to be extended and refined for use with a bs2 module, here is the screen-print for the first time I was able to 'listen' in on the conversation my GPS was having with the satellites:

Happily my GPS module can be put into a 'smart mode' so that it outputs parsed data (which you can request specifically) rather than raw NMEA data which takes a heck of a lot more code to understand.

The code can be broken down into four main stages, they are Constants (CON), Variables (VAR), Data Identification (SERIN, SEROUT), and Printing. The bs2 chip differentiates between constants and variables and is told to allocate bit, byte, or word space accordingly to variables so that it can use the data stored there to perform functions and do calculations.

valid VAR Byte ' signal valid? 0 = not valid, 1 = valid

sats VAR Byte ' number of satellites used in positioning calculations

tmHrs VAR Byte ' time fields

tmMins VAR Byte

tmSecs VAR Byte

day VAR Byte ' day of month, 1-31

month VAR Byte ' month, 1-12

year VAR Byte ' year, 00-99

degrees VAR Byte ' latitude/longitude degrees

minutes VAR Byte ' latitude/longitude minutes

minutesD VAR Word ' latitude/longitude decimal minutes

dir VAR Byte ' direction (latitude: 0 = N, 1 = S, longitude: 0 = E, 1 = W)

heading VAR Word ' heading in 0.1 degrees

alt VAR Word ' altitude in 0.1 meters

speed VAR Word ' speed in 0.1 knots

Then by plugging the variable into a command the stamp knows which bit of information to deal with, and how.

To get Latitude position my code will perform this function, serout - send a 'wake up' command to gps and also 'request' specific information :

Get_Lat: SEROUT Sio, Baud, ["!GPS", GetLat]

Serin - pull in the information that the gps should be outputting, divide it into degrees, minutes, and deicmal minutes:

SERIN Sio, Baud, 3000, No_Response, [degrees, minutes, minutesD.HIGHBYTE, minutesD.LOWBYTE, dir] ' convert decimal minutes to tenths of seconds

Debug - send the data to the computer console:

DEBUG MoveTo, FieldLen, 12, DEC3 degrees, DegSym, " ", DEC2 minutes, MinSym, " "

DEBUG DEC2 (workVal / 10), ".", DEC1 (workVal // 10), SecSym, " "

DEBUG "N" + (dir * 5)

DEBUG " (", " " + (dir * 13), DEC degrees, ".", DEC4 workVal, " ) "

RETURN

This structure is roughly followed for all parts of the data that I want to receive from the GPS module. For my simple idea I only need to know if there is a valid signal from the satellites, my co-ordinates, and my heading, this means that there will be more byte space for other program functions. Here is my little scaled down circuit:

Observing Stars

2009-01-27T13:55:00.001Z

After a difficult day in the studio I decided to take a walk to Mills Observatory on Balgay Hill. I didn't know what kind of bearing this would have on my project but I wanted to learn more about navigation using stars

Unfortunately my camera batteries decided to die as soon as I walked up the hill, (a quick snap of the outside was all it could muster before refusing to turn on!) but undeterred I decided to have a look around.

Inside there are various displays on viewing and navigating in space, fantastic photographs of star systems and celestial groupings. And in the planetarium a giant telescope for viewing the night sky.

As per usual in Dundee it was fairly cloudy and a guide told me that they wouldn't be able to turn on the telescope. This wasn't a great trip but it did teach me some things about navigation and plotting your position on earth, maybe I can reference some of this later in my development of a final idea. Perhaps like this:

New Year, New Chips!

2009-01-27T13:10:00.000Z

Returning to the studio for 2009 brought new disappointment. I spent a further two days beating (metaphorically) the hell out of many varying sizes of picaxe chips. I finally gave in and asked for help on the picaxe forum, but despite their speed and accuracy they had to inform me that it was in-fact impossible to get a 28X1 to serin and serout on a single pin, but that an 08M might just work!
This added to my stress but with new determination I set about building more circuits.

Unfortunately this didn't work either and the chip didn't have enough memory to do the calculations I required, my final resort was to try another basic stamp which I procured (stole with permission!) from Lyle in the electronics lab. And finally on Friday the 16th I got my gps to tell me exactly where I was! HOORAY!! The bits of digital technology talk to each other!!

But to get it to work in the studio I needed to acquire a desktop pc with serial ports to use at my desk. This done I worked all weekend to get my dials to display a pointing direction by using a pwm command to send differing voltage values out of a pin, calibrated to the value shown on the dial.

An Experience Sketch

2009-01-27T12:05:00.000Z

A little jaunt on the moors to explain what kind of functionality (on a very small scale) could be created by using a dial and pointer. I did this over christmas while waiting for new picaxe chips!

Welcoming easier blogging!

2009-01-27T12:03:00.000Z

I have moved my blog here to Blogger so I can upload better quality videos and images, long may it continue!!