9.colour cloud
hands on design
Milan, Italy. December 2006
Color cloud is an interactive installation that spits magic seeds from a color changing cloud into a magic pond (a floor projection) that later will display a series of animations of growing flowers. The interaction is through a handle attached to the cloud that you just have to pull and a the cloud will begin changing colors, spitting seeds into the pond and starts incrementing the sound of the song "She's like a rainbow of the Rolling Stones".
Brief
This project was completed as part of the physical interaction design course taught by Massimo Banzi in May 2006. The assignment was to build an sketch installation in one week, based on the retail context.
Technologies and source code:
Arduino source code
Eyesweb patch (source code)
Flash source
flosc
serial proxy
How it works
RGB numbers are sent through the arduino board to the stirp of LEDs that its in the cloud for the color changing. The cloud is activated by a tilt sensor that lies inside of it, powering also the spitting-seeds motor. At the same time, the arduino board is writing the same data into the serial port. Flash later will read this numbers using the serial-proxy and use them for two reasons: paint the flower of the same color of the cloud and control the volume. The server is running eyesweb that is tracking the position of the seeds that land on the projection. Eyesweb sends this data to flash via OSC in a XML like format with FLOSC. Flash receives this data for later knowing exactly where to draw the animation of the flower. Finally, whenever a seed lands into the pond, a flower is drawn.
Components:
arduino board
octocoplers
usb webcam
projector
RGB LED strip
cloud plastic container
DC motor
tilt sensor
usb extension cables x 2
mosfets x 3
seeds
server
speakers
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