MIDTERM
Partner: Nakyung Youn
Week 06 - 10/12/2022
Autumn Wind
Instead of doing a Halloween theme project, we took a poetic path, which is making something that reminds its users some memories of fall. As we know, smell is the first sense we develop as human beings — and it strongly and deeply connects our memories. Spring afternoons, summer nights, fall and winter mornings, etc, almost every scene at a certain time of the season has its unique scent. Whenever one smells it, it instantly brings one back to a certain moment in the past. This is our initial idea — we want to do something about wind and scent. At the moment, we are not able to design our own scent machine, so a diffuser from Muji is used. What we are capable of doing is to control a fan, which can start spinning and bring users the scent from the diffuser, along with some wind. An ultrasonic distance sensor is used here — in order to control the fan, we connected a transistor to it so we can control the power, when the user is within a certain range, the fan starts spinning at half of its top speed, when the user is really close, the fan spins at top speed so the user can perhaps feel the wind while smell the scent. A LED light is also added, to give the users a more welcoming light when they approach.
The project stayed quite similar to the sketch from week 05, and we are happy about it. With the time given, we are both proud that everything worked and stayed working before, during, and after the presentation. The schedule was tight — we planned to solve all the technical problems first and then do the assembly without any hassle. Since we had two sensors which each worked individually, instead of spending more time to figure out how to keep both working with one Arduino, we simply used two breadboards and two batteries. That seemed to be the most efficient way to solve and work on the other parts. Our principle was: at least make it work, then upgrade it if time permitted. Eventually, we were able to finish the project on time, in a collaborative way — and time was barely wasted.
Below are the items we utilized in this project:
2 breadboards, 1 Arduino Nano 33 Iot, 1 Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense, a bunch of jump wires, 2 ultrasonic distance sensors, 2 9v batteries
1 Muji Ultrasonic Aroma Diffuser, 1 computer fan - 3-pin 1300 RPM, 1 battery pack - 12V
A basswood box, which is the container of the diffuser, a basswood stand for the breadboards, a foam core box and some gift wraps
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The most difficult part, for both of us, was figuring out the code. For most of the time, both codes were able to run, but not to the same level as we expected. We had to check and recheck the codes. Sometimes loose connections can be annoying as well, but it was totally our fault. If we had more time, we would make both breadboards more presentable — some soldering would definitely be helpful. Assembly was also very fun, we were able to make the final product look pretty and clean. We are both very happy about the appearance of our gift box.
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I personally would like to go down this path, about scent, in my following projects at ITP. I am very interested in how different scents would trigger different moods for users. I think this project is a great start. As mentioned during the review, the height of how we place the project plays a significant role in the presentation, thinking about how others would approach and interact with this box is crucial. There are three things that we would like to figure out if we had more time:
The power for the diffuser. We placed three batteries in the box already to make the box as mobile and independent as possible. However, we still had one core for the Muji diffuser. It would be much easier to carry and tidier if the power for the diffuser was also integrated into the design.
The breadboards, and sensors. I think two breadboards can certainly be combined as one. One Arduino is capable of controlling multiple sensors — this will be achieved in the future projects.
Moisture. The diffuser produces a lot of moisture — more than we imagine — in the basswood box. If the fan stops spinning for a while, the moisture will gather and eventually damp the box, and perhaps harm the circuit of the fan. This is a critical problem, and some research will be done shortly.
I sincerely appreciate the suggestions, help, and critiques from our professor Tom Igoe, my colleagues in class and friends at ITP. I would like to give special thanks to my partner, who patiently worked with me and collaboratively sorted out everything together with me in the past few weeks.