This week, I started to tie up the ends of my code in the first part of my arduino project. I focused on implementing the timing of my song (Angry Bird’s).
Originally, I set my note duration to 1000ms, however when playing it back I realised that this was far too long. With some trial and error I realised that 200 ms was a perfect duration time so I changed it.
In my code, I was planning on having a lastState variable which was going to check if the button had been pressed or let go of. Without the commented code, when I held the button on my arduino, it gave a satisfying blurred effect. I really liked this effect so I decided to change my code for stylistic purposes.
When taking a look at the different sensors I could choose for my 2nd half of my Arduino project, I was really interested in the colour, water and fire sensors.
In the past I have heard of a pen that was planned to be designed that could take colour input from the environment from some kind of sensor. The pen itself was a scam project, but the colour sensor made me realize that this could be possible if combined with some kind of printer style pigment adder that’s decided via the sensed colour.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/230659454/scribble-a-revolutionary-pen-that-draws-in-any-col/comments
[an image of how the pen was stated to input colour through its RGB colour sensor]
I was also drawn to the water and flame sensors as typically water and fire are both things that you do not want near computers or machinery. I had the idea of using a flame sensor that people with low vision could place near birthday candles to detect flames, which would be wired to a piezo buzzer so that it triggers when a flame is detected. This wouldn’t work with people who are completely deaf-blind, however only 1% of the deaf blind population is entirely deaf blind out of an estimated 0.2%-2% deaf blind population worldwide. I’d most likely need to use a motion sensor and a vibrating sensor of some kind but for those who are entirely deaf blind — I’m not sure they would be blowing out birthday candles anyway
We also had a guest lecturer this week who showed the class how to use [] to turn an Arduino into midi controller. At first, I had no idea how this was possible but we all eventually got the hang of things. I personally like the idea of it, but the software was very confusing has I have had no experience with online music making programs.
I also attended the final student rep meeting of the year, it was a bit sad knowing that this will be the final session with the current diploma students, however me and one other person shared the feedback we have gained from our respective courses. As a whole though, we are all pretty happy with how our courses are run.
I didn’t realise that being a student rep would feel so fulfilling, but now I’ve learnt I really enjoy getting the opinions of others on my course and sharing them in these rep meetings. Since I am the only rep of my year group and people have feedback I find it a nice way to be able to give those on my course a voice even if they can’t make it to the rep sessions.