First contact with Arduino

This thursday we started with Arduino and fritzing.  

Arduino is a single-board microcontroller, intended to make the application of interactive objects or environments more accessible. The hardware consists of an open-source hardware board designed around an 8-bit Atmel AVR microcontroller, or a 32-bit Atmel ARM.

Fritzing is an open source software initiative to support designers and artists ready to move from physical prototyping to actual product. It was developed at the University of Applied Sciences of Potsdam.

We started with some basics and simple scripting. The first task was to make an electric circuit and to get some lights working. We connected the hardware with the computer with the help of the Arduino software. After that we learned about Fritzing and how we can explore the Arduino stuff in a digital way (Fritzing helps you to test things without the danger of making mistakes).

We also imitated a traffic light system with 3 RGB lights. They glow after a certain order (scripting).

Read More

Unity, Kinect and Zigfu

In one lessons of Interactive Systems we learned that we could connect the Microsoft Kinect to Unity 3D. Therefore we needed a plugin that hels us connect both systems and work with them. The plugin ist called Zigfu. It is an easy way to make and play Kinect apps. You just have to download the plugin, hook up your sensor, and try it out.

We tried some standard things that were already within the plugin. Our body was captured and we could move some game characters with our own body movement.

We then created an interaction: With hand movements we could move objects to the background or to the foreground. We could let the objects transform into particles or let them shine, disappear or something like that. It made a lot of fun to change the effects, objects and so on just by replacing it. The main core stayed the same but the possibilities of changing were almost endless.

We had some difficulties by connecting the Kinect to a Mac (it works better with Windows) and sometimes the Kinect could not catch our movements exactly. But generally speaking it worked quite well and inspired us a lot.

Read More

Unity 3D Project

For the course Interactive Systems we had to make a project in a game-like oder philosophical way. So I decided to create a mystical, fantasy world. The world is divided into different zones that can be explored. The main zone is the area around the lake. Besides there is a desert with almost nothing except a small oasis. At last there is a big wood.

I started with a terrain and a directional light. I then created a mountain area with a pointed appearance wo get a more fantasy touch. The water was added to create a lake and a hill that became the island.

I painted the terrain with trees, grass and texture to get a more realtistic look.

After that I built a bridge for the 3rd person controller so that he can cross the lake without touching the water. The bridge is made out of different objects and overcast with a texture. The cylinders have flames on it. Furthermore there are different point lights over the bridge so that it seems that the bridge is a rainbow bridge (with several colours).

On the island you can find particle systems, transparent balls with a flame structure and physics (rigid body) and also a column that plays music if the controller hits it.

The island is the starting point of the player. Several particle systems come out of it in different colours, speeds and sizes.

On one side of the mountains there are 3 waterfalls. The biggest one on the left side is made by my on particle system and a png picture. The two waterfalls on the right are adapted stocks.

The picture I used for my own waterfall.

To cross the bridge the player has to jump (press start) so that the blocking objects disappears. After that there is another cube that can be changed in its colour by pressing certain keys (for example R for red or G for green).

Here is the script for it:

Read More