Propinquity

Team
Jason de Ruña, Ashley Engelhardt, Jordan Fugate

Individual Contribution
Physical Prototyping
Video Production

Overview
In my Physical Games & Interactive Media class, our team designed a light piece visualizing viewers movements. The goal of this project is to provide opportunities for social engagement with a playful light display.

As people engage with the installation, sensors will detect their proximity and change the light patterns accordingly. Having three proximity sensors enable multiple viewers to interact with the piece together, even cooperatively. Once our team finished the installation, we publicly displayed it and observed people's behavior. There were some interesting reactions and we even noticed some instances of play.

Design
The proximity sensors will detect multiple ranges. For example, an individual viewing the piece within a range of 20 feet will see the lights configured in a certain patterns. The pattern will change within a range of 15 feet, change within 10 feet, and so on for each column.

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Three Maxbotix ultrasonic range finders are mounted at the bottom of the wooden casing. Each sensor is connected to an Arduino Duemilanove board and programmed with interactions controlling superbright tri-color LEDs.

Lessons Learned
Due to the small distance between each sensor, the beam widths collided with each other causing interference. This resulted in light flickering, making it very difficult for users to associate their movements with the light patterns. We programtically calibrated and adjusted the beam widths to make it more narrow, which improved the flickering.

Project Materials
Arduino Duemilanove, Superbright LEDs, Maxbotix Ultrasonic Range Finders

More Information
Project Duration: 5 weeks
Displayed at Audio and Video Happy Hour
Photos: From Concept to Creation