10/07/2002
| brainstorm (thunder lightning)
HI! Today is ‘smart clothes’. I have a few ideas, but the chances of them working is not very good. So, I am going to make clothes that help people. Sounds easy, right? I have to use crickets. They are these little data boards that can control motors. Here are my ideas.
self cooling clothes - cricket runs fan
memo pouch - cricket repeats a prerecorded memo
sock puller-uper - cricket winds up string attached to sock.
sock/shoe fan - fan blows for sweat drier/de-stinker.
bouncy shoes/gloves - spring pops out and bounces.
swimsuit drier - fan blows and dries off.
mud scraper - scrapes mud off pants.
hat reading light - cricket turns on a light attached to a hat.
camera hat - camera inside hat for spying.
Today I want to do my drawings and share them. I also want to share my ideas to the other people in my group.
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This is a machine that was made as a sample. It might be useful for producing ideas. |
10/29/2002
| bzzbzz electricity
Hi again. Today we discussed how the sensors read how much electricity is going through them. All of the sensors are closed circuits. We had to document our thinking on the sensors and what they do.
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11/04/2002
| Play the sensor game
Today we were playing with the sensors again. We have to use sensors for our “smart clothes” and we are learning what all of them can do. My plan is to make a hat with a light sensor. When the sensor hits a certain level of darkness, the light goes on. When it hits a level of light, it goes off. This could be used for late night reading, reading in the dark, or just to see around in the dark. My back-up idea is a hat with a wind sensor. When the wind sensor hits a high level, a parachute pops out of the hat, showing bright colors. Or, it could just be a piece of fabric that flies around in the wind. This would not really help people, but it would be fun. The fabric could say something, or just be a cool design or color. For this, I would need the cricket to push the fabric up and out of the hat. I would need the wind sensor like on the pinwheel. The pinwheel is a well, pinwheel with a sensor attached to it. When you blow on the pinwheel, the sensor reads the air movement over the sensor from the pinwheel. Anyway, when the sensor reads a certain amount of air movement, the fabric piece pops out. You would have to put the fabric or parachute back in yourself.
All the sensors read the same basic thing: how much electricity is going through it. Whether it be by touch, pressure, temperature, air movement, or reflectors. I can use all the sensors, and motors too.
Now, we also learned about the motors. The little red motor is the smallest, and the slowest, but kind of strong. The square motor is fast, but not very strong. The round bottom motor is in the middle. It moves kind of fast, and is kind of strong. All of these motors are accessible to us.
Well, it’s time to leave. I will work on my ideas over the week.
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This is a cricket and two sensors. |
11/11/2002
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Playing with crickets (cheep)
Today we separated into two groups. My group was with Kristen, one of the classes mentors. We were playing with the light sensor, making it beep and play a song when it read a certain level of light. We were trying to get it to only play the song once, but to continue running the program. The program we are using, Logo Blocks® is very nice. It helps us to make our programs, and to download them into the crickets. As we were playing, we discovered many things. Like what exactly ‘if’ and ‘waituntil’ mean. We couldn’t figure it out. How can I make my cricket play its song once, but still run the program? How can I make it so that the song plays in the dark, but will play again if I go into the light, and back into the dark? We tried just using ‘if’ but it didn’t work. The cricket programs are very sensitive, and you really have to learn not to depend on it to do things for you. The crickets don’t have brains, so they can’t think. They are only as smart as we are. That is kind of scary, come to think of it. A computer dumber than me. Anyway, The programs are a challenge that I think I can overcome. I was in a class specifically for crickets two years ago, so this is all relatively familiar to me. The crickets are hard to master, but I WILL WIN!!!
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11/18/2002
| Experimenting Day (kaboom)
Hi. Today we were playing with programming crickets and testing things. I am having a bit of trouble with my cricket and sensor. It seems that I have set my sensor level too high. For the sensor to read the wind, it must be attached to the pinwheel. So, my parachute hat now includes a pinwheel. Indeed. The way that the sensor reads the wind is that it is actually a light sensor attached to different things to change the result. The sensor sees how much light is being reflected into itself, then uses that as its data. The sensor is a little inferred chip that can see light. It’s like in a remote control. The pinwheel is shiny, so light reflects in and it registered as, well, light to this sensor. That’s about all I did today... I will be back next week!
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This is my project right now. |
12/02/2002
| building day (hammer)
About all I did today was build. I am trying new ways to get the parachutes out of the hat. I am trying tubes right now. The cricket needs to pull or push the parachute out of a tube, and I am having a good time with trying to do that. I might be using a gear type thing to push. There are these little teeth type things, and you can attach them to legos, then use gears and motors to push the teeth type things out of the tube. I haven’t tried anything with pulling yet, but I am a bit afraid of tangling with motors and string. I am sorry I do have not entry for last week, and unfortunate accident caused me to delete it, and I am quite out of time, so I will talk to you next week. |
This is the materials I am using for the parachutes. |
12/09/2002
| up and down
Once again, all I did was build stuff. I am making a contraption to move the legos up and down to push my little parachute dudes from the tube. This is quite complicated, considering the cricket motors only go in circles. I need to use gears and such to push up a little sticky thingy with bottle caps on the ends. Next week I need to reprogram and make the tube and all kinds of stuff. The teachers are yelling at me to go clean up my legos. Bye bye. |
This is the bucket I am using for a hat. |
02/03/2003
| almost done!!!
Wow. So much has changed in the past few weeks. Now, my motor is pushing a gear, which, in turn, moves a long piece of lego with caterpillar gears on it. The legos have a bottle cap glued to the end, which pushes the styrofoam balls that I am now using as ‘parachutes’ from the tube. After a long while of trying to get the parachutes to come out, I decided to use lightweight styrofoam balls that I have painted instead. These are better because the motor could not get enough strength to move the parachutes out of the tube. I have partially made the hat, it is cut and painted. Kristen and I tested some other materials, but I found that this one works the best. I still need to find a way to make it fit my head, then cut the holes for the styrofoam balls to come out of. This will not be too difficult, I have most of it done already. The hat is constructed from a bucket type thing I found in the supplies room. I cut it in half, and painted it. The one half will go on top of the other, creating a small shelf where the cricket and motors will live. The bucket will be cut in certain areas, making room for the gears to come out and the styrofoam balls to shoot out of. This should only take about 1 week to complete, and I will be done!
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This is me putting the styrofoam balls into the tube. The whole contraption is sitting on the top level of the hat. |
02/10/2003
| My project is done! Today I was cutting holes for the balls to come out of, putting velcro on the legos so they dont fall off, perfecting my program, and gluing various things. I have decided not to use the wind sensor because it would mean attaching the pinwheel to the hat, which I am not sure about doing because it might be difficult, and look dumb. The hat is painted, cut, sized, and I have tried it out on my head. Everything works!
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This is all the machinery in the hat. |
02/23/2003
| In response to my last entry, I lied. I was not done, but I was very close. Today I attached a touch sensor for ease. It was difficult to reach into the top of the hat, find the ‘run’ button, push it, and do that again and again. I also added a loop to the program, so I don't have to reach into the hat at all, I can just push the switch and the program starts. I took many pictures, and Kristen videotaped my project working. I think I am ready for the exhibition on March 10th. Everything on my project works (most of the time) and I think I have it all figured out!
You can watch a movie of my finished hat. |
This is my completed project. |
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