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RIVEN RATANAVANH
Week 3: Analog Output
September 28, 2021

I found this week’s labs to be fairly straightforward, but I was satisfied that they led to connecting gesture to motion and sound -- even though I was working with a photocell, which probably isn’t the best source of input. I have definitely noticed gesture is an input that calls to me, though!

I was also happy to continue to find connections with concepts being covered in ICM.  

This week it was the map() function, which is also very similar in p5.js.






Photocell Input to Motor Output:



I also got the photocell to work with a speaker:






Project 1...

For my first project I would like to work again with an analog sensor that I had used in a project in the past: the MyoWare Muscle sensor. When I worked on Full Circle I had no knowledge of concepts like mapping or even checking the value range of the sensor, I just stumbled my way through by adjusting the dial on the sensor. I also didn’t have any of the skills that I have now from ICM. 


Instead of an output on screen, I’d like to output to a mechanical movement to move something like a small mirror, like the ones in this project. I imagine that this would lead to a device for performance, but perhaps it shall reveal itself to be something else along the way.


Alternatively, I’d use a phototransistor as my analog input, build a nice casing for it, the motor, and the mirror, and place the entire element on a windowsill.


(These sketches are chicken scratch but make sense for me. Maybe one day I will regain my ability to draw with patience when I ideate.)


This is the mirror that I would attach to the servo.


And the servo would then move a beam of light around the room, depending on how much sunlight is on the photocell.



I wonder if there’s a way to write a program to calculate for time and the position of the sun in the sky so that the servo motor moves in a way that accounts for the position of the sun in the sky in such a manner that the beam of light stays in a constant place (given constant analog input). That may be beyond the scope of this first project.