michellechandra

When in Doubt, Photograph

October 12, 2013 by michellechandra in Photography

After 6 weeks of dragging my feet, I finally borrowed a Canon 5D from ITP. Luckily for me, the lighting conditions were exactly the kind to cause fireworks in my brain. Serendipity!

Light + Canon 5D = Amazing

I even managed to get a rather nice shot while waiting for the subway. → Read more

Light, Headaches, and Physical Computing

October 10, 2013 by michellechandra in Physical Computing, Processing

I have been busy researching and figuring out my Headache Tracking – Physical Computing project. Today, I had a mind-blowing conversation with Eric Rosenthal. It probably wasn’t very mind-blowing for him. But I left blown away. There are so many awesome things I can do with this project! Therefore, mind-blown.

It’s probably lucky that I think a) light and b) cameras are interesting and have a background in photography as it is definitely going to be helpful in making this project happen.

As I suspected, I will need to measure light as it relates to human perception. Luckily, AMS-TAOS makes sensors/chips that measure illuminance as it relates to human vision. However, human perception of light is beyond what any sensor currently available can measure. → Read more

Physical Computing: Serial Communications

October 6, 2013 by michellechandra in Physical Computing

For the first Serial Communications lab, I decided to test out a small Force Resistor. Here is my setup:

Here is a screenshot of the Force Resistor values graphed: → Read more

Physical Computing: Tone Output, Servo Motor, and Transistor Labs

October 6, 2013 by michellechandra in Physical Computing

Physical Computing has been feeling foreign/abstract still so I decided to dedicate Thurs – Sunday to reviewing concepts and labs as much as possible.

I read the first couple chapters of “Physical Computing” by Dan O’Sullivan and Tom Igoe, which was super helpful in making the material less abstract. I was also able to borrow Make: Electronics, Making Things Move and Fashioning Technology from the New School, ’twas super easy.

It was helpful in last class to team up with Fletcher and use the flex sensor to create sound from a speaker, as I otherwise didn’t know how to attach the sensor to my breadboard, and check the range.

Wish I had taken a video of our tone output lab!

→ Read more

One Day, This Will All Make Sense

September 28, 2013 by michellechandra in Creative Process, Physical Computing

I think it’s interesting how our emotional state affects our abilities and perception of reality. While Norman’s “Emotional Design” focuses on how our emotional state affects our ability to use products, all I could think about after reading the first chapter is how our emotional state affects our ability to be creative and generate ideas.

Norman explains that creative thinking requires being in a positive mood in order to make connections across ideas and space. A positive frame of mind broadens one’s thought processes, allowing one’s thoughts to follow many paths and tangents.

Creativity (and the act of generating ideas!), at least for myself, requires that I be willing to be silly and playful. When I walk around taking photos, I know I probably look strange because 99% of the time I am learning over a wall photographing some mundane water fountain for an hour. I generally figure I am on the right track if no one else follows suit. → Read more

Processing: Conditional Statements

September 24, 2013 by michellechandra in Processing

In last week’s Processing class, we covered Conditional Statements and creating user interface elements such as buttons and rollovers. I tried to take Dan Shiffman’s simple animation of a square moving around the edge of a window and decrease it inwards. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t able to figure it out on my own but luckily Dan showed me how! Creating this new animation required changing the conditional statements so the distance of my traveling square decreased inward from the edge as the animation runs (instead of the square simply looping along the edge of the window).