Maker Skills and Attitude:

What did i learn?

This week we learned a new program called Processing. Moritz has given us a course in which it has taught us to make different forms. These shapes could be changed in position, color and effect. We also learned to change a background.

Collaborative Learning:

This week we all learned things from Moritz. It was nice to link your Arduino code to a new environment. The tutorials of Moritz were very clear and well prepared. Furthermore, we have had few collaborations except that I got help from Kaj when suddenly nothing worked.

Arduino code

Processing code:

Fritzing HC SR04

FINAL TOOL:
Normally, I work from a design point of view. This time, I chose to choose understanding the software over design. A kind of less is more. With the Arduino and Processing programs, I can make a lot of beautiful things in the future. The technique was very instructive for me.

Distance read from Arduino

extra lesson from Kaj!

Moritz tutorial

Fritzing HC SR04

FEEDBACK SHIRLEY! V2! The bar indicates the normal distance to read the letters as a reference.
If you can't read the letters in the green part, the tool indicates that you need glasses.

PART 2:

This tool contains several elements to ensure that the user knows what to do. Let's start with the most striking title. At first one thinks "from what distance can you read THIS?". This means that the user thinks it's about the sentence itself. Still, a lot of people will immediately notice the ABC DEF. To solve this problem, the sentence with the question in it must be deleted as soon as the distance sensor detects movement for more than 3 seconds.

The letters in the question is about are very obvious at the moment. Even if you are too close and you see the letters, you already know the answer. To solve this problem, the letters can change as soon as the sensor detects movement that is closer or further away than 20cm.

To give the user feedback, two elements have been used. 1. the distance in cm and 2. the bar at the bottom that indicates whether you need glasses or not. For the bar I chose the color green as good and the color red as bad. Still, bad is not the right name. Your eyes can be less good but that is not necessarily bad. Your eyes can also be a bit good. Maybe an orange color is a good addition to warn the user that the eyes are getting worse.

The glasses in the upper right corner give the feedback the user doesn't want to hear, hence the red color. Yet wearing glasses is quite modern nowadays. I should have opted for an eye instead of a pair of glasses. Only one sees it as "your eyes are bad you need glasses".

The whole tool is designed to make people aware of their vision. In the Netherlands, 93% of 65+ people have glasses. This means that everyone's eyes get worse as they get older. Often it is also the case that one of the eyes is only bad. Then this tool can also be used with a covered eye.

Moritz! Now we talking!!

First time working with Fritzing. In my CMD study I used Arduino more often and this program is very useful to make a visual of any arduino board combined with sensors. I found out that there is a whole community that helps people with Arduino but also with the program processing which I will come back to in a moment. This makes it very useful for me as a starting maker. Should I come up with challenging ideas further on in the minor, then I can make use of them.

Processing
Never heard of this program but now I can make data visuals using my own data. Processing linked to Arduino is quite a revelation for me. Also of this program many examples can be found on the internet of people with the same creative ideas. I found it a difficult program to learn in one week. I will try to broaden my knowledge in the future. I was inspired by new possibilities.

What did i learn?
Processing
Fritzing
Processing + Arduino combined
Working together with Asle
A good tutorial from Moritz
All kind of new idea inspiration

Making the code!

After the Moritz tutorial it was quite difficult to get started with the program. I challenged myself to search the internet for specific pieces of code to make my sensor visible. In the end it was all easy than I had expected (because of Kaj who helped me). It was just another new kind of code that I had to teach myself. Something that is more often necessary in my training. Still, this took me a lot of time so it was a bit at the expense of the design. I made a very clean design. Especially I tried to center texts in processing and try to put all images and items in the right place.