Hello to everyone! Here I have two concepts to share with all of you and I would love to hear some feedback or adds to the current designs!
Design one: Dandelion Flower
The sketch I have above is a detailed visual representation of an idea I have from the first day of this class. It is a dandelion flower in its bloom, representing the inconsistency of the hope that always lives in all of us.
If we talk about the technical part of it, ideally, I’d like the little “parachutes” to light up whenever they are connected to the body of the flower and fade down whenever they are disconnected. Sketch contains some of my ideas of how it can be turned into life, however, I’m not exactly sure on how it can be performed, so any ECE help would be greatly appreciated!
Design 2: Music Box Toy
As it might be seen from the sketch, this idea is much rawer since I came up with it recently.
I also feel that it might be a little confusing to understand what exactly I’m trying to show so I’d add more descriptive details.
The technical concept of this design is similar to the most basic music toy box: turning the key loads the spring inside of the little box. Therefore, spring’s release produces torque and makes the plate (with some pattern (or symmetrical picture)) rotate while being lightened up from the bottom.
I’ll definitely continue to work on it in case we decide that this concept might work out better in the context of this class
Please, let me know which one you like more and why and I’ll do my best to reflect on it!
I quite like your dandelion idea! I can’t really speak in terms of how the electricity will work out for charging the parachutes, and with them holding on to a fading charge, but I can say it could be quite time consuming making the little parachutes depending on how many you plan to create. I think if you happened to make a handful and filled in the rest of the flower with simple fuzz it would still look fine. But do you plan to fill in the whole flower with the detachable parachutes, or only certain parts of it?
That’s a good question I didn’t think about before.. Well, I definitely know that the flower itself would be bigger in size than the real flowers. Therefore, the parachutes would be bigger as well to simplify my work on them
I guess I’ll try to do all of my parachutes interactive, but it mainly depends on the time I’d be able to put into this project
I really like the dandelion flower because it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t know much about the ECE side of things but I am curious how big you would make it. Overall, I think the whole concept as well as the meaning behind the piece is very striking and I like it a lot.
I love the dandelion flower, I think there are a lot of cool things you could do with creating the flower out of the wires that you are using to power the LED’s
I think the music box is a cool concept and I would like to see where you could take the idea. I am interested in what image you will decide on (if you decide to do this project) to go inside the music box. I think it’d be cool if you could have the image projecting up into the ceiling that spins with the music.
I think the dandelion idea is really cool! I’m not 100% sure if this is what you’re going for or if it would even work, but you might want to look into capacitors. Essentially, they store power and release them over time, some very slowly, some very quickly.
The dandelion idea could be tricky and I wouldn’t know how to approach it either. The music box idea sounds more approachable from my perspective. Both projects seem fun and could be different learning experiences.
These are both really interesting ideas!
I think the dandelion concept is quite poetic, and the light element could really make it very interactive. I’m curious what sorts of materials you imagine for the dandelion. I agree with Mason’s suggestion above about powering the parachutes with capacitors for a temporary, fleeting bit of light. I think it could be pretty simple to achieve this effect with some basic analog electronics. Here’s one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXu6o39ut44
I’m also intrigued by the idea of the mechanical box. I could imagine prisms, mirrors, and/or shadow-casting shapes that are moved inside the box for a varied effect. Perhaps you peer into it, or maybe it projects out into the space.
I think both Ideas are very interesting. I think the box will be easier to execute in terms of the ECE side of things if you’re feeling iffy about it, but with a little research I think the flower idea will come out really well.
I think whatever you make will be beautiful with your considerations of the conveyed message. I found this Instructable that you can work off of for the dandelion idea. https://www.instructables.com/Fiber-Optic-LED-Dandelion-Lamp/
I’m curious how the building of the spinning mechanism will work. Maybe you can gut an existing music box and add your light elements to it?