Maquette

After proposing my three concepts to the class, I found that the majority of my peers were interested in the wall of vines proposal, in which I model a miniature wall covered in snaking vines using fiber optics. The first thing I began working with was gathering some sample fiber optics and creating simple Arduino programs to figure out how I wanted to use these fibers. I also collected some sample tulle that I had lying around from previous projects.

My current materials consist of:

  • Arduino
  • Several RGB leds
  • Materials from the RBE 1001 kit (including Electret microphone and photoresistor)
  • Sparkly red, sparkly blue, and plain blue tulle
  • End-emitting fiber optics

After experimenting with several Arduino programs, I have chosen two that I will focus on: color fading and brightness fading. My initial ideas for this project were to have user input trigger a wave of light across the wall, however, I have found it difficult using an Electret microphone without the module, due to the more complicated op amp circuit I would need to setup. I then experimented with a photoresistor as an input trigger, with the idea that a user’s shadow across the project would shroud the wall in darkness, causing a wave of colors to flow along the fiber optics. My current progress regarding the electronics of it all is a color-fading program, that goes through a sequences of colors, fading between each. I also have a separate program that utilizes the photoresistor to correlate the brightness of the RGB led, with the led glowing brighter the less light the photoresistor sees.

The following is my progress regarding the fiber optics. I had gotten end-emitting fiber optics and tried two methods to create side-emitting fiber optics. I first attempted to sand the sides, however came to realize that too much sanding prevented light from coming through at all and practically made those portions useless. I then tried cutting little nicks into the length of the fiber optic using an exacto knife, which proved very successful. I will be using both the side-emitting and end-emitting fiber optics for my wall of vines, with an emphasis on the side-emitting ones.

Lastly, with regards to the fiber optic weaving and the overall architecture of the project, I found that the natural shapes of the fiber optics were too stiff to bend to recreate the characteristics of vines. I am planning on purchasing a series of malleable crafting wire from Amazon, as well as birch branches from Michaels to use as a vine base for the fiber optics, similar to the metal bonsai trees. I will also be acquiring a new microphone module in a few days to attempt again a sound-based user input. By the next week, my goal is to have a finalized Arduino code with user input and a foundation for the vine and leaf placement.

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