BlinkM Individual Assignment [Keyboard Trainer] – Daniel Collado

For my individual assignment using the BlinkM, I also used the Keyboard as input device.The application is a typing trainer, which calculates the time the user needs to type some colors given by the BlinkM LED.

The mechanic is the following:

1. Run the application
2. Immediatly, a random color will be displayed on the BlinkM LED
3. The user must type the right letters as fast as possible
4. If the letters have been typed correctly, the time spent on the task is displayed.

Right now the possible colors are red green and blue, but adding new colors wouldn’t be a problem. If any of the letters introduced on the keyboard are wrong, a message is displayed warinng the user about it, and the application ends.

Here you have a video of the testing:

MEA10732 Interface Prototyping (Puzzle Score)

During the design phase of our semester project, we were able to come up with a lot of ideas for teaching music to children. One of them qas the Puzzle Score, which basically was a set of pieces, each of them containing a note on a score, in a way that if you put them together side by side, you can create a simple score out of single notes. Magnets would keep the pieces together, since they don’t have a certain order, you can create whatever score you like. Once you have the desired score, you would be able to listen to it through a wireless device, which recognizes each element on the score.

Score Puzzle Concept

We analyzed it according to Bill Verplank’s interaction design framework method:

8 step analysis

Step by step:

• IDEA: Physical puzzle with musical teachings (Scores in this case).
• METAPHOR: Writing a score.
• MODEL: A limited set of pieces, but tons of combinations are possible when putting them together.
• DISPLAY: Squared pieces with single notes in a score piece.
• ERROR: Young children don’t easily understand the complexity of a score.
• SCENARIO: Teachers want children to learn about musical scores.
• TASK: (1)Put some pieces together. (2)Listen the result and go to step (1) if the result is not the desired.
• CONTROL: Select the pieces and put them together with your hands.

In order to get a 3D model of a piece, we used 3dStudio Max:

3D model of a Score Puzzle piece

Top view of the model

Wire view of the model

The piece is hollow, in order to leave some space for the magnets on the inner sides. We also added some curves to the surface, making a more fancy design and simulating the flow of the score.

We printed the model using the 3D printer:

3D printer piece

CUI32 Individual assignment by Daniel Collado (peak detector)

For my CUI32 individual assignment I’ve decided to come up with a peak detector with some features:

• Displays temperature from 20 to 40 degrees ( each LED is one degree)
• If the temperature is stable (not changing) the LEDs remain green
• If the temperature is unstable (changing), the LEDs turn yellow
• The highest temperature displayed remains with a red LED
• If a new temperature peak is reached, the red LED is actualized to its new position and the speaker turns on for a second.

Code:

>   10 dim i, j
>   11 dim temp2
>   12 dim max
>   13 dim lasttemp
>   14 dim audio as pin rd1 for frequency output
>   20 dim cmd as byte, rsp[2] as byte
>   30 dim temp
>   40 dim leds[20] as byte
>   50 dim latch as pin rg9 for digital output open_drain
>   60 dim sync as pin rg6 for digital output open_drain
>   70 let latch = 0, sync = 0
>   71 let max = 0
>   72 let lasttemp = 1
>   80 while 1 do
>   81   let temp = rsp[0]
>   82   let temp2 = temp-20
>   83   print temp2
>   84   if temp2>max then
>   85     let max = temp2
>    86       let audio = 4000
>   87   else
>    88       let audio = 0
>    89     endif
>   90   let j = j+1
>  100   for i = 0 to leds#-1
>  101     if lasttemp==temp then
>  110       let leds[i] = 0x80+0x1*(i<=temp2%leds#)
>  111       let leds[max] = 0x80+0x4
>  113     else
>  114       let leds[i] = 0x80+0x5*(i<=temp2%leds#)
>  115       let leds[max] = 0x80+0x4
>  119     endif
>  120   next
>  130   qspi leds
>  140   let latch = 1, latch = 0
>  150   let cmd = 0
>  160   i2c start 0x48
>  170   i2c write cmd
>  180   i2c read rsp
>  190   i2c stop
>  191   let lasttemp = temp
>  230   sleep 300 ms
>  240 endwhile
> end

Concept video:

MEA10732 – Poster

This is our poster for a tactile bracelet: