Floating Object Presentation

Description

- We want to provide a flying tele-presence that causes viewers to experience an emotional reaction to a flying object.
- Themes of artificial surveillance systems and a reinterpretation of the video camera as an eye rather than a video recorder.
- Control the blimp through our Java applet across a local network.

Background

- Initial concept was conceived of on a much larger scale floating around New York City.
- Each object was to be networked with one another and geo-tracked through a map API online.
- Scaled down to a smaller more personal version of the sensing bot.

Audience

- This project does not have any specific demographic, all users are welcomed to interact with it

User Scenario

- Visitor experiences a 3-foot diameter red balloon hovering past their heads.
- Control of the bot through videosensing or manual controls through our java applet interface, which communicates with our java server.
- Both the user & viewer will have interesting reactions voyeur/operator & spectator/tracked person.

Implementation

- Components – 3-foot helium balloon, RF reciever, RF transmitter, RF video camera, 4 mini propeller motors, Lithium-polymer battery, 9v battery, PIC chip + circuit, and wooden chassis.
- Serial information to high and low different motors is transmitted via RF to serially connect to a computer.
- Images are processed across a java server that writes a jpeg image of the data, including the rect color tracker graphic. – Processing applet serves up the front-end where the user can control the color selection and manual control methods.
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Flash Demo

Conclusion

- Biggest challenge was enabling networked communication between separate server and client applications.
- Understanding of threads, and socket connections in Java to get our code to function reliably.
- Aerodynamics are more important than we thought.

References

Shawn Van Every, Dan O’Sullivan, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Patrick Dwyer, Jury Hahn, Leif Krinkle and Karl Channell