Project Details

Project Date : 2013 at Georgia Tech Class - Design, Technology, Representation
Role: Haptic interface design

Collaborators: Jean Chu, Colin William Freeman, Kristjen Kjems
Advisor: Michael Nitsche
Co-Advisor: Jonah Bokaer
Performer : Matt

Tools : Arduino, Processing



Having a Catch with Dad

Having a catch with dad is an interface for interactive performance. At the fall of 2013, Students from georgia tech collaborated to mix the idea of craft, memory, and choreography. The interactive ball is developed to stimulate and augment the dancer's movement during improvised performance. The dancer's force to the ball triggers different sounds to be played evoking scenes of memories, which would affect the dancer's choreograph. The performance happened as 4 interactive scenes of 5 minutes. The dancer started unaware of the interactions but gradually learned through his performance.








Flow Chart
The dancer's force to the ball triggers different sounds to be played evoking scenes of memories, which would affect the dancer's choreograph. The sensor data collected from the sensors are sent to the computer wirelessly and triggers different sounds to be played from the library. Sounds are categorized by scenes, and only the sounds from the active scene will be played.




Materials
The interface is covered with soft material: cotton, to provide softness and malleable interaction. The electronics are held inside of a hard casing so it can endure with physical activities such as throwing, squeezing, and shaking.




Technology
The hardware includes a microcontroller, x-bee wireless module, a flex sensor, gyroscope, and an accelerometer. The flex sensor is used to detect squeezing. The gyroscope senses the direction and angle the ball is held. The accelerometer reacts with shaking and throwing of the interface. The x-bee sends the sensor data to the computer wirelessly. The microcontroller controlls the activity of the sensor and wirelss module and is powered by a 9v battery.