SCHOOL PROJECT
Spacial Control Device
Designing a Spacial Control Device with the p5.js and Arduino
My Role
Research, Visual Design, Coding support
Tools
Arduino, p5.js, Rhino 3D
Product
Wearable device with flex sensor and accelerometer
Working with
Maria Gomez
Milos Radivojevic
What I learned?
1) Writing seamingly difficult project into small steps makes it less difficult.
2) Researching other similar project is important to avoid common pitfalls. It is better to learn on mistakes of others – it saves a lot of time.
3) Project management is very important. It is good to have clearly described roles from the beginning, but still work together and help each other when someone gets stuck.
4) Clear end objective is a must. You have to really know what your end project is supposed to look like. So whenever I start a new project now, I have two points: the story and the end product. The in-between process is much easier to do.
We have created a piece that would allow the user to interact with objects on a screen using their hand. We aimed for a natural, unobstructed experience, where a person interacting with the screen doesn’t have to hold any items like joysticks or remotes, but can instead use natural hand gestures.
PROBLEM
Using mouse or trackpad to do everyday computing is not healthy for joints, boring and requires special arrangements, such as desk.
SOLUTION
The experience could be more interesting if you could just move your hand in front of the screen.
Process
To build a handheld device which would allow control of the objects on the screen with hand gestures, we have established that we need an accelerometer and a flex sensor. With two sensors we could build something like a glove that user puts on and controls the screen. As a frist step in our creative project we explored various p5.js libraries and to create a cube, something simple, that we could start with.
Working on the user journey:
Video of our Arduino device and the first cube:
This video shows the second cube added. The idea was for the user being able to select an object on the screen out of bigger number of other objects: