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Xuanhao Li
Heart Flow: An interactive and engaging experience for beginners to try Water Marbling
OVER VIEW
COOPERATION
Heart Flow is an interactive installation, that could intelligently generate unique Water Marbling art pieces according to creators' heartbeat data.
It aims to reduce beginners' learning cost for Water Marbling and arouse their further interest, through a relaxing and highly relevant creating experience.
INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION DESIGN
Co-worked with my partner Ruiyao Luo
MY ROLE
Idea generation, appearance and structure design, interaction design, circuit building, digital modeling, prototyping, Arduino coding, display arrangement
DURATION
2 Months, 2018 Winter
BACKGROUND
Designing for popularizing Water Marbling, a traditional paper decoration
craft.
Water Marbling ( 墨流）is a kind of paper decoration craft born in China two thousand years ago. After the 12th century, it was introduced to Japan and Turkey, promoted with new names called ' Suminagashi' and ' Erub'.
It is a floating dyeing technique. Creators use oily pigments to create beautiful patterns on the water surface by dripping, blowing and paddling. And then transfer the elegant patterns to paper for preservation.
THE CHALLENGE
How might we introduce the technique to beginners who lack artistic creation skills, and provide them with a highly relevant creating experience?
THE SOLUTION
An interactive experience that not only engagingly displays the process, but could also generate unique Water Marbling art piece according to creator's heartbeat data as a memento.
IDEATION
How to generate patterns under control?
Brain storm: the mechanical plans for dripping, paddling and blowing the pigments on the water surface.
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Considering degrees of freedom, aesthetic factors and controllability of the drip nozzle, we chose to suspend the nozzle with three strings. Fix the spool on the axis of the stepper motor, control the moving path of the nozzle by setting the rotation angle of the stepper motor to adjust the length of the wire. When the nozzle moves to the set position, pigments in the nozzle will be blew out onto the water surface by the electric air valve.
How to interact with the installation?
The decided operation flow for audiences to create Water Marbling according to their heartbeat data.
Firstly, the creator wears the sensor module on the hand. The sensor collects his heartbeat data and transmits it to the processor through the attached Bluetooth module.
Secondly, the processor translates the heartbeat data into 3D coordinate instructions and sends them to the motor controller. Then the motor controls the nozzle to absorb pigments from bottles, move to a series of coordinate points and spray the ink onto the water surface. When the elegant patterns are generated, the creator could transfer the pattern from the water surface to paper materials.
MODELING
Design the form and layout electrical components
3D modeling of the main installation and the wearable part
1. Slider 2. Airway 3. Dropper 4. Water tank
5. Pigment bin 6. Button switch 7. Suction pump
8. Exhaust pump 9. Circuit board 10. Coiling wheel
11. Power Supply 12. Lilypad 13. Battery 14. Bluetooth
15. Heartbeat sensor 16. switch
Components of the main body
Right
Front
It includes two sets of electric system, which are the motor dynamic system to control the movement of the nozzle, and the pneumatic system to control the nozzle to absorb and spray pigments.
Top
Components of the wearable part
Right
The wearable part includes lilypad, Bluetooth module, heart rate sensor, switch and battery
Top
Front
BUILDING
Building the frames and assembling electrical components
Wearable sensor —the data collector and generator
By means of drilling, milling, lathing and grinding, wooden brackets with appropriate size are machined. And then, embed electronic components in them. Use mortise tenon structures and steel bars to fix each other together, and finally connect the wires and weld them.
Main body——the signal receiver and actuator
Machined and assembled wooden frame components by means of cutting, grooving, lathing and grinding. And then, attached the electric motors on the corresponding frames. Installed the pneumatic system and dynamic system. Connected and adjusted the wiring of the control module.
PROGRAMMING
Measuring and calculating the dimension,
programming rules for coordinate movements
In the manufacturing process, due to the change of temperature and humidity, the wood frame has inevitable natural deformation, which slightly affects the preset coordinate system size. After strict recalculation, this error is finally corrected
OPERATION RECORDS
THE FINAL LOOK
AUDIENCES' EXPERIENCE
Wear and activate
the sensor
Start the conversion
Press the power
button, turn it on
1
Pattern generation
Waiting for the
dripping & paddling
2
Transfer & Save
Transfer the patterns
from water to paper
3
COLLECTED WATER MARBLING WORKS
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