L&I: Class 05

Location: ITP

Time | Date: 7.00 pm | Feb 26 - 7.00pm | Feb 27 2017

 

I chose to do this week assignment, 24 hr time-lapse at the same location I did last week (4 hr time-lapse) because I am certain that there is something interesting about the location since the ITP’s reception area where Dante and Anna work face the north. I planned to catch the sun rise! I did not catch this movement last time but I did this time!.

The composition of light started to get interesting about half way of the video when the sun rises. The sun looks like its gliding across the room nicely from right to left. The light is fairly strong as well.

There are some interesting lighting effects on the floor at around 3.15. I’ve never saw this effect before although I’m always on the floor. As the sun moves across the sky, I feel like I’m opening my curtain in my room in the morning. I see angle shadow casted on the building’s facade across the street and how the shadow changes its angles and maneuvered across the face of the building.

The sunshine starts to soften as we move into the evening and the shadows of the furniture in the room starts to get stronger and sharper in shape. For example, the bench. 

The movements and reflections of Daniel Rozin’s mirror installation was a nice touch in the scene, although, for some reason, I find the shadow underneath the round and rectangle table in front of his installation interesting because I can see variations of the tables shapes overlapped each other, blended into a new geometry but still remain a sense of its original shape

I did not realize how bright the purple light for the plant is until most of the light on the floor is off.

Day light is so short here during this time of year.

Example: Tom's Office

LAMP EXPERIMENTS

FIRST IDEA: Moths drawn, attract to lights

I've always wanted to simulate and make something like this.

Source

But at the same time, I DON'T want to create something this deliberate. I've only wanted the moth's flying behavior.

Source

 

moth3.jpg

I have been thinking all day yesterday of ways to hide the wires if I want to use 20 individual neopixel leds.....I couldn't come up with a solution.....or any solution that I can live with. There are just too many wires especially if I want to spread out the leds in my lamp and not have it in one place. So I decided to put a hold on this idea and do something else.


I got this acrylic sphere from canal plastics. Each half sphere cost around $2. I know that I wanted to experiment on the plastic physical properties especially when it is exposed to heat. How much of its form will change, bend, or even crack and break?

L: After Heat Gun         |          R: Before

Shadow Experiment
 

Close up of the deformed sphere
 

When I changed to use the vintage led bulb I noticed the shadows of the deformed acrylic sphere change direction from vertical to diagonal.


I really like how the acrylic changes shape and with little control on how the form it will deform. The only control I have is the hotness of the heat gun. So after the heat gun experiment, I think I'm gonna shift my idea back to the basics and play with the shades (acrylic tubes).

PHYSICAL CONTROL

I think I want my lamp to have 3 physical controls.

  1. On / Off
  2. Dimming, Capacitive touch
  3. Slow flickering from candle assignment. I don't know if I will have time to continue this one or not but I want to. Also, I can't use led bulbs if I want my lamp to be programable right? I have to use the neopixel?
     

L&I: Class 04

FIRST ATTEMPT

This is my first time ever doing the time-lapse this long [4 hrs]. I was using my own camera and did not expect my camera's battery ran out of battery during the 4 hrs time-lapse. I mean may be after the 5th or 6th hours. I started the time-lapse sequence at 9.30am and the battery died at pm. Nearly there though. 

Location: Bobst Library 10th Floor

Time: 9.30am - 

Date: 02/19/2017

Camera: Lumix GX8

Hmmm....I don't really see any major lighting changes in the room apart from the ceiling flickering a little bit. I would assume that theses small flickers are the result of clouds movements. Is it because where I was has a lot big windows therefore a lot of sunlight coming in, so the changes of the light coming in is too subtle to notice the changes? I was sitting on the 10th floor, overlooking the Washington Square Park. Although, I can't see the main changes of the quality of light through the video, when I was sitting there and doing my homework, lighting in the morning is much softer whereas as the time approached the afternoon, my eyes begin to feel uncomfortable due to stronger sunlight.

 

SECOND ATTEMPT

Location: First Floor Lounge ITP

Time: 12.30am - 16.30pm

Date: 02/21/2017

Camera: Canon 5D

I was hoping to see the light that falls on the tree changes more radically, but the effects didn't come out as I had hoped. I thought that I would capture the light rays that pierced through the tree leaves and make some shadows on the ground. I can see that at the top of the tree's leaves, there is glowy green like the leaves could might have translucent quality in them.

I was aiming for something like this. But then again, these photos might have been enhanced through photoshop. For my lamp design, I think I want to play with the positive and negative space light create with objects in front of it. The skyscrapers time-lapse I captured yesterday, also has this effects.

BONUS

In the spirit of making time-lapse video, I forced myself to wake up super early to catch this amazing sunrise over the skyscrapers.

Location: 605 W 42nd St, NYC

Time: 6.15am

Date: 02/21/2017

Camera: Iphone time-lapse mode

I really like how the color hue of the sky slowly changing color. Since the sunrise is in the background and the skyscrapers in the front, the sun act as big backlight for the city creating a captivating positive and negative space between high rises.

 

L&I: Class 02

Class 02  |  Assignment: Candle

CANDLES

Create an artificial candle using a NeoPixel jewel. Your candle should include a base and a shade or diffuser. Try to capture the colors and behavior of a real candle in programming your candle.

Candles Concept

So here is the concept of how I wanted my candles to light up. The idea was inspired by a fireplace, to create a believable fire-like lighting effects. I planned to pair up 3 pairs the Neopixels and 1 pixel without a pair. I The 3 pairs gradually fades from a spectrum of 2 colors and they will glow smoothly. The one pixel without a pair, will flickers randomly and faster than the rest.

Enclosure Design

In terms of the enclosure design, the inspiration came from traditional Thai food. The way how we used banana leaves to wrap food. I think I’m a bit homesick because this week is the seceond week in a row I am doing something related to Thailand.

Source: 1

Fabrication

Result

IMG_6672.JPG

 

Do you think my LED candle packaging look as yummy as the thai dessert photo above……

I have difficulties pairing the pixels and behave. I went to see Jingwen to help figure out the color and correct my confusing logic, but I'm still very confused.......

The think I fiddle way too much with the levels and intervals and lost the settings that I really like. The one in the video is still a bit too fast. I wish it can be smoother and see the overlap of colors more.

Code

/*
 * Lighting & Interactivity
 * Class 2 : LED_Candles
 * Feb 7 2017
 */

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
#include "Interval.h"

Interval ledTimer0;
Interval ledTimer1;
Interval ledTimer2;


const int neoPixelPin = 5;      // control pin
const int numPixels = 7;        // number of pixels
int level = 100;                // the white LED color for the whole strip
float difference = 1;           // the fading difference in each loop
int brightness = 100;

// set up strip:
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(numPixels, neoPixelPin, NEO_GRBW + NEO_KHZ800);

void setup() {
  strip.begin();                // initialize pixel strip
  strip.clear();                // turn all LEDs off
  strip.setBrightness(brightness);
  pinMode(neoPixelPin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);

  ledTimer0.setInterval(fade0, 100);
  ledTimer1.setInterval(fade1, 5);
  ledTimer2.setInterval(fade2, 500);

  for (int pixel = 0; pixel < numPixels; pixel++) {
    strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 255, level, level, level);          // set the color for all the pixels
    strip.show();                                                  // refresh the strip
  }
}

void loop() {
  // loop pixels:
  ledTimer0.check();
  ledTimer1.check();
  ledTimer2.check();


  for (int pixel = 0; pixel < numPixels; pixel++) {
    strip.show();                                                 // check all the pixels
  }
}


//////////////  Set pair 1
void fade0() {

  for (int pixel = 0; pixel < 2; pixel++) {
    strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 255, 0, 0, level);
  }

  if ((level >= 255) || (level < 0)) {
    level++;
  }
  level = level - 10;
}


//////////////  Set pair 2
void fade1() {

  for (int pixel = 2; pixel < 4; pixel++) {
    strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 255, 0, 0, level);           // set the color for this pixel
  }

  if (level >= 255) {                                       // if level's at the top
    difference++;                                           // invert the difference value
  }
  level = level + difference;                               // add the difference to the level
}


//////////////  Set pair 3
void fade2() {

  for (int pixel = 4; pixel < 6; pixel++) {
    strip.setPixelColor(pixel, level + 255, level + 255, level + 255, level);     // set the color for this pixel
  }

  if (level < 0) {
    level += difference;
  }
  difference = -difference;                                  // add the difference to the level
}
 

TEST 01  |  TEST FROM EXAMPLE CODE  |  QUESTIONS + CONFUSED

Lighting Effects

My confusion with the example is with the GRBW and RGBW. Even when I switched and turned up the first value, the colors of the LEDS still don’t correspond. I asked Jingwen about this settings, she's also confused. But if I remember correctly, you mentioned in class that just switch the RGBW to GRBW.

NEO_RGBW
strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 255, 0, 0, level);

 

NEO_RGBW
strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 255, 0, 0, level);

 

NEO_GRBW
strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 255, 0, 0, level);

Code

/*
  RGBW NeoPixel fade control

  This sketch fades the white LED up and down
  on an RGBW neoPixel strip.

  In the setPixelColor command, the colors are ordered: red, green, blue, white.

  Uses Adafruit's NeoPixel library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel

  created 30 Jan 2017
  by Tom Igoe

*/
#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

const int neoPixelPin = 5;  // control pin
const int numPixels = 7;    // number of pixels
int level = 255;            // the white LED color for the whole strip
int difference = 1;         // the fading difference in each loop

// set up strip:
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(numPixels, neoPixelPin, NEO_RGBW + NEO_KHZ800);

void setup() {
  strip.begin();            // initialize pixel strip
  strip.clear();            // turn all LEDs off
  pinMode(0, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // loop over all the pixels:
  for (int pixel = 0; pixel < numPixels; pixel++) {
    strip.setPixelColor(pixel, 0, 0, 0, level);// set the color for this pixel
    strip.show();           // refresh the strip

    delay(500);
    if (level < 0) level = 255;
    level = level -20;
    Serial.print(pixel);
    Serial.print("\t");
    Serial.println(level);
  }
}

Location: 86 Wyckoff AVe, Brooklyn, Dekalb Station

Time: 8.23 am

Date: Friday 3, 2017

This is a photo I took when I was on my way to a 9am class the day after TNO! I gotta admit I’m not a morning person and don’t usually witness the morning ambient lighting. That day was a cloudy day, the clouds that cast over the sky looked metallic grey, softened glistening sunlights that pierced through the clouds. I tried to compose the sun in the middle of the photo as the focal point, as well as, setting the sun behind the lamp post so the picture looked as though it was lit by a light post.

The orange hued rays of sunrise felt warmth inviting me to stare into the horizon as I commute to the subway. I don’t know why but I feel like the amber gradients to blue colors is very attractive and wonders if theres any psychology behind how we perceive and feel colors. I also like how the clouds pattern is aligned to the perspective lines of the photo and with the buildings.

L&I: Class 01

First Class of Lighting & Interactivity, Tom asked us to do a simple interruptible fading light and I have got to confess that I am a bit rusty on my physical computing and took me a while to do what I was able to do last semester. I started off by looking at the Arduino example with blinking and fading light and combined these two together. One main thing that I made a mistake was that I used the digitalWrite() when I was supposed to use analogWrite() to get the fading effects.

CODE : 

// pwm fading led

int led = 9;
int brightness = 0;
int fadeAmount = 5;

void setup() {

  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);  
  
  // what's the difference if I change the OUTPUT to HIGH to LOW
  // resut is the same

}

void loop() {
  // set the brightness
  analogWrite(led, brightness);

  // change the brightness next time through loop
  brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;

  // reverse the direction of the fading at the ends of the fade
  if (brightness == 0 || brightness == 255) {
    fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;
  }

  // wait for 30 ms to see the effect
  delay(30);
}

Schematic :

Location: Urban Outfitters, NoHo, NYC

Time: 07.50 pm

Date: 27 Jan 2017

I was shopping with my friend and when I was about to pay and came across these lit candles decorated on the counter. The candle was lit in an amber glass jar that was place inside of another bigger jar, which I assume for both safety and decorations purposes.

The candle wax was already half way down the amber jar, which soften the direct hard light of the light source if it were brand new. The flames dance and flow as though they are hypnotizing me in a moment of warmth and comfort as I was waiting in line. I like how the candle was put inside of another bigger jar because at some point I can see when it the light hits the outer last layer the accumulated effects look like the flames were cut and moved slightly out of place but only for a moment.

 

Having come from Thailand where candle is deep-rooted in our daily lives, in particularly at temples and in many other celebrations. Candle lights reminds me of two main festivals in Thailand called "Loy Krathong" and "Yi Peng Lantern Festival". More information about the festival here and here. If you ever get a chance to travel to Thailand I really recommend you to go. They are really mesmorizing!

Source

Source: 1

  Source: 2 , 3

 

Yi Peng Lantern Festival

Source: 4

 

A Short History of Color Theory by Rune Madsen

Rune states,

Artistic color theory, which is concerned with the visual effects of color combination in the fine arts, and scientific color theory, which describes the nature of color through increasingly complex but precise color models. 

His notes on the color system: additive and subtractive colors that are all around us, into the devices that we used daily inspired me to research more on the subject matter. As Rune said, I think that if I can distinguish and understand how they are implemented, I can later on adapt this knowledge into my projects. I can't wait to read the next chapter. I looked into the book, Theory of Color by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the illustrations diagrams are very helpful. I know that you have mentioned that this class will not focus on the projection mapping but as I have mentioned to you in the office hour that I am also take a class on Magic Windows with Rui and I think this class is perfect for me to experiment on that subject matter and Rune's chapter on color theory really keep me thinking!

 

Source: Color Theory