During this studio we redesigned the breath sensing flower to make it smaller and more manageable to hold while in use. The first iteration of the this studio’s flower had small petals that did not poke people in the face while they have the flower close to their face. In order for the smaller flower to close we had to redesign the center pin that connects to the petal frames. We moved the attachment points for the petals frames out closer to the petals, but this version of the flower was still not able to close completely.

For the second iteration of the flower we modified the center pin to allow the flower to close, and we also added a locking mechanism to hold the flower open or closed. We moved the attachment points on the center pin down and in towards its center. This helped the flower to close but the petal frames hit each other, causing some of the petals to overlap. The locking mechanism that we added to the flower is very simple. The center pin had two small divots in it, and the flower base had a spring loaded ball in it. As the center pin is pushed up or down, the ball snaps into the divot. The center pin can then be pushed passed the ball easily.

The third iteration of the flower added fillets to the pieces, as well as a cone to direct breath towards the breath sensor. For this iteration, we refined the design of the flower by adding fillets to the base and center pin. These help make the pieces stronger so that they will not break as easily in the wind. The cone that we created snaps onto the top of the center pin, and has space for the breath sensor to sit at the bottom. It directs peoples’ breath down to the sensor, and it also reduces noise that would be picked up by the sensor otherwise.

The current flower now has lighting, a transparent cone, and tapered petal frames. We added lighting to the flower by placing an LED upside-down in the breath cone. In order for the light to diffuse evenly throughout the entire flower, we printed the breath cone out of transparent filament. This not only allows light to pass through, but it glows when the flower is open. To make the flower close completely, we made the tops of the petal frames thinner so that they would not hit each other and cause the petals to overlap.

This design is comprised of a base to hold all of the LEDs, a reflective cone to project the light and a distance sensor. The idea is to have something that projects light upwards and when you put your hand through the light it will change color and it will make a sound all depending on how close your hand is. It projects light upwards by have a one made of mirrored acrylic and felt surrounding the circular base. With this project we are trying to make space more tangible. When you walk through space normally nothing happens. We want to be able to actively affect the space around us. We hope this project will make people be more conciencious about the space around you. We want to make space something you can influence and change.

We had to create an abstraction of the Aurora Borealis, so we abstracted the colors and the movement to create an installation that responds to the movement of a person the way atoms in Earth's atmosphere respond to charged particles from the sun, creating the Aurora Borealis. 
We decided to create translucent boxes out of acrylic and put LED lights in them. The acrylic and the position of the LEDs diffused the light in a very beautiful way that was similar to the glow of the real Northern Lights. We wanted the boxes to move in a wavy motion like the Northern lights do, so we used a Servo to move a line of the boxes. 
 

The reason for our project was to create an abstraction that moves and had the same colors as the Northern Lights. We did this by using a Servo, acrylic boxes, and LED's to recreate the movement and the colors of the Aurora Borealis. In our project, we had a long wooden board that held up the boxes. On one end it had a screw, and on the other it had a Servo. The Servo was connected to one box, and it would move that box back and forth, therefore also moving all the boxes back and forth. At the same end as the Servo was the power strip and the LED's. The LED's went through all the boxes on the top, creating light that cast downward on the the person standing underneath. Also at the end with the Servo was a Ultrasonic sensor. The sensor would sense whenever a person went underneath our project, and would light up and and move only when triggered. At the beginning of our project, we didn't think hinges were necessary, but we later decided to use them. We created many cardboard boxes; some vertical, some horizontal; some with holes for LED's, some without; some with room to move the boxes ninety degrees, some without. It was a very long process, but because of our many iterations, our project came out well. There were some challenges, however. One, was that because we had been using cardboard the whole time, we did not account for how heavy the acrylic was going to be. The Servo had a hard time moving the boxes, and therefore our project had more of a stuttering motion, instead of a wavy one. A second challenge was that the soldering on our LED's was not good at all, so we ended up having to use just a strip of uninterrupted LED's, and cover up the lights that were showing.

For this iteration, instead of having just cardboard thinly cut in places, we created our first set of boxes. We used boxdesigner.com to make vertical boxes using notching. We attached the boxes using screws. We would put the lights down the sides of the boxes. We ended up not using this version for a few different reasons. One was that the motion was very limited, and it was not able to move in the wavy motion. Another, was that we decided the lights would look more realistic coming from the top, rather than the side. It would have more of a glow effect and be more representative of the Northern Lights. We changed a lot of features for the next iteration.

This iteration is one step before our final cut. We made the boxes horizontal and planned to have the lights coming from the top. There were still a few technical changes that we needed after this iteration, though. We had to alter the Rhino sketch to accommodate space for the top and bottom pieces so they didn't stick up as they do in this picture. We also made them more visually appealing by making end pieces and we added screw holes for the servo. The only other thing we changed from this version for the final was changing the box dimensions from cardboard width to acrylic width.

GloFlo is designed for overtaxed people to manage stress and improve focus by encouraging them to take a moment to relax their minds. The soothing white light energizes the mind and helps the user focus. The lamp consists of lights on the end of eight arms that move up and down. The mechanism is controlled by the users hands in proximity of the sensors on the device. As you move your hands closer to the sensor the lights move up and if you move them farther away the lights move down. If you remove your hand from the sensor entirely the lights move back to their original state in the upwards position. An Arduino inside the base relays information from the ultrasonic distance sensor to the servo which moves a certain number of degrees depending on the distance measured from the sensor to the moving hand. The servo spools up string that attaches to each of the arms, which then pivot on the y-axis in unison. The lights, which are always powered on while the device is plugged in, are attached to the end of each arm. The meditative motions conducted by the user in combination with the soft white lights will serve asa helpful way to reach a calm and relaxed state of mind.