Jetha's Graduation Project

Month: April 2025

Categories
Prototyping Technician Meetings

Week 16 – Circuit Testing

SMART Goals for this week

  • Write presentation
  • Edit Literature Review and Introduction
  • Plan out construction
    • Consult technician for physical computing elements

No supervisor meeting this week cause of bank holiday

What I did this week

I made a 3D model of the spatial organisation box to figure out the dimensions needed.

Technician Meeting Notes

I had a meeting with Zeyu the physical computing technician. We went through each part of the sculpture and the circuitry.

Spatial Organisation

  • Strip of LEDs use tracing paper to stop the spotting light effect
    • Strip board
      • Multi core wire 
      • Switch 
      • MOSFET 
    • Plug into the wall

User control

  • Linear actuator
    • Integrated chip   
Circuit for linear solenoids for self pushing buttons

Interface remediation

  • HDMI connection for screen
  • Raspberry pi

I had the formative presentation which didn’t go too well. This is the feedback from it.

  • You can start explaining what your project is about. What do you mean the capacity of the computer – do you mean in terms of power?or metaphorically? – Please do not forget the citations. – How does it highlight how modern GUIS quietly shape – makes invisible structures – Gantt chart a bit more detailed with dates. – Be more focused on the connection interaction HCI

It did make me realise that I was focusing too much on how I got to the project not the project itself in my thesis. I also got worried I wouldn’t be able to do the sculpture I planned out as the circuits weren’t working. But after the presentation I went to the physical computing lab and managed to get integrated chip and linear actuator working.

circuit for linear actuator

I’ve learnt that a linear actuator can’t move at a certain distance at different speeds. So, I’ll need to use a stepper servo with a rack and pinion.

user control: circuit for solenoids
time compressed processes: servo circuit
rack and pinion

I couldn’t move the pinion with the lever but I assume that this is due to friction caused by the wood and cardboard.

Zeyu mentioned COB LEDs, on the day we could only find small panels. But I found strips so I’ll use these for the lights in the spatial organisation part.

Over the weekend I made a new structure for my introduction.

I inquired about cutting the pieces for the hardware part of the sculpture but it was too expensive £300-400. But I had an idea there’s a few charities that refurbish laptops. So, I’m going to contact them and ask if I can if they can spare any broken circuit boards that can’t be refurbished. Instead of using metal use circuit boards. I think this might be better as it makes it clearer that that part of the sculpture is all about computer hardware.

Categories
Prototyping Supervisor Meetings

Week 15 – Testing

SMART goals for this week

  • Prototype each element of the piece

What I did this week

Supervisor Meeting Notes

Project considerations

  • Make sure there’s a sense of scale
  • Contemplate a table layout

Thesis Questions

  • For the new theorists to make it stronger
    • Frame a story around
    • See what they all agree is non-neutral. How did they get to that theory of non-neutral speak about that
  • Introduction
    • Cultural interface in computing as the field 
  • Literature review
    • argument
  • Presentation 
    • Maybe write some questions
      • Whether the abstraction 
      • How to balance the abstraction vs being too on the nose
      • Whether I’ve gone too abstract 


This the drawing I submitted for the first exhibition form.

While testing I realised I may have been too ambitious with the initial design so I’m going to start creating the simplest versions of each thing and then adding more detail if there’s time remaining.

Hardware

I used some cardboard and thread to test out the connections between each shape for the chainmail. I wanted to see if it was better to have multiple hoops in one hole(left side) or each hoop have it’s own hole(right side). The left side was stronger and more even whereas the right side was looser and didn’t hang nicely

From left to right you can see I started off closer to the plan I had in mind until I realised how difficult it would be to connect them but also position and size them evenly without the sizes having multiple decimal places making it hard to make sure it’s all perfect for the laser cutter. So, I’m just going to go with different size squares if I have time I might be able to add more details like adding computer parts or PCB circuit trace designs on to them.

Spatial Organisation

TinkerCAD

Interface remediation

I made a crank and slider mechanism as a test as I wanted to make a grid of wooden blocks that I can change the shapes of. However, the construction of this will probably take a while and wouldn’t be easy considering I don’t know much about physical computing. So, for now I think I’ll use an LED matrix which I’ve prototyped in p5.js

p5js

User Control

I didn’t do any prototyping for this. But I will use linear actuator to create the slider and linear solenoid to create buttons that look like they’re pushing themselves.

Categories
Class notes

Class Week 6 – Prototyping

Realisation , enquiry and process

Prototyping

MVP

  • Building the simplest version of your idea that still works and demonstrates your concept
  • not the lowest effort

iterative development

Skateboard

  • skateboard -> scooter -> bike -> motorbike -> car
    • The simplest idea to the the final

Use MoSCoW for the final piece

Categories
Design Process Prototyping

Week 14 – Easter break

SMART goals for this week

  • Plan Old Desk
  • Plan New Desk
  • Iterate designs of the desks
  • Create a List of things needed for Old Desk
  • Create a List of things needed for New Desk

What I did this week

Monday

I finally finished the list of default MacOS Sequoia features. I decided to omit the applications that are entirely about the computer like activity monitor, disk utility etc. As I need to get planning my final piece if I have time at the end I’ll add them in to the document. But right now I’m prioritising the apps that are digital versions of real tasks.

Tuesday

I’m going to need a little break from my computer as after spending days staring at it from morning to night has made me feel like I can’t see.

A summary of what the plan for the final piece is

I’m going to have 2 desks as that will allow the audience to understand my piece without interacting with it(I’m questioning the interactive part to be honest). As they can visually see the comparison I’m making between the first personal computer and the latest version of it.

The 1984 Macintosh Desk and The 2024 MacOS Sequoia Desk. Both will visualise the tasks done and tasks available to a user by taking the desk metaphor literally. They will also visualise the hardware capacity as the advancements hardware is a big part of why we are able to have the things we have now.

Insert Drawing

This is where details of the design process will be

Am I showing how much computers do for us and what they do or Am I showing the real world equivalents of stuff on our computer

First one shows how much we don’t have to do and the Second shows our over reliance on tools. Like you can’t sift through that many files to find what you want without the find feature