My name is Till Cremer. I graduated in communication design and run a studio for film, photography and interactive media. At the moment, I live and work between Berlin and Amsterdam.
Last autumn, the Waag Society, institute for art, science and technology, announced the upcoming Fab Academy in Amsterdam. I was immediately interested in this particular opportunity to improve my technical and technological knowledge and skills. I’m pleased to join it and looking forward to the next months.
Toy sculpture with special abilities
eBuddha gives humorous and wise affirmations, reminds of one’s goals and teaches serenity.
eBuddha looks similar to a modern toy figures. It isn’t all too big but very flexible as it is able to demonstrate (almost) all Yoga poses. All joints are modeled on human joints. Built-in electronics—speakers and a video projector—give magic to the figure and provide special abilities like speaking and singing from the heart and screening affirmations and wise sayings with the third eye. Words and thoughts—sounds and projections of pictures and texts—are transferred via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and can be replaced and customized anytime. The eyes glow in different colors. Using built-in LED lamps, booth hands are able to shine as well and serve as spot lights. Built-in solar cells supply energy. The figure’s eyes get green as soon as the accumulator is fully charged.
To produce this sculpture and its additional environment, all facilities, provided by the Amsterdam fab lab, would be required. As far as possible, the weekly assignments would be used to make it.
Next steps would be:
Meanwhile, I reflected about my potential semester project. I drew a concept graph visualizing interaction and used technologies. I would use to 2 speakers to play stereo MP3 files and a RGB LED to visualize sound.
I would realize the object based on these technological concepts:
This version of an eBuddha would be designed abstractly integrating technological elements in the look.
This figure would have a round and transparent shape and use no sound at all. Instead, it would work with a bright internal RGB LED and a 3D accelerometer. Every light would response to one accelerometer axis e.g.
Every movement would change the figure’s glow. After some time of inactivity, the figure would turn off. A vibration sensor (piezo) would activate the rolling and smiling figure. This version of an eBuddha wouldn’t be able to give any affirmations and would rather be a toy.
In order to be able to display every (English) letter or number, each LED array would consist of 20 (4 × 5) LEDs. Each LED array board would consist of a microcontroller and an I²C terminal (slave). An I²C master would send a letter to be displayed. At least, the mirror should be able to display 10 letters. A PIR sensor would detect motion and activate the LED text display mounted behind a one-way mirror. A text would randomly be chosen by an Arduino script. Texts would anytime be editable via Wi-Fi.
I decided not to go further developing this idea.
The webpage concept focuses on a semantic structure and a simple, fluid and mobile friendly design. Using Pencil, I drew a webpage concept. To build my webpage, I use:
I principally check my webpage in Safari, Firefox and Chrome.