Preliminary Final Project Ideas¶
This week I worked on defining my final project ideas. With Filipe Silvestre and Luís Carvão, I discussed some project ideas and together we narrowed them down to two, outlined below. In the coming days I’ll settle for one of the two.
Preliminary Final Project Ideas¶
Context¶
So to start Fab Academy without particular ideas for a final project presented a challenge. I started thinking about what had frustrated me in the past and brainstormed a bit about what I could do as a FA project. It would have to something that adhered to all the rules FA has for final projects, a challenge for me but also something I would continue to be interested and motivated to complete throughout the course.
Idea I - Small Swarm Audio Speakers¶
The trend of smart devices is growing rapidly. Yet brands create closed ecosystems you can’t easily integrate with competitor brands’ devices. I propose dumb devices that do that you expect them to. No complicated add-on services, no added subscriptions or companion apps, or at least no proprietary ones. I envision an open-source Speaker one can build cheaply. This should be a BLE compliant speaker, so basically a Bluetooth Speaker, but it should recognize if there are other sibling speakers present and act as a signal repeater, so that even if the signal source is out of range of the furthest speaker, it gets signal from the next closest one. Also, as input, the speaker should have a motion detector so that it knows someone is listening in its area and turns on or off accordingly.
Links for further research:
Boom box example
Nordic Semi-Conductor Bluetooth Products
Adafruit Bluefruit nRF52
Bluetooth LE Audio
Idea II - Invisible Passive Automotive Lights¶
Vehicles are ubiquitous sculptures in our environments. The lighting system can be separated in two main functions: to let the driver see in dark environments, and to be seen. The elements that serve these functions have had little fundamental change since they were first mass implemented.
As an Industrial Design master student, I strive for simplicity in design, and I envisioned a system in which the lights to be seen appear when they are on, but disappear as a designed feature when they are off.
I first observed this aesthetic element in an Apple computer: when the mac was sleeping, a light came on on the side, slowly fading in an out as if breathing, but if the computer was on, the light was off and you could hardly even discern where the element was located. The aluminum chassis had been micro perforated and there was an LED just behind it.
I envisioned a similar system, except with an addressable LED matrix as a light source, on a much larger area, so as to be able to not only convey specific messages, but also customize the appearance of these elements when in action.
My aim would be to prototype such a system as a proof of concept. The prototype would also include a light sensor so as to automatically make the light more of less bright in differing illumination environments, in order to be seen in bright sunlight conditions, but not be blinding at night.