Technology Diagram

Created a diagram showing the technical setup of our project for the research competition and eventually our thesis paper. Completed a mock up of our floor pattern layout in illustrator for the research competition paper. Also started working on the content for the standby mode of the AR viewer.

Age Montages and Research Competition

Stephen started reworking our thesis paper to reflect the development our project has undergone over the last few months. This will also help with our CSU research competition application. I worked on the age montages that will be the standby mode for the AR viewer.

Serendipity at Radio Shack

Went to Radio Shack to buy more pc boards for our tool objects. As we were leaving Stephen noticed that amid the remodelling the store was undergoing, workers were pulling up the carpet pieces. They said we could take them so Stephen went dumpster diving and got aroung 45 1.5 x1.5 foot pieces. We spent the afternoon cleaning them and arranging them in different ways to layou the space of our installation. It really changed the energy of the space. We will probably get some white vinyl to complete the design. Also downloaded and installed Dart on the second PC. Worked on montage for the Greek age.

Camera Issues

Bought the rest of the magnets. Bought some pc boards. Installed the rest of the magnets on the table. Asked Gavin about the Camera for our second PC. The lack of availability of a camera right now proved demoralizing. Picked up an application for the CSU reasearch grant.

First Cube Wired...Success

Wired the first cube(greek/amber) today. It goes on automatically and turns off when placed on our magnet on/off base. Success!

Wiring the First Cube, Testing the Video Sender, etc.

Worked on the art for the tool cubes. Created colored arrows for the table/floor projection. Also finished and glued the Greek table marker down. Tested our new video sender. It performed much better right out of the box than the previous one, however removing the top half of the metal case and replacing it with a plastic one dramatically improved it's transmission power. We still have issues withour portable tv though, and we plan to insert some spacers inside the case to prevent user handling of it from affecting the circuitry inside.

More Construction

Stephen worked to balance the projector and mount its cables to the ceiling. Song finished screwing in the masonite to the base of the Mayan table. Set up the PC and projected from it in the old kiln room.

Construction

Worked on calculations for the projection and rehung the projector. Cut pieces of masonite/wood for covering the crates that make up the base for the Mayan table and started screwing them in. Started modifying the plastic cube for our under table camera. Glued the fire marker to our fennel branch.

Calculations

Worked on calculations regarding the size of mirror we'd need for our projection the be big enough and still maintain the symetry of the light triangles. Came to the conclusion that the mirror would have to be much bigger than it is practical. Met with Scott and James(photography) who leant us a wide angle lens adapter. Perhaps we can rig it for use with our projector. Started working on the standby mode for our table projection.

Hung the Projector

Picked up our mirror and plastic magnet covers. Installed the magnets and covers on five of the table trays. Stephen hung the projector and mirror. Discoved the mirror was not quite big enough. Also Song saw that the excess light hat was spilling over the corners of the tables could be used as part of the interface by adding arrows that point to each of the period tables.

Crossing off Items on the List ++

Went to tap plastics to order mirror and on/off switch covers. Assembled greek table including attaching the chariot. Worked on flash animation of stanby mode for our tangible table. Tested the carvability of dry sand (faux stone) facade.

The Table is Almost There, etc.

Cut the excess film from to acrylic tabletop. Glued some of the magnets in place for our on/off platforms for the tangible tools/cubes. Started worh on the standby mode for our TUI table. Added felt feet to the Greek pedestal to level the table. Stephen drilled holes in the greek pedestal for mounting the faux marble top. He also calculated the size requirements for our mirror.

Chariot and Mayan Calendar Simulation

Added the sun symbol wheels to the body of the chariot. Also tweaked the Mayan calendar simulation.

Chariot Physical Model

Started building the physical model of the chariot. In order to make it fairly accurate to the 3D model i used orthagonal vies as the guides/template.

Mayan Calander Wheels Simulation-New Configuration

In an effort to test the new wheel in wheel configuration as opposed to the original side by side plan I made a flash version of the wheels and tested different building alignment positions.

Also in an effort to prepare for our forum presentation Stephen an I put together an exhaustive list of tasks to be completed in the next few weeks.

Work, work, work.

Tried new adhesive/sand combo using wallpaper paste to emulate a stone surface for the Mayan Age. We felt this would be good due to it's lower cost and the large surface area we'd need to cover. We also did some work on a Flash simulation of the Mayan calendar wheels to both help with discerning how sightline alignments will work with different configurations as well as content clues in explaining the system to users in the project. Finished patching and painting the octagon table frame. We also worked out the details for what we'd need to do our wheels with the newly designed configuration. We ordered the necessary hardware to do this, but will wait on remaking our construction templates until after the hardware arrives to ensure that we have the correct dimensions.

Re-inventing the Wheel...

We returned the antennas we purchased and Song ordered a new video sender. She also returned the erroneous phicon batteries we received. We got the keys to the old Kiln room. Worked some on painting the octagon table. Song designed some backgounds for our elemental phicons to communicate which solids go with which element. We were going to construct the Mayan Calendar wheels when I realized that I had forgotten one of the necessary tools. To tidy up since we had to wait til I brought the tool, I placed the smaller wheel template in the center of the larger wheel template. Inspiration struck that we might be able to construct the wheels within each other. Song and I discussed whether this would be worth taking extra time to figure out and whether or not it was even possible. It dawned on us that it might be possible but we'd have to research a few things first to work out construction details and determine what the implications would be for the content if we followed through with this change. We decided to pursue this the next day.

UHF reception and Moving (again)

Song received the batteries for our phicons. Though the packing list said the batteries were the ones we ordered, the shipped items were the wrong type.

We spent most of the day analyzing different antenna's and the reception of our video sender's signal on our LCD TV. We tried: a larger broadcast antenna, a "bowtie" uhf receiver antenna, an external telescoping antenna, a loop uhf antenna, and a uhf antenna amplifier. None of these seemed to make one difference to the reception/signal we saw. It often cuts out and simply doesn't seem to broadcast very far at all. However, after straightening some wireloops on the video sender board as well as messing with the antenna, we discovered that it had a very LARGE broadcast range and provided an incredible picture without the use of ANY external antennas on our TV! Some of these issues we had already touched upon earlier but apparently had not fixed adequately, and unfortunately, would require extensive rebuilding beyond our immediate means to correct properly. We decided we'd get a replacement video sender since we were now satisfied it would do the job we need it to.

We also got official access to the old Kiln room though we will have to wait for keys. We spent the rest of our time cleaning it up.

Urban Ore Shopping again

We decided to check out Urban Ore again for wood and table parts. Instead we came back with a greek column (table base) and a renaissance-looking table. Instead of doing all the same type of table, we're going to customize tables for each age! Creativity really seems to be flowing this week!

In doing more uhf reception tests, we discovered that some of the electronics in our LCD TV are messed up. It appears that something is getting squashed internally when it's held just right and it causes a short that gives whacky displays and spurious operation.

Wiring Schematic for AR Viewer

We figured out how to possibly power up all our devices using the wireless gamepad controller's on/off button and drew a rough schematic. We also spent a lot of time working on testing our Black & White camera. We need a slightly wider lens (I'll order tonight or tomorrow) and it also appears that it is way too sensitive in the dark given its auto-iris and gain to recognize previously trained symbols. We might need to get a different camera or maybe simply retraining with this camera will be sufficient. In any case, the camera seems to work very well, though we almost blew it when our universal power adapter failed and sent too much voltage (+50%) through the camera!

Also finalized wiring diagram for cubes.