Interactive Multi-Media Thesis Final
My name is Jonathan Sacelaris and I am a social leader with a passion for technology, collaborating with others, and creating both physical & digital projects. I am a lover of drumming, culinary arts, carpentry, thoughtful conversations, and expanding my knowledge. I continue to contribute through impactful and resonant ways, by employing my creativity and passions. I am goal oriented, highly organized, and driven to succeed.
For my Thesis Capstone Project I developed a Digital Information Visual Art Panel (DiVAP). This project is a physical art panel installation that utilizes 500 LEDs. With a minimalistic, clean, and simple approach, the LEDs become the focal point. The display is powered by Arduino and combines art and information, creating beautiful animations. The tools utilized during this project include Arduino Technology (Mega 2560), Processing, Individually Addressable LEDs (ws2812b), Electrical Soldering, Wood, Plexiglass.
My inspiration for this idea originated from my love of drumming and music. Moreover I wanted to create something visually stimulating. What better way then to combine these two mediums (music and lights), which is what this project is. At it’s base, it revolves around three pillars, (Arduino, LEDS, and Music), which allows for a beautiful and mesmerizing light show to entertainer and intrigue viewers.
This project was featured in The 2016 Interactive Multi-Media Senior Showcase, along with other projects that students have been working on for the past academic year. This is the goal of every IMM student. During senior year, students spend the first semester researching, narrowing down topics, and developing a prototype to eventually present at our showcase. Time during second semester is used to fully develop our projects utilizing many of the skills we have learned throughout our college career. The showcase gives a peek into the world of our talented class of 2016. It reveals the multifaceted interests and passions that IMM seniors have and who they want to be such as designers, coders, musicians, game developers, tinkerers, makers… the people who turn ideas into reality.
Throughout my thesis adventure there were many obstacles I faced. This was in part, due to the fact that I desired to learn new skills. I had little knowledge of Arduino beforehand. I knew absolutely nothing when it came to LED’s and I had never even soldered anything in my life before. There were learning curves. That’s why we have the first semester. To learn and master the components, coding languages, or w/e it may be used in our projects. I spent quite a bit of time researching different LED’s, sketching out the development process for the physical frame surrounding the LED’s. What materials I should use. Which Arduino board would work the best. Which software program I could use to drive the board and display different animations to my 500 LED matrix. It was a lot of research, which I think is the most important area. I also set reach goals for myself, such as being able to activate my board using my phone.
During this whole process I took my time to make sure I did not mess things up. I purchased LED’s and troubleshooted when they wouldn’t turn on. I learned to solder and troubleshooted connecting which wire to which wire. I built the frame and got some expert advice on how to do it. Overall I took my time. The last stage of my board is where things got interesting. I had originally planned to use open source software called Glediator. It was written in java, compatible with Mac running OSX and my Arduino Mega. The instructions were complicated but I’m smart guy and could figure it out or so I thought. Installing this software was the biggest pain I ever encountered during senior year and it had to do with one little thing. Using RXTX serial ports to communicate with my Arduino Board. I had to configure my java extensions in order for the software to communicate with the board, which doesn’t sound to hard. Until I figured out that there is hardly any documentation on how do this and that they stopped supporting this software in 2011. After 4 (8 -10 hour) days, of trial and error, checking and re-checking, troubleshooting with 5 different people I still had no success.
At this point I had to revert to plan B, use different demo’s that I in part coded and found online to demonstrate the capabilities of my LED Board. The showcase came and went, the demos were quite successful and overall I was proud of my accomplishments.
For future students beginning their Thesis Journey, I can impart a few key pieces of advice that I believe will be helpful.
· Research: One key element to having a successful project is conducting your due diligence. If you go in to your second semester blind, only knowing a little about how you’ll actually execute everything, I guarantee you will hit problems. Some of them can be major issues such as if you chose a harder platform to code your project on or if you bought hardware that won’t actually work with your idea. If you have everything laid out as clear-cut as possible and have found the best and most efficient ways to complete your project everything will go much smoother.
· Don’t be afraid to try something new: Don’t rule out projects that you may not have too much knowledge in how to complete. You have two whole semesters to learn and create something awesome. Don’t be afraid to learn something new or pick a skill you’ve always wanted to master.
· Pick a topic you’re going to love: This is pretty straightforward advice. If you hate coding, then don’t pick a project that is coding intensive.
· Utilize your resources: This includes fellow classmates, professors, online resources, friends, etc.
· Don’t Procrastinate!
Inspiration
3. https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/152
