So our ideas have all fallen in to place. Were happy with what we want to achieve and are ready to get down to business.
Until recently none of us had really a strong idea about how we were going to tackle what seems now an easy task but that's thanks to Lee Nutbean.
So our first challenge was to work out how we would pick up the traffic light transition to red. At this point we were introduced to arduino.
Arduino
"Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments."
Over the course of the last few weeks we've been toying about with arduino, processing and general errrm stuff. I had never seen this technology before on a hands on basis and was really keen to get to grips with it. What made it so fascinating is that all code designed for anything arduino is open source! Ideas being shared on a global scale, lovely! So a lot of inspiration was available quickly and easily. As you can see from this video some really cool things can be done.....
How do they work?
Put simply, Arduino boards do what they are told. Using processing/Arduino which is freely available on the web, users can programme a set of instructions and upload them to the boards. Users can set the code to be run automatically but what makes these boards a cool subject is that light/sound pretty much any sensor can be applied to them. So now we knew what we would be using to detect the traffic light turning red!
Now we have arudino technology geing used in our project which is not only a useful technology it is also cost effective. Now we had to think of a way of producing a cheap wireless communication between the light sensor/Arduino board to the laptop/computer we are going to use to show our Flash projection on the Dance Academy.
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