Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category


Article: Paper supercapacitor could power future paper electronics

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Articles, Technology | Tags: ,

(PhysOrg.com) — All those paper transistors and paper displays that scientists have been designing can now be powered by an onboard power source, thanks to the development of a new paper supercapacitor. Designed by researchers at Stanford University, the paper supercapacitor is made by simply printing carbon nanotubes onto a treated piece of paper. The [...]

Gesture-based computing on the cheap

Monday, May 24th, 2010 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Articles, Technology | Tags:

Gesture-based computing on the cheap. “With a single piece of inexpensive hardware — a multicolored glove — MIT researchers are making Minority Report-style interfaces more accessible.”
Check out the video: <object id=”flashObj” width=”486″ height=”412″ classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0″><param name=”movie” value=”http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/36804639001?isVid=1″ /><param name=”bgcolor” value=”#FFFFFF” /><param name=”flashVars” value=”videoId=86656499001&playerID=36804639001&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true” /><param name=”base” value=”http://admin.brightcove.com” /><param name=”seamlesstabbing” value=”false” /><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” /><param [...]

Article: Merging Man and Machine, The Bionic Age

Friday, Dec 25th, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: General Discussion, Technology | Tags: , ,

The cover story to the January 2010 issue of National Geographic is an article about how bionics, or “the study of mechanical systems that function like living organisms or parts of living organisms”, is being used to help people with limited abilities and handicaps, due to accident, genetics or age. In addition to a very [...]

Article: Bacteria is put to work turning gears

Friday, Dec 25th, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Technology | Tags: , , ,

I came across this interesting article about biological and “micromechanical machines” this morning while eating oatmeal and toast.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University have discovered that common bacteria can turn microgears when suspended in a solution, providing insights for designs of bio-inspired dynamically adaptive materials for [...]

Using the wave shield

Sunday, Nov 22nd, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: ITP, Intro to Physical Computing, Technology | Tags: ,

Introduction: The idea behind this post was to describe how I attempted to use a wave shield to play a sound using a photocell as the trigger.
Description: Just for the record, the code for the wave shield is really confusing, but I have gotten it to work - though that was a painful process. After [...]

Intro to Physical Computing: Final Project Proposal

Saturday, Nov 21st, 2009 by Allison Walker | 1 Comments
Filed under: Education, Intro to Physical Computing, Technology

This was meant to be a continuing post about my final project for Physical Computing, however I’ve finally decided on a project. I’m not sure what I’ll title it, but Android Pet Plant sort of comes to mind.
My Android Pet Plant will (hopefully) do 3 things: When you first encounter it, you can come close. [...]

Phys Comp Midterm: Balance board video controller

Friday, Nov 13th, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Creativity, Education, ITP, Intro to Physical Computing, Media, Technology | Tags: , ,

For my Physical Computing midterm, I worked with Andrea Wolf and Sindy Butz to create a balance board that controls a video in Processing.
Here’s a video of me demonstrating for our class.

Balance Board Media Controller from Allison Walker on Vimeo.
The way it works: User steps on the board, which completes a switch inside the board. [...]

Applications of Interactive Telecommunications

Thursday, Nov 12th, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Applications of Interactive Technology, Education, General Discussion, ITP, Technology | Tags: ,

This week, my group finally presented for Red Burns’ Applications of Interactive Telecommunications. My group consisted of Chris Allick, Hana Newman, and Andy Jordan. Together, we successfully worked together to produce a presentation on our reaction to Craig Newmark’s talk the previous week. Not only did the class enjoy our presentation, we also enjoyed and [...]

Event: The Kitchen Presents - Nancy Garcia/Chase Granoff

Sunday, Nov 8th, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Art & Culture, Media, People, Technology | Tags: , , ,

Saturday, November 7, I went to The Kitchen with a friend to see a double performance by Nancy Garcia and Chase Granoff. Nancy Garcia is also a graduate of ITP.
As far as Chase Granoff’s work, “The Art of Making Dances”, I quite liked it. I found it easy to “get” quickly, in that I found [...]

Phys Comp - Week 6: Serial Communication, Part 1

Monday, Oct 19th, 2009 by Allison Walker | 0 Comments
Filed under: Education, General Discussion, ITP, Intro to Physical Computing, Technology | Tags: ,

This week we connected our Arduino to Processing.
When it happened, I was hoped for sparks and for everything to start moving in slow motion. Instead I got a purple graph. It was still pretty excited. I made funny noises.

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