Wave Carpet (2. Gen – Multimodal, Wired ) |

Background
Wave is the concept name for the 2nd generation of RHYME co-creative tangibles.
Wave is developed based on three main grounds:

The RHYME project plan and goals for this phase: to develop knowledge through design of tangible multimedia that facilitates play, communication and co-creation, between one child with special needs and one closely related person.
Experiences and knowledge acquired through the action based, empirical study of ORFI (1st generation)
New hardware possibilities available at the time (2011) to explore relevant multimedia and cross-media possibilities.

From the empirical study of ORFI, there were five specific areas we wanted to explore and develop further:

To give more, easier and different interaction and shared musicking possibilities
To give response in sound and light close to the interaction place
To experience more sensory and cross –media interaction possibilities
To work further with voice input as a base for the musicking experience
To develop co-creative tangibles that in the future are possible to have at home

Concept
The Wave concept consists of and expresses many things. A wave is frequently used as a representation for music and for a new generation of anything, but it is also a way to interact with accelerometer sensors, which we wanted to use. Further waves have inspirational aesthetical qualities with its several references to nature, like waves in the ocean and movements in the fields of barley. References we have used in the design of the expression in shapes, structures, surfaces, sounds and interaction forms.

The Wave concept will be developed further and consists currently of two different forms of tangibles, the Wave Carpet and Wave Orange. Wave Carpet is a 7-branched carpet, which is wired and therefore offeres many cross-media possibilities. Wave Orange is a wireless iPhone/iPod based toy/beanbag chair with 2 arms.

WAVE CARPET

Wave Carpet is a 7-branched carpet. It is connected to an external computer and the power net, and therefore includes many input and output devices and offers many new cross-media interaction possibilities. Further it opens up for many future expansion possibilities.

Technology
The Wave Carpet includes the following input and output devices:

6 Infrared-sensors with light response in a bubble shaped field
Microphone with light response in one arm
Camera with light response in another arm
Pico Projector in a third arm
2 Bend sensors with light in two separate arms
2 Accelerometers sensors with light in two separate arms
Sound vibration element (Visaton)
2 Speakers
LEDs included in the orange burnt out velvet textile

Additionally Wave Carpet includes the following technology:

Arduino Mega and a custom shield
Arduino software for controlling the input and output
2 Amplifiers
Mini Mac
SuperCollider as sound software
Processing as video and graphical software

During our action based empirical studies and the development periods we will develop many programs that offers different music genres, sound qualities and uses of the input and output devices in WAVE Carpet. In the following we will describe the qualities of some of these programs. Currently (15. March 2012) we have five different programs.

Music interaction – Voices
The Voices program or genre is a play with voices, both synthetic computer generated and the users own. You record your voice by talking or singing into the microphone, and you get a light response when Wave records. You play with your voice by waving with the two accelerometer containing arms. Additionally you can add two synthetic voices by interacting with the bend sensor arms, one tenor and one base voice. You can also play on the “bubble field” and create vivid tunes in various ways. Or just play with your own images with the camera and projector arms, to the sound of the synthetic voices.