The Motion Tracker--my final project for CS 402L--is 1) a program that detects the position, velocity, and acceleration of an object based on color and 2) a tangible object launcher & protractor for angle-detection.

Teaser photo:…

Materials:

• computer
• webcam or external USB camera
• a whiteboard (or other large, flat, magnetic surface of a single color)
• 24" X 18" X 1/8" acrylic sheet (optional: acrylic of some other color)
• acrylic glue
• hot-melt glue
• vinyl stickers of three distinct bright colors (alternative: any other flat gluable material in these colors)
• 7 small (0.5" diameter or less) circular magnets, medium…

On the software side, I have moved forward on goals from last time:

• entire UI is more intuitive--buttons are fully functional even while videos are playing, and no awkward keyboard hacks are required
• resilience to basic user errors (not selecting a file when asked to, entering a poorly-formed integer, pressing "Play"…

• Raster paint: Use acrylic paint, let it dry, then scratch off with another piece of acrylic
  
  

     If you're trying to add a second color to a raster image on a piece of acrylic, getting the color to stay can be difficult. Shane suggests using a squeegee and avoiding acrylic/other tools for scraping off paint as this scratches the…

    Want to measure angles using a camera or make rotating acrylic elements using only a laser cutter and glue?

     Here are some approaches that work:

• Overall design for a camera-detected protractor
  
  

    I wanted to enable my Motion Tracker to measure the angle of the object launcher and of ramps on the object's path relative to the ground. The trajectory of an object launched from 30 versus 90 degrees is fairly different, and it would be…

       Since I've been continuing work on my object-tracking interface for the TLT Lab, I realized that, with Paulo's approval, combining my two long projects would make more sense in terms of time and effort. I hope to return to the gesture-based visualizer eventually, if only because I dream of making a visual for a song using only dance moves.

       The Object-Tracking Interface (OTI?) so far can

• be calibrated to track a specific user-selected color
• calculate…

My three original ideas for the final project were as follows:

1. Gesture-based visualizer--use gesture instances and sequences to arrange shapes/colors in a visual (optionally synced to music) or simple animation

2. problem-solving group RPG--a deck of large cards, with each card containing a scenario encouraging practical group problem-solving (and perhaps suggesting a solution). These could be flexible enough for many different role-playing settings. Example: front of…

After prototyping plane designs and starting to hack on the software component, I had a second Skype meeting with MIke. Several design changes/elaborations emerged.

• To my relief, Mike found the paper design much more promising than the balsa wood one consisting of separate pieces. I had been unsure of appropriate materials (acrylic is too heavy, cardboard too unpolished, light plastics tricky to reversibly modify), and he mentioned that all the balsa wood models he's encountered…

     My 8-year-old brother Michael (Mike, affectionately known as "Miha") is a natural candidate for dream toy-gifting. As he lives with my mother and stepfather in Chicago, our interview took place over Skype. Mike's initial wishes included a treehouse with "cool electronics", a flying bicycle, "a robot that looks like me and does my homework", a car that turns into a submarine, and a "hovering pen". When I explained that "dream" was actually constrained by "things Stacey can realistically…

My original idea for this week's assignment of "an object with a twist" came from the Gogo magnetic sensors. If they can sense a magnetic field, I reasoned, then three of them can triangulate the position of a magnet in a plane. Then I can stick a magnet on the end of my modified object (pen, paintbrush, conjurer's wand), track the position of the magnet via a Gogo board, and display the path of the pen/brush on a computer screen!!! The user could paint on a table top and have her/his…

I don't feel particularly attached to "Stacey". Mainly because it is a convenient abbreviation of "Anastasia", which everyone insists (incorrectly) on pronouncing with a "z" instead of an "ss" at the end.

However, I'm pretty attached to nature. Ansel Adams takes spectacular black & white pictures of it: 

Adding color to this image would make it…