INDN 311: Honing the Elements

So, we're two weeks in, and I've been focussing a lot of my attention on my other papers, but it's time to step up to the plate for this course. The ideas that I have for this paper are pretty big, so I will definitely need to devote some real time to it to actually detail it into fruition. That, and there is a fairly substantial hand-in coming up for it soon. I'm totally not freaking out. Really. Okay, maybe I am. Stress levels are pretty massive.

So, as you know, looking back at my previous post for this course, that this project is going to revolve around the design and production of a self-contained, Arduino-based alarm clock, where the user doesn't have direct control over the time of day they wake up. The alarm clock basically is seeking to restore a more natural cycle to someone's day/night cycles.

One of the ideas for materiality that I really like is the concept of creating a material that shouldn't be possible. On it's own, concrete doesn't permit light through it, and on their own, fibre optics don't have any rigidity. By combining the two, we get the opportunity to create a very unique material with some unique properties. I however might have some issued with the concrete, as it can be pretty brittle if not used properly.

Theoretically, using a speaker to generate some sound should be a pretty easy feat. There are sure to exist several shields capable of generating sound for the Arduino, and I'm going to have a scout around to see what I can find. I don't know if the audio I will be able to output will be particularly high quality, but I'll wait and see on that front. I want to make the whole alarm system something that works together, so the speaker will be hidden as well to keep the look great.

In terms of the circuitry, this is a simplified version of the system. For the presentation I'll make a more detailed and prettier version for people to understand what they're looking at and how it's actually going to fit together. But in terms of a general picture, this diagram is a pretty accurate one, theoretically. It won't be this simple, but this is the basic gist of it.