IDLE HANDS

Two or three years ago when I  just made my moanonme device and it got loads of attention I recieved a strange email with the title “LED project for you?”. This was a guy from Australia living in England that wanted to do some lead stuff for his band. Se his band was just 2 persons (Bass and Guitar) and a drum machine. And he wanted to make the drums to be a larger part of their stage presence by blinking with VU-meters.

Since Aaron turned out to be really nice in his emails and I really did not have to do more then think of solutions to his problem I was helped out as good as I could. We threw a few ideas back and forth, and I think it was mine that he finally made.

Often when you do this kind of thing, nothing happens afterward. I’ve helped people with “personal art projects”, coding, electronics, input on music, etc etc. Often this does not amount to anything. Nothing is produced and there is nothing to show. This is ok, not every project succeds. Failing and or abandoning them is also ok.

I emailed Aaron once half a year after he told me he was finished asking for a video or image, he didn’t have one (yet), and I forgot all about it until the Sunday before last when he sent me an email. It had the same title, so he obviously replied to our old thread, I had to dig into memory (and look into the old discussion in the email) to remember what it was all about. The first sentences of the email was Aaron telling me that he hadn’t have had the time to film the device yet.

BUT they where going to play in Malmö Tuesday night and if I lived there he would put me on the guest list and I could check it out for myself. I work in Malmö, so I told him that I would be there. Tuesday came along and I went to see Civil Civic and the device I helped engineer. It was awesome. The music was great, chatting with Aaron afterward was also great.

Best of all was the feeling I had, sometimes helping ppl on the internet pays of, and when it does it’s a great feeling.

So go check out Civil Civic if you have a chance, at least on the internets, maybe there will be a video of the device sometimes. I took some pictures, but I like the elusive feel of it not being documented or put on the net.

So here is my simple little processing sketch that made all the nice circles.

Here is the source and example in a nice zipfile: LazerDirector

And here is the source, copy pasted, nice!

/* Lazor Director is a processing.org sketch to make halftone images into svg files that can be sent to a laser-cutter service,
examples of these are

http://www.cutyourway.com/
http://ponoko.com/
and
http://www.1scale1.com/

Please note that the processing image is not a real representation of how the svg looks, the svg has far better resolution

*/

PrintWriter output; // We use this to pritnt the svg file

PImage photo; //the original image that we want to convert to halftoneish svg

void setup()
{
  smooth(); //we want the smoothest possible edges in the image we see, can be removed for speed

  photo = loadImage("lobo.png"); //input image, that is, here is where you load what you want to halftone-hole (make sure it has the same size as the svg file output(se further down)) 
  size((int)(photo.width), (int)(photo.height));  //change processings window output widht and height

  output = createWriter("output.svg"); 

  background(0);  //setting the background to black, this is because I have black pastic to cut out from, add here your materials color

/*this is the header of the svg file. , 1080*1080 is 12"*12" (according to inkscape) */
  output.println("");
  output.println(""); //1080 * 1080 is 12"x12"

  output.println(" Test");
  output.println("");
  output.println(" Layer 1");

  drawCircles2(photo, 12); //the function that does the finding of the circles, second parameter is how large chunks (in pixels)it shall search in.
  output.println("");
  output.println("");
  save("output.png");
  output.flush();
  output.close();  

}  

void draw()
{
//nothing to do here
}  

void drawCircles2(PImage photo, int spacing)
{
  for(int j = 0; j < photo.height; j+=spacing) //looping through the image, in squares of 
  {
    for(int i = 0; i < photo.width; i+=spacing)
    {
      PImage segment = photo.get(i, j, spacing, spacing); //cuting out a whole
      float brighnezz = getAreaBrightness(segment); //meassuring the brighness
      float cSize =( brighnezz/51.2); //adjusting the size of the whole depending on the brightnezz

      if(cSize >1.5) //to small holes, we dont care about (was 0.5 in the one I show over at:
      {
        fill(255); //white here because I want to get a feel for how it would look if added light behind
        stroke(255); //same here
        /*writing the svg information to file */
        output.println(" +cSize+"\" cy=\""+j+"\" cx=\""+i+"\"/> ");
        /* drawing preview on screen */
        ellipse(i, j,cSize, cSize);
      }
    }
  }
}   

int getAreaBrightness(PImage area)
{
  int bval = 0, count = 1;

  for(int i = 0; i < area.width; i++)
  {
    for(int j = 0; j < area.height; j++)
    {
      color check = area.get(i, j); 

      bval += brightness(check); //thank you processign for having all the dedious task's as functions!
      count++;
    }
  }
  return (int)(bval/count);
}

I’ve been bisy as of late, sorry about that. Android Live Wallpaper competition at work. Making games and moustache applications with Staffan, kid’s starting their summer holiday’s. But enough of that.

As you know, I’ve been dabbling with lasercutting and I’ve recived my Lobo circled test. So here are a few pictures:

The holes are there, they need a little push to get clean from the de-brese though. The protective layer really protects.

closeup on the holes

This is the tedious part, it was so tedious that I had to go and take a nap.

Tova decided she wanted the holes, so she helped me cleaning!

First test with the stand I threw together.

This is pretty awesome, right!

Tomorrow I’m going to post the processing.org script I used to convert the image to svg!

I’ve made some improvements to my cut holes with a laser processing.org sketch. Now it outputs .svg files that are correctly formatted for cutyourway.com

Last night after perfecting the script (witch I will soon publish) I sent another order to be processed.

This time it’s Lobo one of my favorite comicbook anti-heroes.

Here’s the resulting image:

And here is the SVG: output.svg

Made a simple little stylus for the iPad, this video shows it.

Yeah, I know it’s stupid and will probably take loads and loads of time, but I want to.

I want one that can drill holes and mill stuff. So i don’t really need that much z-axis.

large x and y would be nice.
I’ve got a bunch of stepper motors already, so that is not a big expense. (none)

I need some way to control them, so I was thinking of the EasyDriver, using 3 of them connected to one Arduino, I think I’ll be set.

Programming the thing will be easy, putting the mechanics together might be the hardest part, but I have a good idea about what I could do there.

If these where holes you would se me luring behind.

I got my order from cutyourway.com, it’s a place where you can upload some vector graphics and they cut int with their laser.

I made a little design that I was going to use as a lamp, the bad thing was that they only etched it, not cutting it.

I was very disappointed.

I mailed their sales/support organization and I hope that they will fix it.

Did I mention that I was dissapointed?

I’m very dissapointed.

UPDATE: Apparently something went wrong with my conversions, not cutyourway’s fault. They offered to re cut for half the price. But it wasn’t their fault so I’m gonna pass. I’ve decided to build a CNC machine for myself.

Besides, I’ve started to like the etched version!

I was thinking a lot about how to revolutionize the childrens reading experience a while ago. Now that I have had that simmering in my head for a while I think it’s time for me to blurt it all out here.

Young children sees the book more as an object then a bearer of information. My kids have had books to eat, bath with, draw in and sometimes tear apart. That is ok, when you’re young you need to experiment on these things. The bathing book was one made in plastic. For these youngsters, a iPad/kindle is not a device. Nor is a special made military grade waterproof children’s device that either. Probably to expensive, and it wont replace the device anyways.

pre-school and young school children. They can already take care of such a device, my kids love to play with my iPad, byt they really dont care about reading books on it. there are so much else to do on it.

A few still open questions, if an iPad is among the first reading experiences a child has, is he bookshelf and paper peel effect good design/usability?

I’ll stop rambling, my pinkeye hurt’s me.

So I’ve been thinking about lasers and CNC cutters/millers whatever a lot these last days.

I have this awesome idea that includes loads of holes, plastic and lights.

I’ve made a little convention program that converts images to set’s of holes. Just drill/cut the holes out and put some light behind it, and you have awesomeness.

For your pleasure, here are images that illustrate:

is converted to:

Now imagine all those white dots being holes, and a light source behind. it could be awesome. In fact, I’ve already ordered just this from cutyourway.com on a 12″ * 12″ black acrylic plastic.

When I get that and have designed some other good stuff, I’m gonna go to 1scale1.com and hire their laser-cutter.

Pop-art-deluxe!

A few days ago I made a new dish, here’s the recipe with pictures.

First, take some mushrooms and at least 3 different kinds of onions (yes, it’s gräslök)

Hacken mixen pulverisen!

Then take a falukorv, and cut it.

Put the goo inside.

wrap in bacon (2 packs used here)

put it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Arrange beautifully on a plate!