Smart Surfaces Course Progression

I was just thinking about how much each project has progressed us as Smart Surfacers (it's a word now!). We started the semester with this, basically throwing sand around.

Then we progressed into heliotropism and easily tripled the complexity of our problems. We also made smartish objects. This could follow the sun (or a flashlight as it may be).

Our sun tracker.

After that we stayed at basically the same level and created a field of solar trackers that moved in unison.

Our solar tracker in action.

We then moved into a two week project and we created the light box, it was powered through solar panels and a side lit up when you walked by it. The idea was to create a field of them to walk through. This was the most frustrating two weeks I think I've ever had. (Team problems for a while)

Then of course, we moved on to the iWall (I still hate that name), which I'm really really proud of.

Basically, what I'm getting at is look how far we've come! From throwing sand to an aluminum and acrylic self adjusting passive lighting modular wall system. Not bad.

Thanks for reading.

It's Over and Done With

It's sort of bittersweet, but Smart Surfaces is, for all intents and purposes, over. It's sort of anti-climatic actually. A semesters of some of the hardest work I've ever done and then it's over. Maybe for me it's just what I feel after any big project but heightened since I missed the final presentation because of a death in my family. Talk about climactic in all the wrong ways.

Anyways, our project is

The iWall Modular Light-Filtration System

The wall you see here is a modular, scalable, self-adjusting multi-aperture window, designed to optimize light flow into a room by manipulating the position of rotating wood panels. You could call it an 'automatic venetian blind', as that is the gist of the purpose. The system consists of 30 individual modules, with one panel per module, which allow a variable amount of light to pass through. The structural elements are built modularly, but circuitry elements - such as wiring - are set up in a non-modular fashion. Individual module apertures open and close in reaction to the intensity of the light that passes through the wall as detected by light-dependent resistors (LDRs), seen on the projection side, holding a relatively constant light level on the ‘interior’ of the wall at all times - this gives 'heliotropic' and 'smart' characteristics to the wall - 'surface', fitting it into the premise of the SmartSurfaces course. The actual actuation is by a grid of servos powered externally and controlled through inputs from an Arduino Mega and the LDRs. The materials used in the assembly of the individual modules were 3/16" cast acrylic cut by laser and 3/16" 6061 aluminum sheet cut by water jet.

My group presenting our passive lighting system.

The back of the modular wall.

The view through a module to the light patterns created behind the wall.

Each module had it's own servo turning the panels. Each panel was veneered with a curly maple veneer on the back and a thin layer of white polystyrene on the front. The modules are held to each other by 4 bolts per unit.

I am so incredibly happy and proud with how our project turned out. It's one of my favorite pieces I've ever been a part of. It was an incredible amount of work, and an incredible amount of time, and quite a bit of money (Grants are awesome!), and something that I can't wait to show off in my portfolio.

I really enjoyed working with my team. Neil (Engineering) basically coded and figured out how to make the arduino do what we wanted it to do. Big props to Neil. Michael (Engineering) did a little of everything really and was a big help assembling, but single handedly tackled our big final paper and kept the team on budget. Breanna (Architecture) handled the renderings, worked on the CAD design and was part of the assembly team. Taylor (Design) was Mr. Building and worked on CAD design and single handedly made the panels. Josiah (Architecture) worked primarily on assembly and the build team and made a big contribution on the laser cutting and water jet cutting of the raw acrylic and aluminum. I (Design) spent my time water jet cutting the aluminum, laser cutting a small fortune in acrylic, and assembling modules.

I really feel like we had a dream team and I would work with any person in my group again in a heart beat. I'll honestly miss seeing them almost everyday. Perhaps before next semester starts up my group would like to meet for a beer at Ashley's Pub?

I'd also like to thank the professors that ran this course, John Marshall (Art & Design), Max Shtein (Materials Science Engineering) and Karl Daubman (Architecture) all did a hell of job. Even though we sometimes felt like guinea pigs as students, the course was a great one and one that defines the Michigan difference. This was an opportunity that would never have been available to me at any other art & design school. A heartfelt thanks to all the professors.

Thanks for reading.

1 day 'till due. No pressure. It's only 3 grand.

Yep, it's all due tomorrow (Friday) for Smart Surfaces baby! A few photos from module building over the past two nights.

Josiah, Breana, and I working Tuesday night glueing modules.

A module without the light controlling panel in the middle.

The army of half modules, all glued up and waiting for the plywood panels.

Best of luck to my group tomorrow night and Friday, I'll be gone because of a death in the family. They are going to kick ass.

Thanks for reading!

Canvas Shoe Design

Ok, so this post has been a long time coming. I've just been to busy to post some projects from the beginning of the semester, but now have some time as I am sitting in front of a laser cutter for a few hours cutting out modules for Smart Surfaces.

Here we have the Canvas Shoes from early on in the semester in More w/ Less. I took the starting project that Jan gave us to create shoes out of paper that could support a persons weight and decided to develop my tubular paper shoes further with canvas. In this second phase of the project, we were specifically designing shoes for one of our class mates.

Enter Mallory.

I interviewed Mallory on her shoe preferences, foot size, likes/dislikes, and found a few main things she wanted in shoes,

-she enjoyed simple flats with a little experimentation to them

-organic, flowing, intertwined shoes drew her curiosity in

-a engaging sole print was a plus

-cooler color for the major color

-comfort

So with that in mind, I did a little research into where flexibility and, more importantly, where rigidity was needed for a correct human gate. I also read up on arch support and designing for comfort and impact resistance.

We would be critiqued on how comfortable the shoes were for the users, how long they lasted, and meeting the users overall needs and desires.

Mallory modeling my shoes for her.

I developed the rolled tube design of my paper shoes because of their incredible strength and the ability to add flexibility and rigidity where it was needed. When the short tubes were glued to the sole they naturally had flexibility against one another, but by simply strategically glueing tubes together, I could create rigid sections to provide support for Mallory's arches and give her a platform to push off of when walking.

I made the tubes out of a canvas often used in awnings and on boats called Sunbrella, I chose it because it was waterproof, highly fade resistant and just as importantly, soft to the touch. The sunbrella was cut into thin strips, rolled, and glued. I then attached each roll to the sole. The sole was made from a combination of layers of Sunbrella fabric and bristol board. The bristol board was used to keep the wearer from feeling the tubes through the fabric.

Assembly.

Rolled Sunbrella Tubes attached to the base of the sole.

The Sunbrella tubes had a nice tendency to compress under walking weight, which enabled me to provide the user (Mallory) with a nice level of comfort when walking.

The tubes that make up the outsole.

I used navy blue Sunbrella because Mallory liked cooler colors on her shoes, but threw in some yellow to appeal to Mallory's desire for a little flair and experimentation. For the color I used a handkerchief with a white and black paisley pattern printed on it and hand sewed it to the footbeds. I used this to add color to both the footbed and to the weave that made up the uppers. I specifically chose to weave the uppers because of Mallory's desire for flowing, interconnected footwear and because of the stretch and flexibility it would offer for Mallory's foot to stay in the footbed comfortably.

The yellow handkerchief sewn onto the footbed.

The weave that made up the uppers of the flats.

To provide arch support I added taller tubes to the sole under the foots arches. These were roughly 1/8th of an inch taller than the rest of the tubes and when the user stood or walked in the shoes, the taller tubes pushed the footbeds up and provide support for the arches. I felt that providing arch support through the soles instead of building up the footbeds was a more material efficient and more effective way of providing support when walking or standing.

Mallory, enjoying the early fall sun in her new flats.

Overall, Mallory was happy with the shoes I designed for her. I was able to provide her with everything she was looking for and was able to do it efficiently materials wise. The pair of shoes used only 2/3rds of a yard of Sunbrella and was still able to provide comfort, support and looks.

Thanks for reading.

IT FITS!

The planning has payed off! The aluminum and the acrylic fit together! If they didn't fit perfectly our Smart Surfaces group was out almost $1,000 in aluminum and acrylic. Luckily, we are not screwed!

They fit, friction fit even!

Water Jet Cutting!

We started cutting our aluminum triangle faces for Smart Surfaces out of our large (4'x8') sheet of 3/16th aluminum yesterday. I say started because the entire cut is going to take 3 hours and use 180 lbs of the abrasive material and we ran out of abrasive material. Sooo, we get to finish it up on Monday.

Either way, the water jet cutter is one of the most useful machines in the Digital Fab Lab in my opinion. The quality of the cuts are nearly finished quality and it does a beautiful job of intricate cuts. Also, the Fab Lab guys are great, they know what they are doing and are fun to work with. Highly recommended.

The aluminum sheet in the machine, pre cutting.

Cutting a piece out. It's quite a machine to watch, lots of high pressure water, bubbles, and noise!

A cut piece. Just a little sanding on the edges and it's ready to go into a wall module.

At this time we are also laser cutting out the acrylic sections of the module, we have 3 4'x8' sheets of acrylic, so lots and lots of laser cutting ahead of us!

Thanks for reading!

Hey Look Ma! A Module!

The prototype of our module, of which for the final there will be 36 of them, stacked.

We're working on small final revisions before our final order for materials (acrylic & aluminum). This upcoming week and weekend will be a whirlwind of water jet cutting aluminum, laser cutting acrylic, glueing, veneering and all manner of little problems that we are trying to anticipate but are sure to pop up.

11 days until the final project is due. Gulp.

Testing 1,2,3...can anybody hear me?

We spent last weeks Smart Surfaces class period testing our LDRs (light sensitive things) and getting a reading of how sensitive they are and generating ideas on how to arrange our modules in the final iteration. We came up with some cool graphs, which I won't take time to explain since I doubt many are interested in what exactly they told us, but none the less they look nice!

This was our super scientific controlled experiment, stray foam core and cardboard. Funny thing was 2 designers and 1 architect set up the experiment to gather data for the engineers (I scoff at your scientific method!)

Photo From John Marshall's Flickr

Thanks for reading.

Solar Surface Sketch Model

Yea for group work! After Josiah, Mike, Neil and I made the structure yesterday, Brieana and Taylor coded it to work this afternoon! It sounds like the coding was easy, but I'd rather build with czech toys than code any day of the week!

Thanks for reading!

Building What We Can

We'll we're in final groups of course now. I really like my group, we work well together and all get along which is even more appreciated after the last group!

Smart Surfaces Team One is (since I've not posted on it before)

Josiah - Architect

Brieana - Architect

Michael - Materials Science

Neil - Materials Science

Taylor - Design

I'm excited to work with all of them.

Today we got to work on prototyping something to show roughly what we want to do with our project. It's good to make something, it's what I as a design student love to do. Book work sucks, working with your hands is the best.

It's also nice to have a doable project at this point. We've redefined the project twice now. First idea was, well three ideas, which we ran by the class (no one liked any of them) and we moved on in a different direction. (The first ideas were things like making a solar stadium or retrofiting Michigan Stadium with solar panel bleachers). We then moved onto solar umbrellas and really developed the idea quite far and had a great presentation that really went over why these solar umbrellas were awesome, what they would do, why they were needed and such.

The presentation went over great. Then why do you ask did we redefine the project a second time?

Eugene Shteyn. (The guy sitting in the chair in the picture above)

This guy single handedly saved our project by making us really think about it. Eugene is the Director of Intellectual Property and Standards at HP and teaches as Stanford. He went through finding high quality problems that are implementable. We also went through reverse brainstorming, which is basically finding problems with solutions not solutions to problems. We had to think up 70 real problems with our project. It was surprisingly easy and I think it really overwhelmed all of us how flawed our project was.

70 problems with the solar umbrellas. That's me looking back!

But after working on it for a week, I think we've really figured out how to simplify our project and make it work for a gallery presentation. Yep, gallery presentation. The final projects must fit in a 8'x8'x8' space.

Also, this new project is easier to build.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how best to describe our final project now, but it's going to be great and basically still deal with shade but in a simplified and much cooler interactive form. Basically there will be a surface of solar panels above you in some public place and when you move under them they flip over. So as you walk around under it, the flipping follows you around! Cool!

So picture of what we build today will have so suffice until I borrow/pirate a better description from one of my groups members blog!

As part of the class we've got these random Check metal toys. Kind of like an erector set, but cooler because it's Euro! We had 'play time' and built with the toys today. It was great. This post is titled Building What We Can because we are waiting on our materials from our $500 dollar prototyping budget and we really wanted to have something to show for Friday.

Those are the 'solar panels' on the axis. It was surprisingly fun, best group meeting yet, because we got to build stuff with toys! Great!

CNC Machining the Magnet Stool

This morning I (and Marc, one of the Fab Lab guys) CNC machined out the parts for my magnet stool in the Digital Fabrication lab here at U of M. It was great, I love the large budget of a huge research university! Lots of cool tech, and lots of it in the Fab Lab!

Being my first time on the machines it took a little bit to set up my file (only 5 hours!) because I had not quite optimized my Rhino file to be machined with MasterCam (the cnc software). But hey, it worked and it's awesome! I'll be sanding and glueing up tomorrow.

Drilling out some magnet holes.

That's the incredibly helpful Marc. Marc is awesome.

The finished cuts are quite nice, I'll be sanding them with some ridiculously super fine grit sand paper and just regular yellow legal paper (a tip from a friend who worked for Steelcase) for a super smooth and finished edges.

Thanks for reading!