It took until mid-May this year for the crab apple tree outside the Media Lab to blossom, and our time lapse camera was ready. This video shows two-hour windows of time from subsequent days, racing forward from winter to spring, before lingering for several days as the tree finally blooms. Watch for the limbs to droop at 1:33 as a passing shower weighs them down.
Congratulations to Andreea and Sophia on their winning entry in the Grinspoon Entrepreneurship Award! Their submission of Triggy, the automatic camera trigger, was recognized for its entrepreneurial spirit and exemplary business plan.
Triggy is an Arduino-based, open source intervalometer which is capable of using the infrared trigger on Nikon cameras to take photos at regular and dynamic intervals. We used a simplified version of Triggy to create the forsythia time lapse movie. You could build more complicated projects by adding additional code and hardware.
Mr. Wiggles uses three servos and two types of sensors to achieve the functionality it currently has. Two servos are used to control the movement, and one is used to hold a pen to draw. To avoid obstacles, an ultrasonic range finder is employed, and it consistently reads the distance between Mr Wiggles and the closest obstacle. Once the distance gets smaller than the preset safety value, it turns. The direction of the turning is decided by photocell readings, which allows Mr. Wiggles to always move towards the brighter side when turning. Continue reading
On a visit to the media lab this month, the fifth graders were introduced to an old project of ours, EyeBot. Continue reading
If you’ve been following the progress of our interactive robot pet, Mr. Wiggles, this it where it all began. We built Mr. Wiggles 1.0 last spring.
He was equipped with an infrared distance sensor which allowed him to stop and back up when he sensed an obstacle in his path. A servo controlling the direction of his front wheel allowed him to choose a new path direction at random so that he could continue his journey around the Media Lab. Continue reading
Here is our first successful trial of Mr.Wiggles running and avoiding obstacles along the way!
Just in time for spring (despite the heavy snow we just had) we’ve finished the time lapse movie of forsythia flowers blooming.
MHC Media Lab 