AuraFlora (AFB1)
an interactive or “robotic” flower.
AuraFlora Beta 1 is a scaled down version of AuraFlora for development purposes. The micro controller is an Arduino Uno R3. The purpose of this device is to be a first prototype for AuraFlora, and provide a platform on which to develop code. AF B1 has 2 inputs and 3 outputs. Inputs are in the form of a PIR motion detector and a Pingback distance sensor. If a servo was added to the ping back sensor, the machine might be able to “see” by using SAR – synthetic aperture radar. The outputs are in the form of audio (currently mono tones – working on including stereo wav’s, the SD shield is currently nonfunctioning), lights in the form of 2 banks of LED’s, and vibration created by a 1.5V motor, and amplified by the steel springs holding the glass petals. The code behavior does currently allow you to advance through ten stages to receive a reward, but the reward is a melody being played, not cash. Within the stages the machine reacts to distance and motion in an attempt to be enticing. There is still a lot of room for improvement.
Demonstration Video
Plans for full concept AuraFlora idea
AuraFlora is an abstract representation of the food giving machine in William SleatorsSci-Fi novel “House of Stairs”. Here is the summary of the novel as found on wikipedia: “Set in a dystopian America in the near future, the story tells of the experiences of five 16-year-olds who were living in orphanages who wake up to find themselves in a strange building that has no walls, no ceiling, and no floor: nothing but endless flights of stairs leading in every direction, seemingly infinitely, so that it is impossible to get one’s bearings or have perspective. On one landing is a basin of running water that serves as a toilet, sink and drinking fountain; on another, a machine with lights that intermittently produces food. The five, thrown together in these bizarre circumstances must learn to deal with the others’ disparate personalities, the lack of privacy and comfort, their clear helplessness, and a machine that only feeds them under gradually more exacting situations.”
In the book, the children learn that when the machine begins to flash its light and make sounds, that they must perform a sort of dance, in order for the machine to reward them with food. (spoiler alert) In the end of the book the children are released, but when they witness flashing lights similar to the ones the machine used, they routinely break into their food dance. This ending has many implications. Do the endless stairs represent the complexities of modern life, and Sleator is reminding us that we often forget what it is that we are really doing? Is he voicing his opinion that people are easily programable? Or is he questioning human intelligence and alluding to a future where we serve machines. These are questions that more and more people are asking due to the increasing intelligence of technology.
AuraFlora will be composed of a large machine, part cash ATM, part kaliedoscope. It will resemble a large electronic flower. The base will contain an actual ATM, a speaker system including a large subwoofer, and the electronics that drive all the subsystems. The head of the flower will spin and rotate on a dual axis and house all the machine’s sensors and lights. The code will allow the flower head to track a subject, and respond to varying distances and motions of the subject. The flower petals will be mirrors, which will slide on metal tracks as the flower head rotates. The purpose of this is to make the flowerhead resemble an ancient perpetual motion machine, as well as give a kaleidoscopic effect to the lighting which faces the mirrors. The machine will respond to your presence, in an intelligent and hypnotizing manner using light, sound, and motion. By performing a specific series of movements, someone viewing the machine can advance the code to the next stage. The machine will verify the stage has advanced by giving some kind of feedback to this. There will be ten stages which will take approximately one minute each to advance through. If the machine determines that all required movements have occurred, it will reward the user with one dollar. If the movements were not performed, the machine will reset it’s code to stage 1 and give some kind of reset feedback. AF B1 Cost approximately 500 dollars to build, 200 in tools, and 300 in parts, although there are enough spare parts to build another machine. I estimate that to build AuraFlora will cost approximately 5000 dollars with most of the cost being in the ATM machine, and the high voltage electronics parts.
The purpose of this device is to illustrate the blurring lines between natural and artificial, and also inspiring thought about human beliefs and intelligence. The flower form was inspired by the ISEA 2012 machine wilderness exhibition. The “dance” that you do with AuraFlora does not produce food because food is only valuable when it is scarce, but due to an almost universal desire for money, I thought that cash would be the best substitute. It will not cost much to run however, due to the difficulty of getting the machine to produce a dollar. Even in a crowded place, under perfect conditions, the machine could produce a maximum of 6 dollars per hour. This rate of “giving” is highly unlikely however as their will more likely be failed attempts. This rate is intentionally less than minimum wage, which has other conceptual implications. The dance is also meant to represent all the things we do in our daily life which are often for very little reward. How many people would be in front of this machine, moving in a manner that they would normally feel very awkward about, trying to get money from a machine that is more stingy than even the lowest paying job‚Ķ That is a question I would be excited to see answered.
Source Code
/*AuraFlora Source Code
Frank Appio
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Arts 1020
October 2012
Description of project in comments at bottom
Code to advance through program: 2,4,6 (level 0) 3,5,7 (level 1)
*/
//Include libraries
#include "pitches.h"
//Declare global variables
int notes[]={52,58,69,78,93,104,117,139,156,185,208,233,277,
311,370,415,466,554,622,740,831,932,1109,1245,1480,1661};
int notes2[]={NOTE_E1,NOTE_G1,NOTE_G3,NOTE_A3,NOTE_A4,NOTE_E6,NOTE_E7};
int motionPin=2;
unsigned char relayPin[4]={4,5,6,9};
const int pingPin=7;
int pwLight=0;
int pLevel=0;
int fLast=0;
int fLaster=0;
int fLastest=0;
int firstRun=0;
int duration=175;
int spacing=200;
void setup(){
//Set pins
pinMode (motionPin, INPUT);
pinMode (relayPin[1], OUTPUT);
pinMode (relayPin[2], OUTPUT);
pinMode (relayPin[3], OUTPUT);
}
//The program
void loop (){
//Power light + power up sound (level 1)
if(firstRun==0){
for (int i=30; i<1000; i=i+6){
tone(8,i);
delay(2);
}
delay(200);
for (int i=100; i<1200; i=i+10){
tone(8,i);
delay(2);
}
delay(400);
noTone(8);
firstRun=1;
pinMode (pwLight, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(pwLight, HIGH);
}
//Initial sensor delay
delay(2000);
//Read from motion sensor - triggers all behaviors
int sensor_1 = digitalRead(motionPin);
if (sensor_1 == HIGH){
//If motion is detected get reading from distance sensor
long duration, inches;
int feet;
pinMode(pingPin, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(pingPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(2);
digitalWrite(pingPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(5);
digitalWrite(pingPin, LOW);
//Calculate
pinMode(pingPin, INPUT);
duration = pulseIn(pingPin, HIGH);
inches = microsecondsToInches(duration);
feet = round(inches/12);
//Decisions and behaviors
//Reciprocal of distance so reaction time increases when closer
int vFlashes=20/feet;
switch (pLevel){
case 0:
//All together
for (int i=0; i<vFlashes; i++){
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(random(random(0,200),random(0,300)));
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
tone(8, notes[random(0,25)]);
delay(random(0,100));
noTone(8);
delay(random(0,10));
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
delay(random(0,10));
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
tone(8, notes2[random(0,6)]);
delay(random(0,random(0,800)));
noTone(8);
delay(random(0,10));
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
delay(random(0,10));
}
break;
case 1:
//Lights
for (int i=0; i<3*vFlashes; i++){
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
delay(feet*5);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
delay(feet*10);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
delay(feet*5);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
}
//Vibration
for (int i=0; i<vFlashes; i++){
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(25);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
}
//Sound
for(int i=0; i<2*vFlashes; i++){
tone(8, notes[random(0,25)]);
delay(random(50,100));
noTone(8);
}
break;
case 2:
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
//Play the trumpet notes from War - Lowrider
while (pLevel==2){
for (int i=0; i<2; i++){
for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
tone(8, NOTE_B3, duration);
delay(spacing);
}
tone(8, NOTE_C4, duration);
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_D4, duration+(duration/2));
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
delay(spacing+(spacing/2));
tone(8, NOTE_G3, duration/(3/2));
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_B3, duration/(3/2));
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_C4, duration/(3/2));
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_B3, duration);
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_G3, duration);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
}
for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
tone(8, NOTE_F2, duration);
delay(spacing);
}
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
tone(8, NOTE_F2, duration);
delay(spacing);
}
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
digitalWrite(relayPin[3],LOW);
digitalWrite(relayPin[2],HIGH);
digitalWrite(relayPin[1],HIGH);
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_F2, duration);
delay(spacing);
tone(8, NOTE_G3, duration*8);
delay(spacing*4);
}
break;
default:
tone(8,NOTE_G3);
delay(5000);
noTone(8);
break;
}
//Last 3 states
fLastest=fLaster;
fLaster=fLast;
fLast=feet;
//Check if code has been entered
if ((pLevel==0)&&(fLast==6)&&(fLaster==4)&&(fLastest==2)){
//Advance to next level!
pLevel=1;
//Power up sound (level 2)
for (int i=0; i<2; i++){
for (int i=30; i<1000; i=i+6){
tone(8,i);
delay(2);
}
delay(200);
for (int i=100; i<1200; i=i+10){
tone(8,i);
delay(2);
}
delay(400);
noTone(8);
}
}
if ((pLevel==1)&&(fLast==7)&&(fLaster==5)&&(fLastest==3)){
//Program completed!!
pLevel=2;
//Power up sound (level 3)
for (int i=0; i<3; i++){
for (int i=30; i<1000; i=i+6){
tone(8,i);
delay(2);
}
delay(200);
for (int i=100; i<1200; i=i+10){
tone(8,i);
delay(2);
}
delay(400);
noTone(8);
}
}
}
}
//Function to convert distance sensor pulse to inches
long microsecondsToInches(long microseconds){
return microseconds / 74 / 2;
}