TANGIBLE MEDIA & PHYSICAL COMPUTING: November 2011

As far as we've come, the original plan has remained relatively intact. As we intended the project would, in rough terms, be comprised of a plush creature that would be embedded with an arduino which in turn would communicate with the another arduino receiving "communal" serial data. The plushie would receive said data wirelessly, manipulate the data via flex sensors hidden within its arms, represent the data visually via tri-color LED's, then return the data to the original arduino to be sent out along the Cadavre Exquis.

The problems began with our choice in wireless communication, more specifically RF emitters and receivers. We bought two separate frequencies of RF couplings (434 and 315). After much fiddling we arranged the radios to send and receive the data, but only separately. Once the radios were required to share the same data (i.e.: from 434 emitter to 434 receiver to 315 emitter to 315 receiver) the data would become illegible. We had thought it might be a matter of limited range or over sensitivity but the problem proved to be more code oriented. On Elio's advice it was suggested to forego the separate RF components and simply use the more costly yet more reliable X-bees. That problem resolved, the project was came together with few other obstacles.

This is the point to which we got on the first try:

PLAN AND STORYBOARD: