Interactive Object
My project for the Interactive Object is a gridded light board. It displays a grid of color-changing lights and features a potentiometer and a button to the side of the grid. The box utilizes p5 in order to reference a digital image of the grid that the user must use. The grid selects a box one by one, and the user must change the color using the knob and press the button when the color matches the reference image. If the input is incorrect, the user will get negative feedback, otherwise, the user is moved on to the next box. The aim is to complete the entire picture, and once the user does that, the game is over. The purpose for this object is to see how someone could apply a reference to a real life object. Every single interaction that the user makes with the object has an output, which depends on the reference image.
This is the schematic for my project. I used Tinkercad to create it. (I drew it the way my NeoPixels are designed, with the signal in the middle, although tinkercad had the signal at the top of the strip). Overall, I used an Arduino Uno, a potentiometer, a push button, a speaker, and 5 strips of NeoPixels.
I started by connecting all of my NeoPixels to a long breadboard, and then to the Arduino. The best way to do this in a compact area was to turn the larger breadboard on its side.
Then, I measured out a grid, drew it on a piece of paper, and taped all of the LEDs down. I ended up taking the tape off later because I decided to use the other LEDs that I covered up.
These are a few of my supplies that I used to building the enclosure. I cut the box out of white cardboard using a box cutter, and used some cardstock as well. I also used sheet protectors in order to diffuse the light coming out of it. I had a piece of acrylic, but it was too big and the sheet protectors gave the look that I wanted.
Then I created the actual ugliest interlocking grid ever, but I fixed it with some paper. I also built some sides for the box (as well as the bottom).
Here's a better look at the inside of the enclosure. In the very bottom left corner of the first picture, I hot glued a wooden skewer so that I could make my button reach all the way to the top of the box.
This is what the sheet protector ended up looking like over the LEDs before I cut it up into a square.
Here's a quick gallery of the final product
This is the video for the final project! I'm pretty proud of how it turned out! (This was before I fixed the semi-opaque top/edges that lay over the grid). The only thing I wish I would've done is figured out how to randomly generate the grid on the p5 code so that it could be different every time, but I couldn't figure out an efficient way in time. Other than that, it functions exactly the way that I wanted it to.
Arduino Code
p5 Code