Assignment DG200 – Creative Programming for Designers

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Reflection:

One of my goals was to increase my experience of using different computer languages and technologies for creating interactive prototypes. Before I started this assignment I had some experience before in creating interactive prototypes including Flash and Phidgets as you can see in the The Sparkling Home project . During the assignment ‘Creative Programming for Designer’ I attended for the lectures about the basics of computer programming, which were comparable with the Java assignment.

For this assignment we used processing, a simplified yet more serious programming language comparable to Java. I had some experience before with the Flash/Phidgets prototypes and the Java assignment and projects (see overview of Java over here). Within this assignment I refreshed my computer programming skills, such as variables, data structures, control flows, interaction events. I learned how to use the processing programming language to do calculations for me, program images, animation and interactions. Some pictures are shown below.

You can see executable examples over here and here (java-plugin required).

Furthermore I learned how to influence the visuals and animations by using input from the keyboard or mouse. What’s more I learned how to work with arduino’s. Arduino’s are comparable to micro controllers. Once they are programmed, they can work independently from my laptop. This enables me to make interactive prototypes which can work on their own, thus without any connection to my laptop. During the project we had to program a robot, the so called Admoveo. Together with my partner we were able to program in such a way it moves randomly in a box, without touching the walls. But when the robot comes too often too close within a period of time, it will get a panic attack. You can see a movie of our ‘PhobiaBot’ down here.

Summarized I refreshed and extended my knowledge concerning computer programming (formerly java/flash) with processing. This enables me to compute data (on the computer) as well creating visual representations and animation. In addition processing enables me to control arduino-boards. I had experience in creating interactive prototypes including flash and phidgets. But with arduino these prototypes are able to operate independent; without wiring to the laptop. This take my interactive prototype skills towards another level.