Comments on: Spatialized umbrella

By: joe saavedra

joe saavedra — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:38:15 +0000

thanks all, for the great comments (even the “constructive” ones), and thanks so much to Eliot for posting this! I love the idea of having actual raindrops determine the attack, frequency and pitch of the sounds, although at the moment I can’t think of the technology that would get that done…

If I could just make one correction – I did indeed use an ITP post as the basis for the HackDuino project, however, I am an MFA Design and Technology student at Parsons, so Eliot, if you are reading this, do you think you could also tag this post with “parsons” or “parsons MFA DT”. thanks, again.

Josh is absolutely correct – MapDuino is completely top-down. There was never a question of which came first – the microcontroller or the breakout board. But it’s definitely something that is getting completely overlooked, and along with LadyAda, Freeduino, and others, we hope to continue to encourage this sort of DIY approach to the prototyping process.

more projects soon, with far better documentation, i promise…

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:21:38 +0000

Er… the ‘mapduino’ project is called the mega168. Atmel did that before arduino was even an idea!

Funny how people are looking at it top-down, though.

By: misha

misha — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:05:33 +0000

does it attract lightning ?

By: bort

bort — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:28:13 +0000

lol gay

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:10:18 +0000

This website is going downhill in a hurry. Every project h.a.d. posts now involves an Arduino and blinking leds. Can we get some complex projects or at least something useful?

By: peter

peter — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:59:09 +0000

I first thought this was to detect raindrops too. maybe they could add that function, and have the different segment of the top play different notes. then you could stand under a shower to play it? that would sound good!

P.S @seanmartin, everytime i read or hear 2010 i think of it being in the distant future, then remember its only 8 months away! the sad part is im only 20! too many sci-fi novels me thinks :)

By: ragnar

ragnar — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:55:11 +0000

The idea already spawns new ideas, brilliant!

By: tapius

tapius — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:24:09 +0000

yoooo ive got something to maybe make this more..useful or fun? How about play a sound inside the umbrella every time a raindrop hits, and depending on where it hits a different note is played :) musical rain could be more entertaining while walking around in the stormy weather :)

By: SeanMartin

SeanMartin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:53:27 +0000

I see china reproducing fakeLEDBrellas in the year 2010.

By: 36Chambers

36Chambers — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:58:35 +0000

This is that straight burning man type of art! I like it. Maybe some dont, but maybe they also dont like other things.. Personally, if neon lights and sound are involved, count me in. Especially at night.

By: Ninja

Ninja — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:56:51 +0000

flippin sweet bro

By: cynic

cynic — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:49:16 +0000

The second part, “Using the Arduino environment without the associated board” is certainly something I can get behind. the amount of wastage in some art student’s “blinking light in a box” project can be cut down on, at least. Added to my feeds.

The rainbrella’s an ok proof of concept, and probably fun to walk around in the dark with. Beyond that, eh. Same could be said of an aliens movement sensor though.

By: amk

amk — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:45:44 +0000

i think i’ll file this under art that i don’t quite understand. don’t take that personally joe, there’s a lot of art I don’t understand. i’m not opposed to hacking random things together to create weird and useless devices. i’m definitely guilty of that.

By: teenybreeny

teenybreeny — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:40:58 +0000

I think it’s simply an exploration of space and sound. Looks kinda cool to me!

By: rasz

rasz — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:53:06 +0000

I still don’t get it
I would understand Geiger meter retrofitted with LCD and doing pings ala Alien detectors, but umbrella? please