Memory Box

(past projects)

Project from Physical Computing Fall '01

The MemoryBox plays with the concept of memory as a recording of an experience and traces a persons interactions with two objects onto a canvas.

The first input device is a tubular maze. By rotating it and tilting it the tilt switches inside feed the interaction to the xy plotter so that the interaction can be traced onto the canvas with a marker.

The second input device is called "soft and squishy". Made of polyvinyl hot melt (similar to the gel wrist pads people put in front of their keyboards) it is filled with bend and pressure sensors. As you do what comes natural with a soft and squishy object (bend, twist, and squeeze it) the interaction is fed to the xy plotter.

The xy plotter is composed of plywood and uses a loop of canvas as a writing surface. Driven by two stepper motors that were salvaged from printers, the xy plotter traces the inputs interaction onto the canvas using a marker.

researchers: Julia Cole, Don Craig, Ned Frisk, Todd Smith, Michael Philetus Weller, Ken Camarata

last updated 8.26.2006 by Mark D Gross