spacecraft

the good, the bad

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:53:00 -0500

the good: a super simple, lo-tech example of how to insert spatial information effectively. three signs in a very small space, all placed carefully to be repeatedly noticed as you go about your business.

the bad: a bewildering graphic on the t. although i can understand the desire to simplify this map of the t, perhaps this goes too far and eliminates important information. especially paired with the rather confusing “inbound” vs. “outbound” designations, this map is particularly unsympathetic to new t riders. what if you got in the wrong side, and now don’t see the station you want to go to?

collective memory

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:25:00 -0500

Inspirations from Halbwachs “On Collective Memory”:

If we examine a little more closely how we recollect things, we will surely realize that the greatest number of memories come back to us when our parents, our friends, or other persons recall them to us. One is rather astonished when reading psychological treatises that deal with memory to find that people are considered there as isolated beings. These make it appear that to understand our mental operations, we need to stick to individuals and first of all, to divide all the bonds which attach individuals to the society of their fellows. Yet it is in society that people normally acquire their memories. It is also in society that they recall, recognize, and localize their memories.

…

Most of the time, when I remember, it is others who spur me on; their memory comes to the aid of mine and mine relies on theirs. There is nothing mysterious about recall of memories in these cases at least. There is no point in seeking where they are preserved in my brain or in some nook of my mind to which I alone have access: for they are recalled to me externally, and the groups of which I am a part at any time give me the means to reconstruct them, upon condition, to be sure, that I turn toward them and adopt, at least for the moment, their way of thinking. But why should this not be so in all cases?

It is in this sense that there exists a collective memory and social frameworks for memory; it is to the degree that our individual thought places itself in these frameworks and participates in this memory that it is capable of the act of recollection.

…

…the collective frameworks of memory are not constructed after the fact by the combination of individual recollections; nor are they empty forms where recollections coming from elsewhere would insert themselves. Collective frameworks are, to the contrary, precisely the instruments used by the collective memory to reconstruct an image of the past which is in accord, in each epoch, with the predominant thoughts of the society.

…

One may say that the individual remembers by placing himself in the perspective of the group, but one may also affirm that the memory of the group realizes and manifests itself in individual memories.

human s(c)en(t)ses

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:03:00 -0500

“Nothing is more memorable than a smell.” - Ackerman

Smell is one of our basic senses that we are not always conscious of (unlike, say, vision). It’s one of the more subtle factors in our daily environments, but has a huge impact on our overall perception, as well as our interactions with each other. Scents that we cannot readily describe or detect can strongly influence who we are attracted to and what we remember.

In this project, we are interested in exploring scent’s influence on human relationships and memory.

Digging around and doing some research, I found several studies on smell and human recognition. There’s also a lot of interesting research on the neural structures for the sense of smell. More research to come…

Below are some very interesting patents on camouflage suits for those who want to disguise their human scent. The application is mainly for hunters and biologists, and is essentially an odor absorptive suit that cloaks your presence from wildlife. Surprisingly lo-tech, the material of the suit is essentially a sandwich of fabric (wool, felt, cotton, etc.) with a layer of odor absorptive material in between (fibers embedded with charcoal, baking soda, chlorophyll, or a similar substance). The patent also includes various ways of carrying your stuff around (backpack, fanny pack or duffel bag).

You can also apparently wear the following if you are in the tropics, and can’t bear to cover your entire body with this suit made of layered fabric:

On the opposite end, we have a patent for a scent-dispersing boot. This guy allows you to leave a trail of scent to lure deer…

Combining these ideas together, and repackaging to customize for the average woman, we have…

the proposal:

recycling a building

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:39:00 -0500

Over the weekend, I visited ERRCO (Environmental Resource Return Corp) in Epping, New Hampshire with the Design for Sustainability class. ERRCO essentially takes on construction demolition waste, and attempts to recycle different material streams to divert from landfill. In Massachusetts, regulations now prohibit landfill dumping of construction waste, so many contractors now have no choice but to either pursue recycling/diversion of waste, or paying a high price to have landfills transport the waste to other states.

At ERRCO, they currently sort out the incoming waste stream mainly into wood, metals, concrete, and roof shingles. Wood is chipped into three different quality products: a landfill cover, wood chips for mdf particle board, and fill for biogas. Below are the photos I took as we toured the site.

for biogas:

incoming waste stream:

far pile is for landfill cover, near pile is for mdf:

from here, the sorted incoming material is placed onto stacked conveyor belts, with the larger particles on top, and the smaller falling through to the bottom:

As the stream enters the shed, metals are pulled out by giant magnets. Today, they are processing asphalt roof shingles, so these are all nails that have been sorted out:

the 500 hp compactor/hammer/shredder:

sorting out the plastic contaminant from the asphalt stream:

the control/monitor panel:

at this point, more contaminant material is removed by hand, as the stream moves towards the water sorting area:

Wood floats, so as the materials is passed through the water tank, further separation occurs:

the debris from the water sorting:

the output:

the hammer that does all the smashing:

sourcemap for hi-tech and no-tech noise-cancelling headphones

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:07:28 -0500

I attempted to enter both the original Victor Noise-Cancelling Headphones and my new “No-Tech” Noise-Cancelling Headphones into sourcemap.org to assess the environmental impact of both of these products.

I first encountered some problems trying to figure out what the original Victor headphones were really made of, and where these parts may have come from. It would be helpful to have a resource page on sourcemap that can list typical materials and what they look/feel like, as well as where they are usually manufactured. Since I am not too experienced in identifying types of plastics, or manufacturing techniques, I did the best I could by researching the internet, but could not get very far with the sourcemap entry…

I also ran into some difficulties entering my new no-tech headphones. Rockite, chipboard, glue, felt and Acrylic sheet (plexi, acrylite 1/16”) were not listed under the already added materials, and I am not sure how to calculate the impact (in mpts/lb) for any of these materials. I was also unable to add a comment to this entry stating the above (when I clicked on “post it!”, nothing happened…). I am also not sure how to account for the fact that I lasercut these, which obviously has an environmental impact. Should I add this part of the process as another material?

In general, I think it would be great to have a linked page of resources and research tips for people not experienced in product design and manufacture, so the best guess can be made.

no-tech noise-cancelling headphones

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:48:00 -0400

The Project:

Noise-cancelling headphones work by generating an equal but opposite sound wave which “cancels” out the incoming ambient noise. This is called “active noise control” or ANC. Unfortunately, to turn on the ANC, you have to use battery power. Also, the white noise that is generated by the ANC gives me a headache, so I end up just relying on the padding of my headphones to block out unwanted noise. For this project, I attempted to create a pair of no-tech “passive noise control” headphones which require no power to reduce unwanted ambient noise.

Background:

I spend a lot of time working in studio, and sometimes there are specific sounds that one would like to block out. Many times, there are specific voices or conversations that are distracting, even if you turn up your music quite loud. Further, there are times when you don’t actually want to be listening to music, but still put on your headphones just to block out some of the distracting noise. Thus, some kind of noise-cancelling device that doesn’t require any extra energy to work would be perfect in these situations. [A bonus would be if this device were relatively discreet. Sometimes, it seems unnecessarily rude to put headphones on, when it’s obvious that you are doing so to block out the conversation of your neighbors.]

Research:

To begin with, I dug up my acoustics textbook, and did a little bit of brushing up on sound. Basically, the range of human hearing is between 20 to 20,000 Hz. The human ear is most sensitive to sound between 500 to 4,000 Hz (also the range generated by the human voice). Calculating the wavelength of this range of sound waves, we find that 500 Hz has a wavelength of 2 ft, whereas 4,000 Hz has a wavelength of about 3.4 in. So in order to simply block the sound waves generated by most human voices, there would need to be an object greater than 2 ft that would physically block the sound. Since earphones cannot comfortably be this large, I looked further at absorption, reflection and diffusion to see if there was another way to try to cancel out sound.

Prototypes:

I decided to try out three separate experiments to see if it was possible to create no-tech noise-cancelling headphones.

First, I figured that a solid material would literally just shut sound out, so I cast some ear pieces out of rockite.

Second, I decided to try out a microperforated sound-absorptive clear material technique that I have been wondering about for awhile. I came across this product last spring when I took a class in architectural acoustics (http://www.rpginc.com/products/clearsorbersheet/index.htm). Essentially, this sound absorptive material is a piece of clear plastic that has been perforated by many tiny holes. These work as Helmholtz resonators, where sound is absorbed as it passes through the holes because the perforations are comparable to the thickness of a boundary layer of air, and this viscous air layer absorbs sound. I took the approximate thickness of their material (1 to 1.5 mm thick plastic), as well as the perforation diameter (0.5 mm) and spacing (5 mm x 5 mm apart), and replicated the material using plexiglass and the lasercutter.

Third, I combined the above microperforated material with a layer of more traditional absorptive material (fabric). This combination of a diffusive/reflective layer with an absorptive one behind is used in most typical architectural applications.

Results:

Unfortunately, none of these seem to be particularly effective at shutting out sound. In fact, my real head phones (or even my earmuffs!) are much better at simply blocking noise. A large part of this is due to the fact that my prototypes are not really designed to snugly fit against the head. Unlike head phones or earmuffs, there isn’t any soft, cushiony material to create a seal between the head phone and the area around the ear. Further, the mockup of the microperforated material probably is not working because the surface area exposed to soundwaves may not be large enough (architectural applications cover entire walls and rooms, whereas this experiment is only the size of a human ear). More investigation of the properties of sound and the mechanics of human hearing, as well as the creation of a better designed mockup is needed.

de-technologizing the iphone

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:01:00 -0400

how to make puff balls

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:50:00 -0400

how to make puff balls:

just in case you ever wanted to…

Autopsy: Disposable Flash Camera

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:35:00 -0400

I chose to dissect a disposable camera, as I was interested in seeing what was inside this rather mysterious object. Almost everyone has used a disposable camera at some point in his/her life, but probably not too many people have looked inside. The directions on the camera specifically warn you from opening it up yourself, and advise you sternly to return it to your closest CVS for development of your pictures.

So with gritted teeth against all cautionary warnings, here we go…

Step 01. Removing paper packaging from the camera.

danger danger!

the simple (yet complex) paper packaging:

the naked camera:

Step 02. Removing film (surprisingly easily) from camera. [So the myth is not true! You don’t have to return the camera to CVS to develop the film. In fact, you don’t even have to touch any of the “hazardous” parts to get the film out. Remember this the next time you, um, want to develop film from a disposable camera and maybe want to reuse the casing…]

Step 03. The first disassembly.

the little hidden piece that was keeping it all together [and also allows you to charge the flash]:

view from the top:

Step 04. The viewfinder. Slides out nicely. Very cool effects.

Step 05. The dangerous part. eek. The electrical gear is removed:

grounding the capacitor. luckily, this one didn’t have anything left to discharge. what it could look like:

How dangerous is it anyway? After poking around online a bit, it seems that many people have asked this same question, and there are numerous personal stories out there, but very little hard evidence. Most people say it’s not that dangerous, as long as you make sure you don’t ever touch each terminal with each hand, causing the current to run through your heart. However, it seems a repeated fact that failure to drain the capacitor before fiddling with it (as was done above) could lead to severe injury or death… (more)

On the other hand, googling “how dangerous is the flash capacitor of a disposable camera?” leads to multiple links for creative and frightening uses for these flash devices, including strobe lights, coil guns, electro-shock rat traps, and home-made tasers. So maybe the answer is, “as dangerous as you want it to be”.

Step 06. Catalogue of amazingly complex parts that make up a “simple” machine.

Metal parts:

These two springs have distinct functions in the camera mechanism. The top spring is much finer, very stretchy, and used to open and close the shutter. The bottom spring is thicker and stiffer, and a part of the film-advance wheel assembly.

Plastic type #1:

Perhaps PET or PMMA? Relatively high quality plastic that has been polished to be transparent in the important places, left to be translucent everywhere else. Use for the front viewfinder, back viewfinder, lens and the little window that tells you how many pictures you have left.

Plastic type #2:

Perhaps PP? White plastic injection moulded gear-like parts that assist in the film advancement process.

Plastic type #3:

Perhaps PA? Has a slightly yellowish color, very glassy looking, and is the cover of the flash bulb.

Plastic type #4:

Probably ABS or PP. All black body parts of the camera, including very intricate injection moulded components. Very brittle (some pieces broke off during the autopsy), but could otherwise reconstruct and re-use the camera very easily. I wonder if there is a machine at CVS that helps the photo lab technician open this guy up cleanly?

Digging around a little bit deeper, I looked up all the patent numbers that had been printed on the paper wrapping of the camera, and found some amazing diagrams that explain the inner workings. Also, perhaps interesting to note that the disposable camera was first developed by Fujifilm in 1986 (as per the patents). Their marketing called the camera “utsurun desu” or “it takes pictures!”. (more)

the parts of the camera:

how the film works inside the camera:

the film advancement apparatus: