Final Project

MONO - My Final Project

Description

MONO is an innovative mechanical fish installation, conceptualised as the physical manifestation of the epilogue from ‘Moni’s Diary’. This narrative delves into the complexities of social anxiety and the path to self-consistency. The installation is responsive to human proximity, activating and coming to life as someone approaches within a metre’s distance. As the light illuminates, Moni’s tail engages in a unique dance of Morse code, with movements up and down representing dots (’.’), sways to the left and right for dashes(’-’), and pauses to signify Morse code blanks.

This interactive experience is an invitation for introspection. Observers are encouraged to take a pen and document their interpretations of Moni’s Morse code movements, potentially unveiling the messages Moni seeks to convey.

The overarching theme of MONO is Moni’s endeavour to shy away from the light, a metaphor for retreating from the intense spotlight of social interaction. This retreat is not out of fear, but rather it’s a quest for inner strength and peace amidst the often chaotic and demanding societal expectations.

Reflection

The basic idea is to use two motors and four strings to control a mechanical fish’s tail movement towards four directions. Based on the sketch I drew before, I built a model and set aside appropriate space for two servo motors inside the structure. The angle of the servo motor arm is decided by the length of string being pulled back while the tail reaches the extreme angle. Through simulation in the model, the other part of the tail, including the connection parts and central spine, should be elastic enough to bear the pressure led by the strings.

The wire illustration shows the electronic connection inside the mechanical body. An Arduino board is installed beneath the main body, and all electronics are powered by 5V electricity. The brief logic of the Arduino programming is to read the distance from the sensor and print it to the serial monitor for inspection. If the distance is less than 1000mm and not already triggered, it starts processing Morse code and lights up the LED strip. Then, ‘processMorseCode’ will be called to interpret and actuate the Morse code, and the LED state will be managed to either keep it on or gradually dim it over time. While I was coding, I found it challenging to manage timing and synchronization between different components (like servos and LEDs) in real-time. The use of ‘delay()’ for timing might lead to issues in more complex scenarios where multitasking is needed. Exploring interrupt-driven or non-blocking approaches could be a valuable next step in the evolution of this project.

I also found that distance sensors can introduce noise or variability in readings, even when objects are at a fixed distance. Handling sensor noise and ensuring accurate distance measurements can be challenging. Furthermore, real-world conditions such as lighting or physical obstructions can affect the performance of sensors, which requires additional considerations to guard against these factors. The whole state transition management for both servos, LEDs, and distance sensors is complex and prone to bugs. Debugging state-related issues is hard, as it may involve tracking multiple variables and conditions. To address these difficulties, I will explore how to implement error handling and graceful failure modes and thoroughly test the system under different conditions.

Combining this project with what I learned in story-telling class, I found a potential direction I might want to dive into for future work. I wrote a story about the topic of social anxiety and life’s journey to overcome it, and I found that making the last scene of the story physical as an installation is another impressive way to show people my main theme and idea. I love this way to emphasize key points and also make it provide a more immersive experience for reading a story picture book. I am looking forward to cooperating with other artists and making their story alive by designing immersive mechanical installations for readers to interact with.