Moiré Turntable documentation

Ideation

check out this blog post

Design

The interior and exterior of the turntable were both drawn in Vectorworks. The bevel gears were modeled with the bevel gear tool set in Vectorworks. We determined the ratio(1:8) of the number of teeth between the gear and the pinion based on the number of frames of an animation loop(5) and estimated cranking speed(0.5 rev/sec) and slit distance(6 degrees / loop). The needle components are modeled in Fusion, the pivot point underneath the cover was designed as a contact switch to turn on the sound. The slit plate and animation layers are designed in Illustrator.

box exterior

box exterior

box interior

box interior

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Production

We purchased stainless steel shaft, bearings, pulleys and belt and 3D printed the gears and the needle components. The design files were sent to MasterCam and CNC to pocket and contour the wooden box(2D) as well as the ring base(3D) for the plates to rest on. The black mat board slits and the white translucent plate were cut with laser cutter, animations were printed on clear acetate paper. We then installed some neopixels and a bluetooth speaker underneath the plate inside the box, as well as an MKRZero connecting to the switch under the needle pivot, on and off signals were sent to p5.js using serial communication to start and stop sound recordings.

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Challenge

Using CNC was the most time-consuming and challenging part of the project, we experienced numerous problems and wasted a good amount of material. I exported top views as 3D DXF files for 2D contour and pocket, MasterCam never displayed any content when it was a 3D file so I had to redraw the box sides in one plane and export as 2D DXF. For the box walls, I couldn’t select the smaller rectangles for pocketing as they overlap with the bigger rectangle, I had to fix it by extending the smaller rectangle outside of the bigger one. I also didn’t consider extending the lower edges at the bottom side of the cover. I mistakenly contoured the inside of the edges when I was supposed to contour the outside. The edge of the ring base is a ramp so it needs to be a 3D DXF imported to MasterCam for surface rough. However, the first time I ran the job, I didn’t translate the top of the ring to right below the Z axis, causing the machine to eat up the whole quarter inch depth of the material’s surface as there was too much distance between the top of the model and Z axis.

We planned to print the slit plate on acetate paper as well, but the acetate from the printer didn’t turn out as transparent as expected, it had a white tint, so doubling the layers wouldn’t produce animations that are visually appealing and convincing, so we had to modify our design decision to laser cut the slit plate. We first used 1/16 " thick acrylic, although we lowered the regular power settings for the same type of material, the result was not desirable, the acrylic was bent because of heat on the dense slit pattern towards the center. We ended up using a black mat board which is much less sensitive to heat and it came out nicely.

Final product

Final proposal

Noise

Noise Filter2.gif

Noise is an audio enhanced optical illusion device.

Noise is an audio enhanced optical illusion device. It explores the connection between auditory white noise and visible static noise through moving body as the viewer moves in space to observe the still image pattern, which moves in different ways following viewer’s change of perspectives and induce optical illusion. The body motion also modulates frequency and panning in auditory noise in different directions which directly corresponds to the changes in optical illusion as well as the body motion.

Process


generated noise patterns in processing, saved as pdf

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Determine the distance between viewer and image.

In photoshop, edit image rotation and size using angular size equation

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Laser cut and etched two 12’’ x 12’’ clear acrylic sheet, and opaque base for holding LED lights.

Body tracking in OpenFrameworks: ofxKinect  + ofxOpenCV 

OpenFrameworks sending OSC to MaxMSP which generate noise modulated by body positions.

Github repo

Algorithmic laser project proposal

Audio enhanced optical illusion(Moire patterns), Zoetrope + music box

Viewer’s body motion controls time(audio) and space(optical illusion/animation), adds another dimension to traditional audio visual piece.

Visual reference for optical Illusion (Processing/OF):


Audio examples(Max/msp): minimal sounds

Rising pitch  

Arpeggio up

Arpeggio down

Spinning

Shepard Tone


Body motion(front/back/left/right/up/down) - displacement

- audio (frequency/pitch, energy, speed/playhead, reverb, panning)

- visual (size, rotation, displacement, distortion)


Process & tools:

design files algorithmically in processing/OF

export pdf - laser cut patterns

body motion detector - Kinect vs webcam(PoseNet) OR slider pot ==> triggers audio change in Max

Materials:

Enclosure with 2 slots, front and back, for inserting and switching screens, clear acrylic sheets

LED panel with diffuser to light up the pattern

plan A

plan A

plan B

plan B

plan A - fun, move in all 6 directions, scalable, kinect/webcam more stable setup(OSC), but can moving body get as many frames as moving sheet?

plan B - more stability and control, but limited directions of motion, more distinct illusion but less interactivity.