Prototypes Take 2 (Anamorphic Images and Hand-cranked Harmonographs)

The task for the week was to improve upon two of our prototypes: I decided to iterate upon Anamorphic Images "Why the Long Face?" and Hand-Cranked Harmonographs:

Anamorphic Images "Why the Long Face?": As I mentioned in my 1st prototype blog,  when the class interacted with the first prototype many people seemed to want to interact with the mirrors and images so I decided to focus on making the prototype more interactive. I used a combination of printed templates and acrylic with whiteboard markers so that users could draw on the acrylic to try to create hand-drawn anamorphic images, then easily erase it so the next person can try. I had my prototype in a progression:

• Station 1: “Why the long face?” Can you guess who’s who? Now look at the reflection in the cylinder: now can you tell who’s who? 
• Station 2: “Give it a try!” Try drawing an image freehand without guides so that the reflection in the mirror looks normal. Is the reflection what you expected? What surprises you? 
• Station 3: “Guides” Now give it a try with some guidance: draw an image on the square grid, then transferring the image to the polar coordinates square by square. 
• Station 4: “The Mighty Morph” Draw a normal picture on the screen and see the computer do the magic! How do your 3 images compare?

The idea was that through this flow, visitors can think critically and explore the concept of warping and anamorphic images, and try their hand at making these images themselves through free-form or more guided processes (free-draw vs guidelines vs the computer) which sheds light on just how easy or difficult it may be to create these drawings.

Station 4 was inspired by a students comment a few weeks ago about my prototype 1, where she mentioned it might be cool if instead of drawing a warped image on guidelines, we could draw a normal images on stretchy material, warp it, and then have it display correctly in the mirrored cylinder. To achieve this I decided to use a computer program to leverage the fact that I'm a CS major. Creating the program actually took quite some time because it turns out I didn't have many many things installed (updated verison of XCode, XCode console tools, Tkinter, ImageDraw, etc...) and installing things leads you down a rabbit hole that takes hours before you manage to dig yourself out again... After that whole ordeal, I was able to write a program that popped up a drawing console where the user could draw an image, click "Morph It!" and it automatically creates the warped image, perfect for reflection in the mirrored cylinder. You can write a sh script that converts from rect to polar coordinates to achieve this effect. Tools used: Python + Tktiner GUI Package for the drawing window. Then a rect to polar shell script for the warping of the image. In a final exhibit I'd have the computer be a tablet (so users don't have to draw with a touchpad) and the entire screen would be projected on the ground so that users can interact in a larger space rather than just on a small digital screen.

Student feedback was positive and they thought that both prototypes (this one and the one below) would make for great potential exhibits. Many people mentioned that their favorite part about the anamorphic images exhibit was when they could actually draw on the acrylic and see their images reflected in the mirror. It seems that like that part was the more engaging and tactile point of the process, whereas the mirrors with pre-printed images was a bit too passive, and the computer program was perhaps a bit too passive as well. 

Hand-Cranked Harmonographs: The second prototype I wanted to iterate upon was the harmonograph. I tried to make a motorized version to complement the hand-cranked version. However, it turns out that the slow moving motor was a bit too slow, and the arms were a bit loose in relation to the screws, and the end result was that the prototype was too wobbly to create a smooth image with a motor spinning that a low speed. Thus if I were to improve upon this I would make tighter fitting parts and find a faster motor. However, there seems to be a consensus that the hand-cranked prototype is preferred over the motorized version, since the hand-cranking gives it more interaction. And I agree when I crank it myself I can feel the pressure and forces changing at different points in the curve drawing and it's interesting to physically feel the differences not just see the pattern. I ultimately chose the harmonograph as the prototype I'm going to work on for the final exhibit, because I feel that it gives me more opportunity to build things in the PRL and work with the laser cutter and gears, something that is entirely novel and fascinating for me as a CS major who hasn't had much practice building physical things. I also see a lot of opportunity in enhancing user interaction, and there are a lot of different ways to create gear harmonographs out there that I'd like to tinker with and enhance for user interaction and exploration!

Hand-cranked gear harmonograph in the front and a new motorized version in the back

Sebastian and John listening attentively