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1.Proposal

[Tl;dr] Hard decision, but I left my previous idea aside. I am now building a cloud sonification wearable that let you listen to the sky above your head.

I am inspired by the cloud piano project of David Bowen, which reads the video streaming of cloud in the sky and sends the data to a custom-made software for mapping and a machine which physically plays the piano (CRAZY BUT I LOVE IT).

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I have always wanted to build my own mobile camera module which can be equipped with other sensors to be able to sense nature elements and compose the data through cloud and network.

I am also inspired by the wearable projec by Neil Harbisson. I really like the simplicity in the design and I want to set this as a goal for my own design.

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Ideation sketch & System Diagram

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Questions to consider beforehead

For the midterm-review with Claire, we discussed my new idea, plan for executino, and some questions I need to consider for prototying:

  1. How do people listen to the sound? Is the sound coming from the wearble itself, or do I set up a seperate sound station to play it?

  2. How do I translate video stream of cloud to audio signal? Do I do the translation by microcontroller only? Will it handle the process? Or do I processing the sound in another software like MIDI or MAX/MSP. Then how to I send the information and what's the set up?

  3. How to make sense of the camera image? What if it is bad weather? What if it captures elements other than sky and cloud such as trees, roofs, and other?

  4. What is the narrative? Who are the audience? Could it be for people who are inaccessible to sky, about accessibility?

Suggestions from Claire

  • Break down the project and test with each part seperately so I understand how they work before putting everything together.

  • Use the rooftop at 6th floor of Media Lab so that I can keep my connection while demonstration the sense of mobile. She also suggested that if the weather went down on the presentation day, I can prepare the successful documentation, and place cloud image in front of the camera for demonstraton. (This is so smart!)

  • Think about narratives