TEAM GRR
Group members: Neuza Gomes,Christelle Benjamin, Chanti Heredia, Elias Joseph
Problem We Are Solving: The problem we're trying to solve is the lack of kids noticing/interested in technology in everyday things they take part in, even in simple things like playing basketball. We want them to realize that technology can be fun and we want them to gain an interest in it.
Project Description: Our project is a double netted basketball hoop that plays music when it senses the ball in either the hoop or going through the net.
It allows you to listen to music without headphones or bringing speakers with you. The way it works is there are two boards attached to each other by 4 springs and copper on each of them. One board has copper on the front and the other one that the ball will hit, has copper on the back. When the ball hits the board it will cause the copper to touch, completing the circuit therefore playing the music. The other feature is we have two nets, one regular net and another net inside that is smaller. The bigger one has wire intertwine around it and the smaller one is made up of conductive thread. When the ball goes through the net, it will cause the smaller net to expand while the ball is going through it and the two nets will touch and complete the circuit, playing another piece of music. This product is to appeal to younger children so the songs will be educational by making them wonder and think about how the music is playing, where it's coming and how the different features do multiple things.
History: We didn't find any history of anyone actually making a mini basketball hoop, but our idea came from the guys playing basketball and a common interest in basketball and music. When we first started the idea we had to look up how to make the basketball hoop and the dimensions of a child's hoop. We also had to figure out how to create a net from scratch (not the program) to be conductive. Another thing we looked up was the type of sensor we need and that would work best for our specific project and the how we could make the two circuits complete, that's how we came up with the idea of the double netted hoop.
http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1510 We looked at this project to get an idea on how to make our basketball react, like in this video when the viewer touches the vine, they curl up. Our idea is similar, when the ball misses something happens and when the ball goes through the hoop something else happens.
Other Examples:
http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2286
http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=27
Pro's & Cons:
PRO'S: The kids who play with this basketball hoop will wonder where the music is coming from and why this hoop is doing something that they normally don't see. This will make them question what's going on so we can explain and they'll know something about how technology works and the variety of things you can do with it.
CON'S: The kids might not care why the basketball is playing music.
-Technologies
- Modkit- To program the music to play when the ball either goes through the hoop or hits the backboard.
- Fablab- To make the backboard, rim, and stand
The technologies being used are Modkit. Modkit is a program in which you are able to program things to do a variety of things, like play sounds and make stuff move. We're using this programing to make our music play out of the basketball hoop and set it up so when certain things happen (like throwing the ball into the net or missing), it controls the next thing that happens (determining which songs play). Another technology we're using is Fab Lab. Fab Lab is where you make your idea come to life. Basically you can make flat things 3D, and make things fit together. We are using Fab Lab to make the box our speakers will sit in and to make the rim and backboard of the basketball hoop.
In order to play our sounds the way we want them to play we must use sensors, the sensors indicate where the ball has touched, therefore knowing which music to play. The specific sensor we're going to use are Touch Sensors because those best work in our project.
Questions:
- How do you program a speaker to the modkit board?
- when something happens how do you know when to use that info to make something play?
EX:when the ball hits the backboard and it still misses the shot how do we know when to make the sound play?
- Materials:
- Wreath Hanger
- Hoop/backboard
- Speakers
- LED lights
- Music
- Neuza's Ipod :)
- Grr mascot
- Net
- Wire
- Conductive thread
- LINKS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVPaUvNOQPw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riJRODogRVI
https://www.dropbox.com/s/swsj5educ8geuof/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dlawngarden&field-keywords=adjustable+wreath+hanger&sprefix=adjustable+wreath%2Clawngarden%2C212
http://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=LED&what=products
DAY 1 (7/9/12)
- Three Project Ideas:
- Cup Holder that heats cool things down while it holds the cup.
- Helping Homeless people somehow
- Basket``ball musical court
- Changes:
The tech. that we decided to use is Modkit and the materials we need are: Speakers, hoop, peco or modkit censors. For the actual court we are going to use cardboard. Every time someone makes the shot a song will come on depending on where on the court you shot it from or the music will say what you have to do and if you do it you get to move to the next spot.
DAY 2 (7/10/12)
- IDEAS:
The backboard is going to be made out of wood or plastic.
The sensors are going to be put around the rim and there is going to be LED lights around the square on the backboard.
There is also going to be speakers on the backboard.
Day 3: July,11 2012
- To Do List:
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/82404533@N08/7643377944/][img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7106/7643377944_851087777f.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/82404533@N08/7643377944/]7544480864_deb0fef087_z[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/82404533@N08/]teamgrr[/url], on Flickr
- More research
- Look for a cheap* adjustable wreath hanger
- Find the sensor best fit for our project/ Build sensor
- Start on prototype
Progress:
We built our prototype hoop and net. We're testing if it will play music when the ball goes through the net.
We drew our prototype of our mascot as well.
Our backboard has sound now and we learned how to import the songs we want to play out of our project.
We've been using Modkit/Pico to control and program our project.
Day 4: July,12 2012:
-To Do List:
- Finish making prototype/make it work correctly
- Make pressure sensor
- Record our progress with pictures
-PROGRESS:
Today we finished our prototype and and the pressure censors. We programed our scratch boards and added the music of choice.
Challenges:
Some challenges were that the net had stopped working and we didn't know what went wrong. We could not figure out how to create the net and every time we tried to do something it would not turn out the way we plan so we had to start over and that got us frustrated some times.
Day 5: July 16th
To do list:
- Fix prototype
- Start actual design
Progress:
We made our prototype sturdier
We finished the hoops net
http://www.ladyada.net/make/waveshield/
Day 6: July,17 2012:
- To do list:
-
Hook up speaker
-
Make "double net"
-
Buy 2 nets
- Progress:
We got speakers, in the process of making a box for the speaker to sit in. Learned how to play with Scratch and program things with it.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_size_of_basketball_net
Day 7: July, 18th 2012:
To Do list:
Make box for speakers
Find net
Day 8, July 19th 2012:
-To Do List:
- Program both speakers to work on the aduino board
- Make another net to go inside our original net
- Use FabLab to create our box for the speakers to sit inside
- Find notes to the song we want to play on our hoop so we can program it
-Progress:
Our box is complete
We're in the process of making the second hoop to go inside our big hoop
Still looking for the notes to program to the aduino board
Day 9, July 23th 2012:
To do list:
- Weave wire into net
- Look up how to make a hoop
http://www.ehow.com/how_4904855_basketball-hoop.html
Day 10, July, 24th 2012:
To Do List:
- Finish wiring the net
- Do all the directions Susan wrote down for us on the paper
- Progress:
We wired the net with metal wire
We added photos/ descriptions to our Wiki
Neuza: Fixed Wiki/ Added things to the Wiki
Chanti: Wired the net
Christelle: Helped Chanti wire the net, searched for previous Basketball hoop inventions
Day 11, July 25th 2012:
- To Do List:
- Update Wiki
- Sodur more LED's
- Take photos of new progress
- Finish cutting out our backboard
- Test sensors to see if they work
- Progress:
We cut out our backboard and got more colored LED's
Day 12, August 3 2012:
To Do List:
- Make wooden backboard
- Work on sensors
Dimensions of the backboard:
- 48 inches wide
- 36 inches tall
- 1.5 inches thick
Day 13, Aug. 08th 2012:
-To Do List:
- Research a pole so we can decide if we're using a wreath hanger or creating a pole
- Make Prototype backboard
- Figure out a way to make the censors sturdier so when the ball hits it the clip will move instead of the whole clip
- Program our censors with Modkit
Day 14, Aug 09 2012:
To do list:
- Connect both pieces of wood to make the backboard.
- Finish sensors
Day 15, August 10 2012:
To do list-
- Work on sensors more
- Cut holes into the backboard
Day 16, August 15 2012:
To Do List -
- Find out everything about our Arduino Board
- Make a piece to attach to the sensor to make it easier to press
- Figure out the inputs and outputs
- Find where to attach the sensors on the net
Ar
Comments (2)
David solomon said
at 11:00 am on Jul 14, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz0fsvb2CEM (could help with playing a song with arduino)
http://www.embedds.com/playing-real-music-with-arduino/ (could help with playing a song with arduino)
Donna Parker said
at 4:08 pm on Jul 16, 2012
I would love to see a photo of your prototype on your wiki!
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