Prototyping Electronic Devices

MyMap — Final Prototype and Reflection

created with Aram Pundak

The goal is to make an embodied device which records its position in the world over time. An object with a sense of intelligence about its previous locations, allowing the user to reflectively interact with it as a journaling device.

Aram and I made these prototypes to explore some different shapes and feelings it could have.

I combined several components from adafruit to create this first prototype, just a little thing that writes GPS out to a sd card. Here, I have an assembly which includes a 1000mAh Lipo battery, an adafruit m4 protoboard and the adafruit ultimate gps module.

This iteration has the attached e ink screen. Some of the first data I recorded is shown here.

This was my setup to test, I had everything that made it to the final prototype here in this shot. I'm outside at the ITP Herb Garden Balcony getting a gps fix in this picture. GPS dev is so fun because you go OUTSIDE.

A huge collection of wires was not going to work on my bike, so I put it all on a cardboard backer and taped it up. This is the messy prototype I made to ride around and test it out on my bike. I also attached an external GPS antenna for better accuracy

From here I continued to work on the code and PCB for another revision while Aram boxed it up. A critical aspect of the design at this phase was being able to take it home with me for Thanksgiving, and thus, on a plane.

I was able to use it to record some data while hiking and walking around with family. It was a good way to get some inexperienced users to interact with the device.

This is an overlay of the gps data onto a real world map.

When I came back from Thanksgiving, my PCB had arrived! I had converted the designs off of adafruit into a single board.

Unfortunately, the PCB was not quite right. I will need to make some adjustments to the design.

Later, I saw this lecture about place which emphasized the importance of place in language. It made me think about how horrible our experiences with maps on digital devices can be and how unembodied their designs can be. Antihuman, anti place, anti reality. I feel this project must be completed as an example for how things can be different.

I am curating these two videos of object interactions I like for charging and storage. Small, round, like a pebble is the direction I want to go with this project next. I am also interested in RFID Charging.