Baby Steps...

This blog is intended to be documentation for a project I am working on in Lalya Gaye's Digital Media class at RISD this Spring 2009.  The project idea is a table that sets itself.  The inspiration comes from seeing the MIT Media Lab's "self-healing chair" and wanting to make physical via furniture the digital technologies available to me.

Since this project is essentially a task whose focus is on the engineering side, rather than the concept or aesthetic side, most of the time so far has been spent figuring out what technology to use to get my table to perform its task.  After investigating RFID, motors, ball bearings, circuits with transistors, etc. the combination I have arrived at is the reacTIVision software with Processing sending data to Arduino which will power a selective electromagnet on a dual-axis motor underneath the table's surface.  The table will be either mirror coated plexi or one-way mirror with all components underneath, the utensils will be made by myself out of balsa wood with iron insets.  I hope you enjoy following me as I attempt this ridiculous and challenging project.

-Evan