Foot pedal button

We visited Skanda Vale again on Saturday to catch up with Valli.  Brother Stefan has been making her a hosepipe football - she's been having some fun with it, but only plays when there is someone else joining in.  She looks like a gigantic puppy.  http://www.skandavale.org/elephant-plays-football/

Foot pedal button

This time, we were testing a giant button made from an old sewing machine foot pedal. 

This would normally provide a variable output, but I simplified it to ON/OFF and we created a wooden housing that surrounded the case so that Valli wouldn't be able to grasp the button with her trunk, only push it.

The button was bolted to the fence across the balcony. 

Valli explores the button casing

Wire out the back (on the non-elephant side) connected Arduino to my laptop and activated  a Processing sketch that played a 1 second audio sample.

We tested a low rumble, didgeridoo, tuba, double-bass and contra-bassoon.

Valli seemed interested in exploring the shape and contours of the new button, but was reluctant to push it.  Brother Stefan thinks that an alternative embedded sensor that just requires touch will be more successful with acoustic stimulation.

Valli and the pink button

Valli meets the boys

Half-term trip to Skanda Vale to meet Valli and test out the water valve system.

I constructed a simple plastic button from layers of tinfoil with foam sandwiched in the middle - similar to a dancemat - requiring a gentle press to make the circuit.  We fixed it to the ceiling next to Valli's enclosure so she could reach it with her trunk. 

Pressing the pink button

On the floor above, the button was connected to an Arduino input pin.  The output activated a water valve via a relay switch, sending a strong spray of cool water along a hosepipe and down onto the rubber mat where Valli usually has a wash.

The water was on for a 30 second burst, then had to be re-activated.  She was persuaded to use the button a few times, but moved sharply away from the water spray - obviously not a strong motivation!

Brother Stefan will plumb in the pipework properly so we can test different interfaces that she might (or might not) like to use.

Student Environmental Enrichment Course

I attended the 17th S.E.E.C. (Student Environmental Enrichment Course), run by The Shape of Enrichment, from 4-7 August 2014.

We attended lectures and did some practical workshops in rope splicing and fire-hose weaving at Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary, followed by a design and production session to create new toys and environmental enrichment for the inhabitants.

Here we are, installing some new devices - dynamic branches, seesaw, herb baskets and hammocks.  The best part was standing back to watch the capuchins and macaques enter their enclosures again and begin to explore all the toys...

I

Capuchin exploring packet of ice and strawberries

Macaque on the swinging branch, playing with rope

Designing smart toys for the cognitive enrichment of elephants

http://doc.gold.ac.uk/aisb50/AISB50-S14/AISB50-S14-French-extabst.pdf

Paper delivered at AISB 2014 (conference for The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour), ISAWEL (Symposium on Intelligent Systems for Animal Welfare)

track.

My co-authors were Clara Mancini, Neil Smith and Helen Sharp from The Open University.

Tanya playing in the mud, Colchester Zoo, Feb 2014

3D Printing Minecraft

It was Mozilla Festival on Oct 26 2013, halfterm weekend.  My children were very excited to create and then 3D print models using Minecraft as the development tool. 

The person running the PRINTCRAFT server is Paul Harter, who used to work with my old colleague Simon Schofield on Simon's art algorithms.

Clyde created an elephant which was then saved and exported as an STL file.  The original Minecraft blocks were reduced to 2mm cubes for printing on a Makerbot 2.

We snapped off the strands holding up the trunk, cleaned out his ears and he was ready to play.

LEGO decal

First attempt to create Lego decal, using a template from http://www.minifigcustomizationnetwork.com/templatecentral.  Linton wanted Captain Cody and Black Spiderman; Clyde decided to do own custom design:

These are the Lightning Lads, who subsequently starred in their own photo-cartoon story.  Here are a couple of scenes:

Ready for action

Raiding the bank

Life Project Exhibition at Space

Debut for "life but not" creatures in Space this evening, showing off their craftwork, flashing lights, squeaks and tweets.
http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/whats-on/courses/openlab-the-real-game-of-life-project
http://lifeproject.spacestudios.org.uk/

Creatures

Habitat

Playing with exhibits

Creatures tweeting

The Pink Wink Workshop

Ice-breaker workshop for Women in Games 2008, 10-12 Sept at University of Warwick. 

I ran this with Barbara Zambrini from http://www.gamelablondon.com.  We presented conference participants with the challenge of designing a new character for a new computer game.  Working in teams, they were given character profile forms to fill out, with back stories to develop and details to fill in.  And felt-tips for the graphics... 

TIFFANY has an epiphany, making quality makeup without animal testing.

KATRINA: NET TRAX - Cross platform ARG – rhythm action game, DS/web, collect sounds and geo-tagged images, record train sounds, find way home through audio cues – AIM – to find your sister and make her cool (but she’s really a DJ anyway)

 

MORPHY MASH-UP: Live your bubble – bouncing thru life - morph with your friends

ALEX: In a world where anti-knife-crime robots have run amok, invading homes and preventing cutlery use, only teenage parkourists and Alex can stop them – and stem the tide of similar robots (eg a recycling robot that picks up people’s cups before they’re finished…)

ANDRO, m. Age – 1020.  Can give birth. Physical strength and caring nature, good listener and advice giver. Can’t multi-task, can’t identify with a gender, has stretch marks and swollen feet. Goal – to populate earth in his own image; to be accepted into culture

EVE: After being repulsed by her skating companions who only want to date her, Eve meets a mentor (Dr Octavios) who steers her towards a career designing skateboards for women, incorporating rigorous physics research.

     

CAT WOMAN – CATKIN:  Hard, superhuman, fighting (when necessary) using detachable false nails (also retractable). Lives in large basket in a basement – very stylish warehouse. Made by being over-licked by kittens as a baby. Likes – large shoes, catnip, diamante collars. Dislikes – dogs, rain.  Purpose – to save cats! She is their superhero.