Finalizing Design

The team went ahead and put in the order for 50 polycarbonate tubes. Since polycarbonate is a more expense material we will have less stalks than the original design and they will be shorter (about 2ft at the tallest). Overall we have decided to go quality over quantity which I am very happy about because previously only Brian and I had voted for using polycarbonate over PVC. One issue with the polycarbonate though is that it is clear and therefore one can see all the wires and the LED through the stalk. Brian and I tested different ways for making the stalk opaque. In the end we found that if we sandblasted the outside and the inside and then slipped a tube of Mylar down the stalk the finished look was a soft satiny sheen that perfectly masked the wires and the hotspot created by the LED. We will still use a piece of sandblasted acrylic at the top to plug the stalks and diffuse the light.

A few example of other things I tried along with the Mylar were newspaper and using ink on the Mylar.

Kevin, Brian and I also preformed a test on the PIR to gage its sensitivity. We had Brian stand to one side of the PIR and create motion. Once the PIR recognized it we put an x on the floor. I made a graph of the calculations.

I'm also still messing around with processing. Although I'm sure we won't end up using it, I wrote a simple code that displays the front of the PowerHouse with a tracking dot moving along the sidewalk to signify a person walking. The movement is not fluid however and we will most likely end up using a digital framework of the Powerhouse and working with a multitude of dots that the PIRs are outputting. But just for funsies here it is:

void setup(){
  size(920,520);
  noStroke();
  smooth();
}
float x = 0;
float y = 350;
float speed = 9;

void draw() {
PImage img =loadImage("PowerHouse.jpg");
image (img,0,0);
filter(BLUR,1);
filter(GRAY);

fill(0,12);
  rect(0,0,width,height);
  fill (255);
  move();
 display();
}
void move() {
  x = x + speed;
  if (x > width) {
    x = 0;
  }
}
void display() {
  fill(230,52,49);
  ellipse(x,y,30,30);
}