Innovators Wanted District Hall is a work in progress. (It's also, as I've said elsewhere, a gateway to Boston's new Seaport District.) But what makes the place special, more than its location, is its open-ended nature. It's an organizational and architectural question mark, asking for participation. Asking to be surprised.
The Mixed Reality Challenge At the center of this challenge: a gumball machine. Actually a Smartphone-Accessible, Augmented Reality- and Gesture Sensor-Triggered, Internet-Connected, Open-Source, Toy Capsule Machine. The idea: to use District Hall as a location to test out some on-the-edge concepts around Augmented Reality and Internet of Things.
Using Augmented Reality to Hide Messages in the Real World Augmented Reality (AR) is the subset of Mixed Reality that powers the Mixed Reality Challenges at District Hall and Fab@CIC. We chose to use AR because it's future sexy, of course, but also because there are now many free augmented reality apps to choose from.
DIY Gumball Machine Pioneers But back to the real-world hardware at the center of this evolving game: the gumball machine. I'm not sure how a gumball-style machine came into my head, but I know I wasn't the first person with this idea: to remake the classic corner-store fixture with new technology.
Gumball Machine #1 But first, I had to build the gumball box and mechanism. Only two challenges: My woodworking skills were nil. I didn't have the patience to craft a fine wooden box. I just wanted to see if I could get something to work.
Mixed Reality Gumball Machine: Version 2 My Mixed Reality Gumball Machine worked, most of the time. Sometimes you had to enter the secret password twice to get one prize; other times you got two prizes; or it jostled around a bit, but no prize emerged. There was an element of chance, sure, but not in a good way. I wanted something SOLID, reliable. So planning began on Version 2.
Lasers I knew they were heading my way: the laser cutters. The next gumball machine design demanded it, and they are obviously just too damn useful. On a typical open project night at Cambridge Hackspace, they are almost always the featured attraction, the highlight of the tour. The laser cutters are always working, burning their way through projects from acrylic boxes to wooden coasters. So time to figure laser cutters out.
Writing in Place: A 16x2 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) - Black on Yellowish Green An onsite explanation would help. Something glowing right next to the gumball machine. The default: 16x2 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). This yellowish green window is how hacked-together electronics communicate with the world. There's not a lot of room for expression on one of these devices: just 2 lines of text, 16 characters each.
Writing in Place: A (Tragically) Beautiful LED Matrix Making the leap from old-school, commodity, coffeemaker LCD to blinktastic LEDs was not easy. The first solution I came across, the Beam, was intoxicatingly good, and just what I needed.
Writing in Place: 8x8 LED Matrix Modules It's a key piece of the placemaking puzzle: the ability to write text in place -- out in the world. And it turns out there's a standard building block for the kind of grid you can use to make it happen: the 8x8 LED Matrix -- 64 LEDs in a square, controlled by a commodity chip: the MAX7219, or some minor variant. They are available on Alibaba, in bulk, for around 90 cents apiece. And they are modular: you can buy them chained together, in blocks of 4, for less than $4. Just search for "4-in-1 LED Dot Matrix Display Module." That's what I did.
Blinky Lights It would not be a hacker-ish innovation project without some blinkiness. It's almost mandatory. So my next stop: Adafruit, for some NeoPixels. What's interesting about NeoPixels: each LED actually contains three LEDs (red, green, blue) and each one is addressable.
Working - The Mixed Reality Challenge in Effect The translucent acrylic box looks crisply cool; the text is scrolling; the blinky lights are twinkling. The augmented reality images are visible, via the WallaMe app. And people are starting to use it. The Mixed Reality Challenge is in effect in District Hall.
Road Trip. The Mixed Reality Challenge Moves to CIC Boston for a Night For one night only, the Mixed Reality Challenge moved about 25 city blocks east, and 20 stories straight up to a lively Arts Technica night at CIC Boston. The goal of Arts Technica was to highlight how artistic expression is incorporated into modern technology. In addition to the Mixed Reality Challenge, the demos included virtual reality, video game graphic demonstrations, art installations using ePaper technology.
Fab@CIC The day after Arts Technica, I stopped by Fab@CIC. It's not where you would expect a hackspace: in the heart of Boston's Financial District. The shaggy maker funk appeal of this neighborhood -- approaching 0%. It only makes sense when you know what else is in the building: the Boston branch of CIC (for Cambridge Innovation Center).
Stepper v Servo The difference is about the poles. A pole is an area of a motor where a North or South magnetic pole is generated either by a permanet magnet or by passing current through the coils of a winding. Servos have between 4 and 12 poles. Stepper motors have between 50 and a hundred. Steppers don't require encoders since they can accurately move between their many poles. Whereas servos, with few poles, require an encoder to keep track of their position. Steppers simply move incrementally using pulses, while servo's read the difference between the motors encoder and the commanded position, and adjust the current required to move.
Controlling a Stepper Motor Stepper motors require a motor driver, said everybody. So I started searching around for "why" information, and a recommendation. General information was plentiful. But picking a specific driver, and configuring it, was confusing and intimidating. Fortunately I found some help on Hackster.
Jack Greenfield explains the New(est) Gumball Machine Although it started with a stepper motor, Jack Greenfield eventually re-engineered the entire Gumball Machine from the ground up -- recreating every face from the original version, then removing complexity, then redesigning it so that it could incorporate a stepper motor, then re-conceiving it as a parametric design.
A Gesture Sensor Augmented Reality is working okay. Actually, honestly, not that well. But it requires an app, and a phone. Which could be pushing me towards a challenge that I've already faced, and haven't really solved: people just aren't that eager to whip out their phones and download an app. So I'm adding a fall back, an easier onramp: something built around a gesture sensor
A Night Out for the Toy Capsule Machine Cambridge Hackspace joined forces with Fab@CIC to work on a new version of the Wifi Connected Gumball Machine. So it made sense to make a joint venture to a Cafe Night at District Hall. The theme was inspireHER. Also a good excuse to try out a cheap Chinese action cam.
Mixed Reality Challenge at CIC Kendall Square Housewarming That's Joey Lindsey, of Fab@CIC, demonstrating the Mixed Reality Challenge at the housewarming event at CIC's newest facility in Kendall Square. The celebration marked the culmination of a multi-phase launch for CIC and the start of CIC’s 20th year in Kendall Square, where the company was founded in 1999.
Mixed Reality Challenge 2.0 Takes Shape at Fab@CIC... with a Capacitive Sensor After remaking the District Hall gumball machine, with a stepper motor and a newly engineered case, we turned our attention to making one for Fab@CIC... with a twist. Fab@CIC's Mixed Reality Challenge, located at the entrance, has two goals: to get you to play the game, yes, but also to lure you to the rear of the coffeeshop, where things start to get makery.
Origami Lucky Stars as Information Medium The capsule machine works best right inside the front door, with the gesture sensor right next to it. We've learned that at Fab@CIC and District Hall. People enjoy the immediate reward; the quick, easy engagement. And that has changed how we've stocked the capsule machine, twice.
A New Version of the Mixed Reality Challenge at District Hall, plus an Instagram Shoutout A new, improved version of the Mixed Reality Challenge is live at District Hall (better display, more consistent dispensing), and Adriana Kattan Saca honored the occasion with an elegant post on Instagram.
A District Hall Featured Community Partner District Hall, Boston's "public home for innovation," and a Mixed Reality Challenge host, bestows "featured Community Partner" status on the operation. Honored!
Mixed Reality Challenge appears in Fab@CIC promo video Fab@CIC has posted a new "who we are" video, and the Mixed Reality Challenge has snuck into a few shots.
District Hall Entrepreneur Mixer Features Gumball Machine Gumball Machine attends an Entrepreneurial Mixer at District Hall in Boston. Dispenses dozens of "ice breakers."
A Community Partner - Tikkaway The Gatchapon Prize Capsule Machine is popular at District Hall, no doubt about that. Every time I visit, the "Recycle" container is brimming with opened capsules and unfolded origami message strips. Now we're pointing it at something.
Gachapon goes interstate Gopi reports that he just received a call from the manager of his New Haven restaurant, the original Tikkaway a few blocks from the Yale University campus. "He told me that two new customers had presented long, colorful strips of paper with a 15% discount offer," Gopi said. "He was wondering where they came from, and what he should do with them."
Mixing Reality with DC Denison In Fall, 2019, Fab@CIC featured the Mixed Reality Challenge in a video and a companion interview. Since Fab@CIC didn't survive the immanent pandemic, the video is gone. But a transcription of the interview remains.
Gachapon It was Japanophile (not sure whether Otaku or Weeaboo applies) Joey Lindsey who alerted me to the overlap between the gumball machine and gachapon. I had never heard of it, but I liked gachapon as soon as I started reading about it: a universe of vending machine-dispensed toys popular in Japan.
Placemaking Report
