Understanding The Shadows

This project is a basic exercise that we developed as a team in order to familiarize ourselves with the interface between Arduino and Processing. We began by playing with the different types of sensors that we had originally bought in the Arduino starter kit. These involved buttons, potentiometers, photoresistors and heat sensors among others. Settling on the photoresistor cell, We were able to visualize the levels that it captured with a simple code in processing. The inspiration behind this project is the transformation of energy from one form to another. For example, the natural phenomenon of leaves trapping sunlight to convert them into energy. Once we had it functioning to our satisfaction we began to play with the processing of the data, ultimately creating a device to measure shadows.

While this was fun, it was simple, so in order to understand the process a bit more we decided to introduce two more photoresistor cells. In addition, we wired a servo motor to the Arduino side of the exercise with an arm bearing a LED light. Coding the motors movements to random, we created a irregular ‘sun path’ for the resistor cells to pick up. After managing to extract the three data sets and process them into a visual graph, we decided to play with the shadows more, introducing obstacles between the light and the cells.

Our graphic is a continuous stream of data from the three cells. The overlapping gradients of the graph represent the level of shadow, or lack of light, that is picked up in the immediate area. Although the exercise is basic, one would be able to map the quality of light throughout a day in an area. While our graph is more visual, we can easily adapt the code to give off accurate numerical readings of the local light/ shadow values. We enjoyed studying these elementary concepts and look forward to the further knowledge that we will gain under the tutelage of Angel Muñoz and Angelos Chronis.

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