45-ZOR

CHECK THIS OUT :D
Doesn't it look exaclty like our environment of 45-ZOR?!?

(Made by Frederic Edwin Church, and the painting is called Cotopaxi)

Dream Exquis

hey, I had a project related dream so I thought it would be nice to share it with you ;-)

in my dream, we had to stop with the project. We were only allowed to do the exhibition, but the government didn't want us to continue. This was because our project outcomes would be so awesome it would cause a riot in the street. None of the now popular products would be sold anymore, and because the government has great interest in those products we weren't allowed to continue the project. Pretty neat huh?

It was very cool and frustrating at the same time. I was pretty reluctant once I woke up and it all turned out to be a dream.

Ow, and I fixed the Q learning code and made a library. It still needs some fine-tuning, but it works.

Business aspects

It is nice to see the progress in the technology aspects of the project, but another very important aspect is the business aspect. How and to whom will the product be sold and how will it be produced? I’ll try to keep it short and clear.

First of all, we made three personas to get a grip on what kind of persons will buy our product. We got a very successful businessman, a little girl and an old man. They all have different motives of buying and collecting the Cadavre Exquis Robots. I will quickly go through them. The businessman buys them for his kids, as he is away from home very often and has to travel a lot for his work. He always brought the cliché presents, like an Eiffel tower keychain when he went to Paris, but after getting to know our product he promised his kids to bring parts of this robot every time he came back. The persona of the little girl comes from a small village in Iowa and likes to collect bugs and play outside. She asks family to bring parts when they come to visit. She mostly likes the story behind them and the differences between good & evil. Last but not least is the old man. As a retired man he has a lot of time on his hands, so he likes to travel with his wife. He has been a technical engineer in his old days and still likes technical products, for example, he has the whole attic with things like miniature steam engines. He likes the technical movement of the creatures and the cultural background within each part.

Some other techniques applied are among others the Value Ladder, Technology Tree, Key Buying Factors and a suggested Partnership & Supply Chain table. The Value Ladder gives information on which function supplies which value, for example the functional property of Actuators will eventually give the Value of entertainment. The technology tree will give information on which parts have to be made, with what techniques they can be made and if there are any supporting technology. For example, the connection units are a Product Function, which will be produced by Milling or Molding, while the supporting technology of this piece is Computer Aided Design (CAD). The Key Buying Factors are different factors which are divided into three groups: Qualifiers, Winners and Differentiators. Qualifying factors are those that make sure our product can survive in the market, while Winning factors are those that make it better than all the rest. At last there are the Differentiating factors, which actually make sure that the product stays a winner over time by changing certain elements, staying ahead of competition.

We also made a Roadmap of the product to have a look into the possible future. I added a few pictures of the techniques.

Receive Library tutorial

as i promised: the two libraries for the pulsernet and a tutorial of how to use it.

-------RECIEVING

The library for the recieving of values which have been sended by the pulsernet can be found here.

to use it, first extrude the .rar in your arduino/libraries folder.

Start your arduino and import the library. This can be done in the menu: sketch / import library

If you extracted your library in the right folder, it should say: PulsernetRecieve.
If you click that the library is imported.

Then create an instance of the receive class by creating a code like:

Receive /name/ ( /number of receiving pin/ );

for instance:

Receive mailbox(7);

I am receiving the values on pin nr 7 and i call the receiver mailbox from now on.

then cal your normal voids, and an integer to set the value to.

int value;

void setup()

{

}

void loop()

{

now in this loop you only need to set the received value to your integer.

value = mailbox.Value();

}

now every time a value will be recieved, the value of your integer will change to that value.

-------SENDING

The library for the sending of values over the pulsernet can be found here.

to use it, first extrude the .rar in your arduino/libraries folder.

Start your arduino and import the library. This can be done by opening the menu: sketch / import library. If you extracted the library properly it should say PulsernetSend. If you click that the library is included.

Then create an instance of the send class by creating a code

Send

/name/

(

/number of receiving pin/

);

for instance:

Send mailman(13);

I am receiving the values on pin nr 13 and i call the sender mailman from now on.

then cal your normal voids.

void setup()

{

}

void loop()

{

now in this loop all you need to do is send the value you want to send with your sender:

mailman.Sender(15);

}

we are now sending the value 15 to the other arduino with the pulsernet. Of course you can also insert a variable instead of a real value.

---------------

if there are any questions or problems with these libraries, send me an email or just ask

Thank god for.. ADSL?

Because the previous version of internet was way too slow (1 phone number in 40 seconds) the scientists redesigned the internet.

The system no longer works with bites, but with pulses:

if it wants to send an 7, it turns its digital gate to high, waits 7 milliseconds and then turns it to low again.
This way it was now possible to send a full phone number in 440 milliseconds!

So now we are able to send all the stuff we need at the speeds we need. There is no limit of digits anymore, but values below 100 get send fastest (because it works with delays; 123 = 123 milliseconds)

I will upload the libraries for sending and receiving as soon as possible.

physical connection model

Check out the new model for the physical connection thingy. It actually conducts!

3D-cadavres

Yeah! We made some 3D-cadavres and they rock! See them shine in their natural habitat.

Next to the fact that they're so cool, we actually learned some stuff from making them: We should take the balance of the creature into account (especially when designing the head) and for the first time the idea of having moving parts on the torso occurred to us.

We're definitely gonna do more of these.

Thank god for the internet

today at 1pm it finaly happened:
Scientists were able to send a 10 digit number from one arduino to the other

I will be converting the sending and recieving programs to libraries for everybody to use as soon as possible.

ps i blurred out 2 digits, because its my phone number

45-ZOR illustrated

Here are some images of the planet 45-ZOR, from which the Cadavre Exquis creatures originate.

This is one of the old maps the creatures brought with them from their planet.

Impression of the Vulcano Area on 45-ZOR
Impression of the Forest Area on 45-ZORImpression of the Ocean Area on 45-ZOR

More of these impressions are coming. As we will learn more about the creatures from 45-ZOR, our knowledge about their habitat grows and enables us to create these pictures of their homeland. Stay tuned!

TRIP TO AMSTERDAM

Today - the 5th of March - our platform week will have a change in activities, since a day trip to Amsterdam is planned. The most important and exciting visit will be the client meeting with WAAG society. We will get to know the client, and visa versa.

Not only this will happen on our day out, but we will also visit the exhibitions Transnatural and Niet Normaal.



We are all excited about this day, and are going to make the best of it!

Platform week 1: Physical

The physical platform consists of a way of connecting the different parts physically. It should be sturdy and at the same time allow for electronic energy and signals to pass.

We started out with a physical exploration of different possibilities:

We then created the following diagram to analyze the value of different kinds of physical connection possibilities.

We then physicalized the most interesting option. It is shown below. You can connect it by plugging one side in the other and then turning it so it clicks shut. The pins allow for electric signals and power to pass through.

Platform week 1: Virtual

The first steps were taken for designing the virtual platform. This consists out of a model for the intelligence, which was translated to a virtual simulation.

An elaboration on this model will follow.

Platform week 1: Fiction

The fiction part of the platform is finished! Beneath, you can find the story, accompanied with a moodboard and an illustration.

Millions of light years away, there is a solar system with five planets. The star in the center of this system shines almost fifty times brighter than our sun. The orbits of the planets roaring around this star are all very different. The first two planets have a similar oval shaped orbit. Because they are not centered with the star in the middle, there exists a very hot summer when the planet is close to the star in the first half of the orbit, while in the other half there is a strong winter, unknown here on earth. The other three planets have a more circle shaped orbit. But it is the second planet from the star, known to us as 45-ZOR, on which there exists a form of life. It would not be the first planet on which you would suspect to see life, as it is a very hostile planet: giant forests which dry out in the summer and offer little shelter in the winter, many super storms rage the land and volcano eruptions are not uncommen. While the creatures are somehow comparable with those on earth (senses, skin, brains etc) they have evolved in a complete different way. Because of Earth’s relatively slow changes creatures on Earth are able to take hundreds of years to evolve. On the planet 45-ZOR the climate changes so drastically and fast, that regular evolution was unable to keep up. So nature came up with a new solution. Instead of being able to change their properties over time, creatures on 45-ZOR are able to share their properties with other creatures. For instance, a sheep-like creature can lend its wool fur to another creature that does not have fur on its own. The sheep-like creature can then expect to get another helpful property from the other creature, for instance long arms to reach the best fruit on the trees. The borrowing and trading of limbs and other properties are done on a daily, if not minutely basis. For a long time these creatures thrived on the very hostile planet. But some creatures forgot the unwritten rules of trading and borrowing and wanted to have more and more parts for their own. Instead of asking to borrow a limb, they just took them from other creatures. As some parts were even more valuable, because of better properties, the evil ones wanted to steal those from the peaceful creatures. In the fear of losing all their parts, the friendly creatures made plans to flee the world. They used their bodies to build a giant flying ark to escape.

After decennia of flying through space, they came across a planet that looked friendly enough to continue their lives: our planet Earth. When entering the atmosphere they experienced so much resistance that the ship fell apart and the parts rained down on Earth. The creatures, now scattered over the whole planet, started a quest to find all the parts again and continue living in peace like they did on 45-ZOR.

What they did not know was that the evil creatures followed them through space and also made an appearance on Earth. Now all the parts were spread over the whole world, it would be a challenge for both races to collect all the parts as soon as possible.

But both found out that the parts they brought with them from 45-ZOR were not the only parts they could use. Earth was full of items usable as parts: plants, trash, abandoned toys or home appliances. This opened new possibilities to evolve for the creatures. Both the good and evil creatures seek the help of humans to build custom parts for them. While it is easy for humans to build a new part, they will not know what kind of impact it has on the creatures’ society without testing it. Some people help the good creatures while others help the evil ones.

The moodboard that was based on this story. We used it to design the environment.

The environment. (Mai)

Phantasy week: Stories

These are the stories written on thursday.

Old toys' story (Mai):

Andy is the teddy bear of an 8 year-old boy. It used to be the most favorite toy but now, it becomes old and torn down. Therefore, the boy doesn't want to keep Andy any more, he throw it into a dustbin... Andy is very sad because it seems to be the end of its existence. However, in the dustbin, it meets other old toys which lost some of their parts and all the urban trash like tin cans, banana peels, plastic bottles. They decide to combine together to continue their lives (to be reborn) Andy lost its body, so it connect with a broken toy cars and some mechanical part to survive. Others also do the same things, they cooperate with each other and gradually change their parts to adapt to the surrounding environment. Because they are all thrown away by human beings, they hate people and don't want to see the latter again. They disguise themselves as trash or small objects on the street so that people never recognize and realize their appearance. It's difficult for the old toys to survive everyday but they are happy as they can still continue living.

The story of Steven en Elex (Marieke)

A magic can falls out of the sky… Lightening!

Little Steven, 7 years old, is walking in the mountains and discovers a pile of rubbish. When he looks closer he sees they are all body parts. He runs home. The next day he slowly approaches the pile out of curiosity. Every day he goes peeking to the pile and sees it growing. One day he goes closer and sees all the parts struggling and aimlessly moving around.
When he puts parts together, funny creatures arise. He has so much fun in doing this; he goes back every day to see if there are new parts to be put together.

He notices that there are only new creatures when there has been a thunderstorm the day before. Year after year he goes back to that spot when there had been a thunderstorm and puts together the creatures.
When months have past and there hasn’t been any lightening, Steven really gets frustrated. He tries to create his own thunder with all possible machines and electronics. This doesn’t work out.

In the meanwhile the creatures are making their own society and two groups are forming. There are creatures, called Elex, who are aiming to honor the holy can and are planning on getting back to planet Ex. When the holy can is in space again it will be able to make the creatures continuously. But there are also creatures which don’t care, the Eli, and these are planning to take over the world.
What the Elex need to do to get the holy can back into the universe is spread all over the world and by doing so create an electric field around the earth. This will split the atmosphere and lead a pathway for the holy can into space.

The story of Nanomia (Eddy)

Long long time before the homosapians, even before the dinosaurs, just after “the Big Bang” a chemical reaction created an almost invisible small construction of atoms, consisting of highly strong coal-fibbers, organic tomato DNA & logicanicy.

Over time, when the world evolved, this combination of atoms survived & evolved. In fact the size didn’t grew. Many of the atoms combination spread over the world.

One day, electricity, in form of a lightning, gave the first impulse for this ”cells” to cluster together. In fact this didn’t last for long. After every additional lightning the cluster became more and more complex.

Years & years, millions of them, passed by and the invention of permanent electricity pushed the cluster to evolve themselves to an outstanding long lasting creature who can break apart cluster back together.

Over and over was this procedure used to hide themself from the world of the way we know it.

But well the change of permanent electricity gave these creatures to evolve to be independent form electricity at all.

Out of the sudden, they lost the skill to totally break apart, now part of their can be seen.

Christopher Jam (Elien)

Christopher Jam as a motor boat. In his spare time he likes to make little trips with his boat. One day he discovers a tiny island. He decides to anchor his boat to take a look at the island. Here he finds all kinds of robot-like animals, new species.
Christopher Jam really likes the animals so he loads them all on his boat and takes them home. He is aware that if people find out that he has these rare species at home, they will confiscate the animals. But Christopher wants to keep them for himself. Therefore he hides the creatures in his closet.
But the animals hate being in the closet, so one day they decide to break loose.
Christopher Jam notices them just before they were able to walk outside. He decides to disconnect the animals’ body parts and he kept them separately so that they couldn’t re-connect themselves and they couldn’t escape again.
Years go by until Christopher Jam dies. People find the body parts in his closet, but they don’t know how to connect them. Will you help these creatures to live again?

Amadeus Dark (Elien)

Amadeus Dark is a very bright man. He is an inventor and has invented some amazing things throughout the years. Amadeuses work in progress is top secret; as soon as he made some notes or did some research, he would burn the evidence so that nobody would know what he was working on. Amadeus Dark almost finished his new invention when he dies.
People find his invention, but can’t make any sense of it. What was the purpose of mister Dark’s work.

Prosthesis factory (Elien)

In the prosthesis factory is working a robot, Festool DB110. Festool is a very smart sophisticated robot, programmed replace people doing routine jobs. One day Festool is sick of the routine work and he finds a way to escape: He takes the different prosthesis’s and attaches them to himself. This makes it possible for him to leave the factory into the open world. Festool found a nice place to live and create a family. After a few generations the robots have involved more and more.

Ancient Civilization (Timo)

A very long time ago, even before the existence of the dinosaurs, there was a race of extremely intelligent creatures. They were so smart that they could make a machine to look into the future. With this they saw their own future: total annihilation of their own people. In the hope to save their culture, technology and knowledge they created a vast amount of autonomous machines. All these machines symbolized one of the cultural, technological or knowledge aspects of the race. When the day came which would wipe out the race, they spread all the machines over the whole world in separate parts, improving the chance that a large number of parts would survive. For millions of years these robots have been inactive in the ground, even underneath the first dinosaur fossils. A few years ago the first part was dug up. A lot of scientist researched the part and came to the conclusion there should be more hidden in our world. Only by finding, collecting and putting all the parts together the mystery of this ancient civilization can be solved.

The Story of Extreme Awesomeness (Tomas)

Intelegent creatures on a distant planet found out that rather than evolving,

it's much more efficient to share useful characteristics.

After many years of sharing and exchanging limbs the Fauna had changed completely.

Natural selection was taken to a whole new level, but as in every environment where creatures live together..

.. some creatures played by different rules. Fearless creatures which tried to steal limbs and body parts

from the other creatures

So the creatures fled their planet in ships created from their own bodies and limbs.
But the fearless ones followed them.

The creatures finally found a planet which seemed friendly:
Earth

But on entering the atmosphere the ships got shredded and many of the creatures and limbs got separated

raining down on the earth the creatures had to start over. Combining and finding new possibilities in their new environment

NB: On planet earth the creatures can combine with their alien parts, but also with parts from creatures, object or other things that exist here on earth.

Because the greedy, fearless creatures also landed on earth this can create some sort of dynamic story and reason behind the creatures actions.

From ordinary to extraordinary (Enitia)

In our daily life we meet stones, leaves, nuts and more things we see as ordinary. But what if these objects weren't ordinary at all...? A long time ago there was a war on Planetopia, and the civilians of this planet (the aliens) fled to earth. They took their rocket and landed on earth, but as soon as they touched the earth they changed into ordinary objects and were not able to control their movement anymore. The wind brought them to different places, so did human and nature did and the lost each other...And suddenly after thousands of years, they changed back to their normal state only... where their body parts separated too! Will you help them to be one again?

Escape of the android parts (Luuk)

In a laboratory in the Netherlands, scientists were secretly developing a project called 'Prolatus'. They tecnologically made human extensions, allowing man to survive in the most extreme environmental circumstances, such as extreme heat or cold and extreme heights and depths. What's more, the extensions all functioned autonomously. Artificial intelligence (AI) allowed the parts to act on its own, based on environmental input.

Then, one night, something that none of the scientists had expected happened.The emotional and survival classes within the extensions' AI had concluded that it was best for them to live as fas as possible from human beings. And so, one night, it happened. When the scientists were gone, the extensions crawled towards each other and connected, creating whole bodies. They broke free from the lab and fled to the outskirts of the world, where the most extreme conditions would prevent man from interfering with their lives.

Phantasy week: Creatures

These are the creatures, designed for the environments from last post.

For Jungle environment (Timo)

Alga Hospes

“Happycute-algea”

Little is known about these algae. It lives inside the plants; they eat leftovers from the plant and help the plant stay clean from the inside. They are very small and glow slightly blue

4. Qualtor Fulcio

“Choptopus”

Locals have a word which translates to: “Chair you will never sit on at least you will never get off”

The creature is covered in a sticky material. The animal itself almost works like a flycatcher without doing anything. Speculation goes that it used to catch Flies with this stickiness. But because the Flies are of course not dumb, they just started flying higher. Nowadays the Choptopus uses its stickiness to catch a snake and form a Snakeplant with it. This way, both animals can catch dinner. There is a story that a local man once thought it was a funny hat and put it on his head. The Choptobus lamped its tentacles on the man’s head and never let go anymore. The end of the story is discussable. Some say the man and Choptopus became best friends and stayed together their whole life. Others say that there is still a rather large “Snakeplant” walking around the forest.

3. Serpens Cunctor Cuniuratio

“Snakeplant” (name incorrect)

Acts like plants to attract the Fly. When Fly flies over, the head pops out and devours the Fly. It closes its leaves after catching a Fly. Actually the creature if formed of two different creatures on top of eachother. By using a dead plant as clothing it seems like one animal. Snake shares his caught food with the lower part. Neither scientists nor locals have ever seen the two animals teaming up and covering themselves with a dead plant. They just seem to be there.

2. Musco Celebrer

“Fly”

Locals just call it “The Fly” because it is the only fly in the realm. Flywalkers also mimic this fly with their antenna. Front legs are highly developed; sometimes they even look similar to human hands. Rumor has it that locals sometimes see them using small tools. The snout seems also not biological but artificial. Eat Algea Hospes.

1. Testudo Illusio Musca

“Flywalker”

Locals have a word which translates to: “the don’t step on it rocks”Antenna on the head is used to “Lure” plants and distract them. The Flywalker is a herbivore.

It spikes make sure plant don’t mistake Flywalker for dinner.

Tail works as a sort of radar, making sure the Flywalker can avoid surprise attacks. Because of its heavy shell, it can’t turn around very fast. Scientists speculate if this was originally the head-side of the animal. Head and tail are retractable.

For rubbish cave environment (Enitia)

The environment had a lot of hostiles to deal with, for example the glass eater, the flesh eating plan and the plastic eater. Besides that, there was also a poisonous snake living in the garbage cave. Solution: a cardboard dog. This dog was fully made of cardboard and was able to hide for the snake by blending into the environment and fold itself to a cardboard box.

For the hot spring environment (Marieke)

In the landscape there are craters and hot springs. The steam condenses on the wall and then drips down. The animals should be able to bear great heat and moist. I assume there is not much light on this planet, so the animals might need different visual aids.

There are nutritious algae and mosses growing on the wall. In order to get to the food, the animal has to get to the wall. I decided my first animal has wings. It is a snake/worm like creature with wings. It can suck the food of the wall.
There is also an animal which hasn’t got wings. In order to get to the food he places himself on top of a hot spring and waits for it to erupt. The animal will fly up, and during this flight it will flap it’s petal shaped legs up and so can suck itself to the wall. This animal doesn’t have eyes, it ‘sees’ through echo-location.

For All-round environment (Tomas)

The Grazer

On the grass lands of this environment live large hurdes of grazers. Firm and big creatures which protect themselves by staying together and use their horns for fighting of predators.
They have such large bellies because they only live on grass and therefore have multiple stomachs.

The Fly

Due to the hot temperatures on the rocks this fly has many wings. In these wings the fly circulates his blood, which helps him to stay cool.

These flies live of the blood of the grazers. Every evening they fly out of their homes in the cool caves and circle around on the grasslands to feed on the sleeping grazers.
They are on the menu of multiple other animals, but because there are so many of them around, this doesn't have effect on their population.

The Reptile

Living on the rocks to stay warm the reptile waits till the evening falls and the flies come out of their hiding. Once the flies exit their caves in large numbers the reptile uses his tail to confuse the flies and slap them out of the sky.
The reptile has a family member which can survive in much cooler atmospheres and lives in the grasslands. This one also lives of flies, but he catches them by climbing on the back of a sleeping grazer and waiting for the flies to land.

The Licker

A small but diverse creature living in between the rocks, thats the best way to describe a licker. Feeding on both reptiles, flies and grass this creature is never out of food to eat. However because they have rather large fat reserves, they are a juicy meal for a predator.

In order to escape from his predator he runs fast between the rocks using his tail for stability and steering. He runs slower than the predators, but because he is much more flexible he can easily outrun them in the rocky parts of the land.
Their most vulnerable moments are when they come out of the rocks to eat grass. Even though they never go far away from their save heaven, they often get eaten when they are out on the grass.

In order to eat the use their long tung to grab insects, grass and reptiles. However, the reptiles are bigger and harder to catch, so you often see the lickers struggling and stamping on reptiles, before they can eat them.

The Predator

Crawing through the grass goes the most dangerous creature of the lands. The predator uses the long grass for cover and surprises his prey. It's a rather fast sprinter, but it can't run very long.

It mostly feeds on lickers, but when it sees a possibility it also tries to grab a young grazer. Both of his preys will outrun them if they aren't killed instantaneously, therefore it has developed great sneaking skills and is almost soundless when crawling.

For Factory environment (Luuk)

This is a day in the life of Volatilis Ulterius, the flying fart.

Volatilis ulterius lives inside industrial chimneys near the sea. At night, it hangs from its leash, a strong chord attached to the inside of a chimney. While it sleeps, it breathes in deadly gases but instead of getting poisoned by them, Volatilis ulterius filters out the poisoneous parts of the air and saves it inside its balloon-like body.

When day breaks, Volatilis ulterius spreads its umbrella-like wings and floats up with the hot air in the chimney, leaving its leash anchored inside the chimney.

When Volatilis ulterius lands, it searches for holes created by worms. When it finds one, it inserts its backside in the hole and releases the deadly gases it collected last night.

After a while of inhaling the gas, the worm dies and Volatilis ulterius eats it with its backside.

When Volatilis ulterius is done eating, it reels itself by rolling up its leash. When it's back inside the chimney, it goes to sleep.

For where the city meets nature (Mai)

The creatures in the urban environment are created by trash which we can find everywhere. Basically, the creatures are small robots made of different electric and household appliances which combine and disguise themselves as trash so they can survive on the street. They can choose their own parts to adapt to the environment. For example, their hands can be made of suction cup to climb the wall or scissors to cut the grass on their way.

For the ice environment (Elien)

Living in an environment which is extremely cold asks for innovative ways to move. Several possibilities were explored:

Two irons form the base of this creature, like on a sledge. The tail enables the creature to move by flapping in and out.

This creature is living on the iceberg. It fastens itself to the surface by hammering or drilling his paws into the ice. He more or less crawls up to the iceberg.

On the ice it is hard to move around because of the extreme cold, sometimes bumpy surface. This animal has a heater in the bottom, which results in a smooth surface. The vans on the side of the animal can turn on and off, resulting in the animal moving in the opposite direction than the van.

This animal can live anywhere on the ice. It has paws with little flat surfaces at the end. The animal wets this part of the paw before putting it down. Then it will freeze onto the ice which will give him support to lift his other paws. Releasing the paws is made possible by shortly heating it.