For the Diabetes Leadership Forum, hosted by Novo Nordisk 24 - 26 April, 2012, we created an Interactive Bike installation, placed in Copenhagen's Central Station as part of a Diabetes awareness event.
The scene was four bikes, where people would participate in a 3 minute, 2 kilometer race. For every race, the risk of Diabetes went down (as shown on a graph).
Participants received Diabetes information packages and had the chance to sample healthy food cooked by a local food celebrity Claus Holm from the morning show "Go’ Morgen Danmark", and get their blood tested and have a mini consultation with a nurse.
On the first day, cook Claus Holm counted 2750 visitors! We had a wonderful time with the highly energetic participants and staff.
What's under the hood?
We used Hall sensors to detect magnetic change and attached magnets to the pedals, then took all four bikes to a receiver box and output everything as data.
This data was taken by a Flash programmer (the fabulous Dennis) from Tekstur.dk and translated into moving graphics, care of ADtomic.dk.
Truly a team effort, we were all organized by Martin Ersted.
Apr 26, 2012
Interactive Bikes at the Diabetes awareness event
Apr 16, 2012
Kissing Veil
Kissing Veil, a set on Flickr.
At this rate, we're thinking about moving to Brazil, people seem to like interactive things there! The lovely folks who took our Bridal bouquet on tour in Brazil asked for a second round of bridal fun and after many ideas and brainstorming sessions, we came to a conclusion. Something for the bride, that stood out on the runway - so let us present to you, the Kissing Veil. As the bride and groom kiss, the veil lights up in a stunning display of fiber optics from Lumigram's fabrics.
A special thank you to Katrine Høvsgaard Nielsen, our 'fashion tech designer' who not only suggested the idea but also helped create to turn the shawl we bought from Lumigram into this beautiful veil.
The technology behind this project is essentially the same as the Touching Booth, when two people connect, they complete a circuit, and light up the veil.
We had to upgrade the Lumigram fabric, which came only with a regular white LED.(±15 lumens) Instead we pushed it to a 140 lumens super powered LED which really lights up veil, even in daylight.
The veil is currently on its way to Brazil so hopefully we'll have loads of photos and hopefully...video from the fashion shows and fairs!
Thank you lovely Yris for everything, we're happy to be working with you again.
Mar 16, 2012
Playing with Idemo Bits
Last week we held a workshop at RUC - Humtek and played with Idemolab, great times!
Via Flickr:
From IdemoLab, Delta
Feb 19, 2012
BYOB 2012
BYOB 2012, a set on Flickr.
As part of FOKUS 2012 - Video Art Festival we exhibited with BYOB - Bring Your Own Beamer and simplified the Touching Booth to a single touch=photo. Before it was touch = half a photo and then another touch = the rest of the photo. We thought the previous version was more interesting but also proved difficult for people to grasp in a few minutes so we simplified and let people touch the night away.
As an added bonus, we were able to see a live Performance of creating a synth on an overhead projector by http://www.loudobjects.com/ http://www.sciencefriction.dk/
We were invited to this event by Majken from Art Innovation Hub (artinnovation.org) thanks Majken!
Jan 16, 2012
Dzl gets an Evil Genius Lair
Dzl is always working on crazy experiments and inventions that often go unmentioned on this blog because they are not part of a complete project; however, with a background in basic research, it's this type of geekery that leads to amazing projects.
Currently, Dzl is exploring flying robotics and has produced a number of fantastic videos, a flickr stream, (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekphysical/sets/72157628440857877/) and is posting many times daily.
A great read for those interested in the behind the scenes look at what's going on in our geeky world.
Jan 10, 2012
Visiting Kennedy Space Center, a reflection from Dzl.
Going to a place like KSC truly is a pilgrimage for the modern technology worshipper. Even when arriving in the bay area you feel the present space vibe. Most people you casually talk to are happy enough to let the conversation drift towards space, rockets, launches and recently sadness that the ultimate spectacle of the shuttle launches are no more.
Everywhere you look in shops, in peoples homes in public buildings even at gas stations you find little reminders, in the form of pictures, posters and space merchandise, that you are truly at the place where it all happens. This is where man took charge of technology on the largest scale and build the most extreme machines ever conceived.
The visitor center is a typical sanitized experience consisting of the usual gift shops, fast food cafeterias and greasy exhibits. A few gems in the form of artifacts from the space program makes it worth going there but when you get to see the buildings and the installations, even at a distance, the real experience begins.
Everyone in the western world, with any interest for technology, have seen pictures of a space rocket. It has become a part of or consciousness. Many of us can even recite roughly how they work, what parts they consists of and what they do. What we fail to experience from pictures film and books are the scale of these projects.
When leaving the fairground of the visitors center and going onto 'The Cape' it becomes clear that these people mean buisness. First stop on the way the 'Apollo Building' houses the massive Saturn V rocket. There is really no way to describe how unrealistically huge this thing is. It is first when confronted with this machine that you can begin to comprehend the magnitude of the operation... I was in awe.
We went on a tour that took us to a place where we could observe Launch Complex 39 where both Apollo and the space shuttle was launched. Being on a hill around 3 kilometers away from the complex we were told that at that distance the sound level would kill you during a launch. Another pointer to how extreme this place was.
From LC-39 there leads a wide crawlerway (30 meter wide gravel track) to the VehicleAssemblyBuilding VAB. This building is normally closed to anyone that does not have a really good reason to be there. Lots of people that have worked at KSC for many many years has never set foot there. We were lucky to get inside.
The Saturn V rocket knocks your socks off just to look at but VAB is designed to have four of these being build inside. This building is the cathedral of space travel.
When approaching the VAB you can't see its size, you simply get blinded by its proportions. It takes a little time to adjust your brain to the scale but from the outside you never really get it. Inside it's a different matter. You get struck to the ground when you look up. In a cathedral special tricks has been used to make the halls seem bigger. The VAB is just pure pragmatic engineering and here you truly feel that this project is bigger than you.
Dec 1, 2011
100 Year Celebration at Denmark's Technical Museum
100 Year Celebration, a set on Flickr.
Denmark's Technical Museum, the home of beautiful planes, trains and automobiles, not to mention engines, bicycles,jets, tools and even our lovely Kraka Submarine created by Copenhagen Suborbitals, has just celebrated it's 100 year anniversary!
To celebrate they chose the theme of what's happened in the home in the past 100 years. GeekPhysical has been working with them from the onset of this project, beginning with a fun walkthrough Ikea to gain ideas on how the home is made up and thinking about how to create interactive experiences in each room, to brainstorming ideas for how people could interact, learn, and share experiences within the exhibit.
After a lot of idea generating, we were asked to create a 1960's bathroom - with a wayback mirror, a mirror that, when you walk into the bathroom, would reveal a person from the past, going about their morning ritual. We adapted the idea from the wildly popular "http://diymagicmirror.com/" (thank you for inspiration) and made up our own system using Open Frameworks and Arduino for input and output.
There were four characters:
Dad: Peter Madsen (of Copenhagen Suborbitals), shaving.
Mom: Miss Mia (of Miss Mia's Hula Hoop), putting in Carmen Curlers.
Son: Albert Møbius (age 11, son of Dzl), using hairdryer.
Daughter: Ina Viuff (age 12, daughter of Harald, part of illutron), using a tanning machine.
For each of the four characters they would go through a routine, one would come on screen, randomly once the mirror was activated. Let's say it was the mom. She'd say hello and ask you to pass her the curlers. If you pick up the curlers off the shelf and pass them to her, she takes them, and begins curling her hair. Once she's complete, she'll fade away and a new character will appear.
It was wonderful to see all the loyal patrons of the Tekniske Museum and to present our work there as a permanent exhibition. Thank you DTM for such a great experience!