AllOfUsNow

Very happy about the Party on the Edge, the turn out and the excitement over all of the projects. Just as a closing note, we're posting a link to Greg & my blog with a page about the robotic mind mapper and a few images of the prototyping process and from POTE last Thursday.

Enjoy!

allofusnow.com/brain-child

Explorations in Mind Mapping

Some more work this weeked. The wall is finished, and surprisingly, didn't rattle when the motors were attached! The little cubic artwork is controlled by the EEG input. As the user's attention increases (cooresponding primarily to stronger alpha and beta activity), the pen moves right, if it decreases, it moves left. Up and down movements depend on meditation values (theta-wave activity).

Here's a little video of James using the machine:

The final version draws in circular patterns, and there will be automatic limits so the robot doesn't run off the paper!

Purple Robot Blood

A few big hiccups have been tackled with the EEG-controlled drawing robot.

1.) We've built a wall! Greg had a good idea involving caster wheels, 80/20 and plywood. We have to make our own since we can't mount to the walls in the Cantor Center.

2.) Figured out a control scheme for the robot, which adjusts motor speed to get the pen to move as desired (and not along curves of the belt radii).

3.) Prototyped different drawing mediums.

This photo shows the wall half-built (on left), and the robot drawing on paper with charcoal. It drew a lot of stars before I fixed a bug to get it to draw circles...

4.) Prototyped painting methods, including paint markers and a syphoning IV of purple tempera paint. A tube carried paint from the suspended bottle to a hollow paintbrush at the robot end-effector (pen position).

5.) Made the robot move in spirals! This was getting to be quite a challenge, but I'm really happy we figured it out...

This image shows more progress on the wall, and the robot's IV drip.

Next, we have to figure out the best way to deal with the paint - getting the right viscosity to get the paint moving, but not make a watery colorful mess. Else, we'll settle for the paint pen with an actuator to keep it against the wall. The wall needs to be sanded, and the motors and electronics will be transfered to it. Most importantly, there will be integration of the brain control code with the spiral drawings.

Gia Đình Bùi: Mẹ và Con

Bùi Quang Nhat - Con cá
55cm x 46cm

Bùi Phan Thu - Mẹ
55cm x 46cm

Bùi Phan James - Con út
65cm x 54cm

Time Lapse of Final Painting

Here's a link to a time lapse of my final painting.

This is a piece of a man carrying a load of yogurt hanging from a bamboo stick (kind of like a primitive scale). I know it's hard to see, but I drew the pencil outline first. I am using colored pencils to finish it and hopefully it'll turn out well! I saw this man at the Boudhanath temple in Kathmandu and thought it would be interesting to show others.

Chang on Project Subject While in Papua

Change on Project Subject

I had thought the interactions between the doctors I was traveling with and the local patients would be the focus for my project, but after arriving, I was much more interested in just the subjects here. Every year the team is sent to Papua New Guinea to run clinic and educational curriculum with the local health workers then Dr. Murphy uses these experiences as insight when consulting with the government on PNG's national health plan. This year we were sent to Meline Bay to see what the best health care in the country is like. The doctors and staff that run the provincial hospital and rural health centers do a good job, despite the lack of supplies and facility.

I decided to focus on all of the people engaged in health care in Meline Bay rather than photographing the team at all. The patients, families, and doctors gave me a full picture of human disease and care in the province.

Patients

For thousands of years, people have been isolated because of rough terrain and impassible jungles. Throughout history, this helped over 800 languages develop in these isolated communities. In the modern day, rough terrain and lack of infrastructure continue to make getting around the country difficult. As a result many people get sick, then can not make it into the hospital until late presenting as much more complex cases.

Family

I was also interested in the wantans that make up Papua New Guinea's society. Wantans are extended family based on marriage and friendship that act as large extended families in Papuan culture connecting villages together. After getting to know the people around me, many of them told me about just how interconnected everyone was and after a quick look at the hospital verandas it is easy to see they are right. All of the patients here each have part of their family living with them until they get better. Family members have to travel long distances by foot, dingy, or public transport then camp out at the hospital and take care of their loved ones. They do not leave until the person they care for is treated. Throughout the stay the family members take turns caring for their patient, cook, clean, and do laundry. In ERs back home I see people come in a lot without a family member with them or the family member will leave for sometime. In PNG I felt the families were much more connected than back home. I decided to look at the family members that help care for their loved ones because they are an important component of the healing process for these patients.

Doctors

In the hospital and traveling to the rural health clinic I was able to observe and volunteer alongside some of the resident physicians. Despite lack of funding, poor facilities, and restricted lab testing, these doctors do so well. They rely on well-developed clinical skills and thorough reason to work through complex cases. Through nights out together getting dinner at the lodges, their houses, and our apartment I formed friendships with a few of these resident doctors. Besides being sociable and inviting, these people were just amazing. They completed an MD in a country that only graduates 60 students a year, some of them have started families, they all have a deep respect and care for their patients and each other, and all of them aspire to be leaders in directing the country's future health. I was grateful to get to know these people in the short time that I was there.

Facilities

The doctors did all of this with facilities in poor conditions and supplies sometimes short or nonexistent. The facilites contrasted with the beautiful landscape many of them were located in, especially the rural health outposts.

This is a preview of my second unfinished piece.

Nepal

So, this is the beginnings of a pencil drawing. I was in Patan Durbar Square, a historic section of Kathmandu, and there was this lady selling corn to feed the pigeons. I thought she represented the hard work people in Kathmandu put in to make a living. I will probably add colored pencil accents but otherwise it's going to be straight pencil. The picture isn't of the entire drawing, but I haven't reached that part yet.

Brain Child

A bit of Background

My arts grant project involves a large-scale brain-controlled drawing machine. I've made another brain-drawing machine, known as RedGreenBrain earlier this year. It was shown at CCRMA's Modulations and Maker Faire. Still need to compile all the video from those events, but it was a hit. The robot used EEG technology from Neurosky. A pen moved based on the user's attention and meditation levels, and the resulting patterns were very geometrici yet appeared to have a human touch.

Photo: The RedGreenBrain at Maker's Faire, May 2011, San Mateo, CA.

And Now...
The new Robotic MindMapper that I am working on will have a more challenging control scheme, and will move in spiraling patterns so long as the user concentrates. I acquired some 80/20, timing belts and pulleys for prototyping. Right now I'm trying to figure out if the motors from RGB can be used. It would have been easier to use steppers to position control the motors, but since I'm using timing belts and encoders, I thought maybe these big DC motors would have a smoother motion.

First, I mounted the motors to a wall, about 6ft apart and 7ft from the ground. The base in the center of the belts will soon house the drawing medium and a mechanism to keep it against the wall in drawing mode. It doesn't look like much yet, but with my supply of 80/20 and by ordering longer timing belts, the workspace is limitless.

It actually took me three days to debug this setup and get the motors to move as desired. I am using a motor driver (the Procyon v.1 by Pascal Stang). And unfortunately the documentation was wrong on the example pin outs! Luckily, I got it moving on an example loop. These videos show the range the can be accomplished, by driving the motors alone, together, and clockwise/counter-clockwise.

And Next...

Things that will get done this week:

1.) Talking to the POTE organizers and filling out display requirements. Will have to figure out if I should make a fake wall for the exhibit or some other way to mount the robot.

2.) Testing the motor motions with the encoders. Using the encoder to draw out a circle.

3.) Order longer belt material to reach more of the 6ft workspace if possible.

That's it for now!

Pre-trip Post

Woops

I forgot to post as I was working, so this will mostly be a recap of what I was doing Spring quarter / beginning of summer. I probably put this off too long. I am new to photography and decided to do this Arts Grant project because I have always wanted to give photography a try. I had worked with painting, drawing, design, video, ceramic, and sculpture before, but never tried photography seriously.

Project Description

I propose creating a photo essay that documents and explores the intimate moments of empathy, suffering, and care where traveling physician and patients briefly connect and change each other forever. This project is inspired by my experience in the International Humanitarianism in Surgery class, in which guest lecturers recounted moments of intense human connection with their under served patients. These physicians would travel to the far reaches of the world to deliver care to hundreds of patients in dire need. Even with modern training, many times these physicians were pitted against logistical, cultural, or time constraints preventing them from alleviating suffering of patients and their families.

I intend to create a photo essay to capture these humanizing moments of suffering, empathy, and care caused by the juxtaposition of wealthy modern medicine and impoverished patients. Through focusing on the experience of the traveling physician, I will capture these poignant moments that demonstrate the brief but intimate connections between the traveling physician and their patients. Conceptually I am interested in how these moments ablate cultural and socioeconomic divides between a physician and their patient, creating purely human experiences where patients and their physicians intimately connect and change each other forever through alleviation, appreciation, empathy or any other number of exchanged emotions facilitated through these moments.

I plan to approach this concept through a photo essay heavily influenced by “Country Doctor” of W. Eugene Smith. Using digital photography I will capture moments focused on the physician and the patient, family, and community entrusting him. Contrast, lighting, and depth of field will be key to highlight emotions of physician and patient captured with focus on the subjects’ faces and body language. I aim to capture these expressions in compositions endogenous of the poverty perpetuating this medical need but preventing its proper alleviation.

If this project is approved, I will be following Dr. Kao and Dr. Murphy on their trip to Meline Bay Papua New Guinea to educate community health workers of neighboring villages and run clinics at the request and under accommodations of Ambassador Paki. I will attempt to “fade into the wallpaper” as Smith says, to capture the moments mentioned above.

Information on W. Eugene Smith

Wikipedia Page and Magnum Photos Page

The two essays that most influenced me to attempt this project

Lambarene - Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Country Doctor

Equipment

For the project, I am borrowing a friend's Nikon D70S to take to Papua New Guinea with 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses. Using a 16GB card and backing up all photos onto my computer and external hard drive. Also bringing along three extra batteries.

Location

We will be visiting the hospital and rural health outposts of Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. We will be staying in Alotau.

Farmer's Market Practice - How to use a Nikon D70 with giant lens?

After playing around with the camera in the Cactus Garden, I tried to think of ideas of where to try out photographing people interacting with each other in a crowded environment, similar to what I might experience in clinic on the trip. So, I tried out the farmer's market on California st.

For my first try with the camera, I left it on Auto mode. My main goal was to just get comfortable photographing strangers going about their lives, which is a pretty odd thing to do if you have never tried. I took hundreds of pictures, then played around with cropping and straightening the photos for practice with composition. A few of my trials are below. I did not do editing with values, hues, or anything else, just tried to notice and capture interesting contrasts of values and hues as I found them. I will learn photoshop skills later.

Farmer's Market Round Two - Aperature Mode

The big 300mm lens is great at creating a depth of field when I'm shooting about 25 or more feet away. The manual scroll lets me adjust what is most in focus as I'm shooting so I can edit how much of a composition remains sharp, letting me layer planes to create depth, or flatten them. A small focus allows for sharp edges that contrast the rest of the frame and draw the viewer's attention to it. It is a pretty interesting feature to play around with.

After meeting up with an advisor he suggested that I put the camera to Aperture mode, allowing me to set the F-stop manually with the camera automatically adjusting shutter speed. Shooting with a small F-stop allows me to bring in a lot of light, after playing with a low F-stop I found that the pictures appeared softer and I was able to shoot multiples of the same subject to different values and shadow fills in situ rather than post with editing. Editing the F-stop as I'm shooting lets me reflect on the best setting to use in that situation and I don't have to use flash as much, which I found creates harsh shadows and a sharp white / blue color.

He also gave me a pointer to turn the grid on in the viewfinder so that I can better straighten and arrange the composition as I am taking the picture rather than post shooting. It helps me pay more attention to lines and movement in the composition as well. This is great because the camera only has so many megabits, so excessive cropping and enlargement makes the pictures not as sharp. Additionally, I have found that the grid and Aperture mode setting have made me much more aware of what I am trying to capture as I take the photographs so I am more able to reflect on what exactly I am trying to do as I am taking the photographs.

Thanks for checking out this post, I will put an update on what happened on the trip soon.