The Grubsters in the News

From the Deccan Chronicle article Puppetnama

Shreyas Raj, a student of puppetry says, “I went for a puppet show and that’s how I got interested in it. I’ve been learning rod and string puppetry for three years now.”
He adds, “I like puppetry because it’s a fascinating live medium for story-telling and it’s going to remain a passion for me.”
For design student Alannah D’Souza, puppetry is a brand new avenue. Alannah’s “Grub” is a set of four hungry monsters that exhibit instinctive behaviour when you play hunt and attack. Two are bigger glove puppets and two, smaller finger puppets which react when in contact with the bigger characters. Alannah explains, “One puppet vibrates and trembles in fear and the other lights up when it’s scared.” Though these are not part of a puppet theatre, they are built to be interactive.
However, the biggest innovation in puppetry would be that of the robotic arm created by Prof Dinesh NS, who teaches electronic design technology at IISc. Instead of manual manipulation of puppets, the puppets are controlled by a robotic arm programmed to imitate a puppeteer’s movements. Prof Dinesh is also one of the participants in the puppet festival to be held in May.

Grub at the Toy exhibit

'The night the toys came alive' was our exhibit at 1 Shanti Road, Bangalore. Students of the Srishti Toy Design Lab had 9 projects on display. Here are some pictures of the grubsters at the show

How to make Sew in Magnets

Found a nice link about how to stitch magnets to fabric from You sew, Girl. It can be done using fusing fabric. I wil try it soon and put up the results.

Colour Pallette and Swatches

Battery Pack

This a battery pack that has two 3V coin cells in it. The circuit gets enough power from this 6V supply. Anything over 5V will work. This is a much smaller and lighter than the bulky 9V battery i was using earlier. I made this battery pack by following the How to make a Battery Pack instructable online.
It works for a temporary fix but I think I'll solder wires on for the final use cause the wires keep shifting under the tape.

Random Behaviour

Im working on code that will make blobs behaviour unpredictable. So that every time it gets bitten it reacts differently. The code isn't finished yet but anyway.

ARDUINO CODE

// set pin numbers:
const int buttonPin = 7; // the number of the reedswitch pin
long randNumber;
//const int motorPin = 8; // the number oh the motor pin
// variables will change:
int buttonState = 0; // variable for reading the pushbutton status
int pin2 = 2;
int pin3 = 3;
int pin4 = 4;
int pin5 = 5;

int timer = 100;


void setup() {

// initialize the reedswitch pin as an input:
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);

// initialize the motor as as output
// pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);

// initialize the LED pin as an output:
pinMode(pin2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(pin3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(pin4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(pin5, OUTPUT);
randomSeed(analogRead(0));
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop(){
// read the state of the reedswitch value:
buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

// check if the reedswitch is pressed.
// if it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
if (buttonState == HIGH) {



// turn LED on:
randNumber = random(5);
delay(50);
Serial.println(randNumber); }


if ( randNumber==1){
digitalWrite(pin2,HIGH);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(pin4,HIGH);
delay(1000);}

else if ( randNumber==4){

digitalWrite(pin2, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin2, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin4, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin4, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin3, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin3, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin5, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin5, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin5, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin5, LOW);
delay(timer);


digitalWrite(pin2, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin2, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin4, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin4, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin3, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin3, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin5, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin5, LOW);
delay(timer);


digitalWrite(pin5, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin5, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin3, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin3, LOW);
delay(timer);

digitalWrite(pin4, HIGH);
delay(timer);
digitalWrite(pin4, LOW);
delay(timer);}



else if ( randNumber==2){
// i=0;
// turn LED off:
digitalWrite(pin2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(pin4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(pin3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(pin5, HIGH);}



else {
// turn motor off:
//digitalWrite(motorPin, LOW);

// turn LED off:
digitalWrite(pin2, LOW);
digitalWrite(pin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(pin3, LOW);
digitalWrite(pin5, LOW);
}}

The pains of PCB