Difference between revisions of "Team:NYU Shanghai/Design"

Revision as of 23:48, 7 September 2015

Project
- Design
- Parts
- Code
- Judging
Team
Outreach
Notebook

There are three main components to the music generator: (1) bacteria colonies (2) tube rack (3) button control. We engineered bacteria to express different colors and lights through chromoproteins, fluorescent proteins, luciferase, and oscillating amounts of luciferase. We then translated bacterial colonies on a plate into a step sequencer, which creates patterned expressions of sound. The tube rack and button control add extra layers of interaction and control, making the user the coolest DJ ever.

Overview

We've created an interactive beat generating machine.

The tube rack generates the background beat. Tubes contain bioluminescent bacteria, and each color corresponds to a different bass sound. Sound is read left to right.

Bacterial colonies are translated into a step sequencer. Bacteria express fluorescent or chromoproteins. Different colors correspond to different instruments.

Button control allows the user to control each sound layer.

Analyzes tube positions

Step Sequencer

How did we make the step sequencer?

Make bacteria plate
With bacteria expressing chromoproteins or fluorescent proteins. All parts taken from the Registry. See constructs here. See protocols here.
Take picture
Using a webcam. Import the picture into the laptop and the Processing environment.
Processing
Processing is a coding language and environment that allows us to translate data from an image into binary data. Blob detection is an open-source code that allows us to detect areas of high contrast (bacterial colonies). We obtain the RGB value of the blobs detected, and convert the positions into a 16X16 grid. Click here to see our code.
Sound mapping
Each position on the grid is mapped to a different note. Each row is the same note. Notes increase by half-steps in the column.
Music

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

Tube Rack

How did we make the tube rack?

Laser cut tube rack
Using a laser cutter, we created a custom tube rack. 8 slots allow our system to run on 4/4 time.
Fill tubes with bioluminescent bacteria
Using luciferase generators from the registry, we created red, green, orange, and yellow colored bacteria. See constructs here. See protocols here.
Take picture
Using a webcam. Import the picture into the laptop and the Processing environment.
Processing
Processing is a coding language and environment that allows us to identify the RGB value of a specific position and correlate that value with a drum sound. Click here to see our code.
Beats

Boots and cats and boots and cats.

Button Control

How did we make the button control?

Obtain equipment
We used equipment from the awesome company DFRobot. An Arduino board allows us to take the data from physical interaction (i.e pushing a button) into commands such as adding a sound layer or decreasing the volume.
Create code

Click here to see the code.

@@ Line 250: / Line 250: @@
        document.getElementById("step1").style.color = "#6db";
        document.getElementById("step1").className = "expanded";
+      if (document.getElementsByClassName("collapsing").length > 0) {
+        document.getElementsByClassName("collapsing")[0].className = "collapsed";
+      };
      };
    }
@@ Line 259: / Line 262: @@
        document.getElementById("step2").style.color = "#6db";
        document.getElementById("step2").className = "expanded";
+      if (document.getElementsByClassName("collapsing").length > 0) {
+        document.getElementsByClassName("collapsing")[0].className = "collapsed";
+      };
      };
    }
@@ Line 268: / Line 274: @@
        document.getElementById("step3").style.color = "#6db";
        document.getElementById("step3").className = "expanded";
+      if (document.getElementsByClassName("collapsing").length > 0) {
+        document.getElementsByClassName("collapsing")[0].className = "collapsed";
+      };
      };
    }