Imprimador: the Music Printer

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The following is a short summary of the project. Please see the full write up on group member Leah Meyerholtz's website (http://www.leahmeyerholtz.com/imprimador.php)

Our final report can be read here (http://leahmeyerholtz.com/images/portfolio/imprimador/finalReport.pdf)

Imprimador is a multidisciplinary semester-long research project for INFO 4320: Intro to Rapid Prototyping and Physical Computing taught by Francois Guimbretiere at Cornell University in Spring 2014. The goal was an interactive prototype building on course tools including microcontroller basics, digital and analog sensing, control of machine action, and digital communication. The project was sponsored by Bits On Our Minds, a showcase for digital technology held at Cornell every spring. My team members were Leah Meyerholtz, an urban planning student, and Sean Aguiar, a mechanical engineering student.

We created an interactive system that paints music. The machine receives a single-channel musical input like a person singing or playing an instrument. Imprimador paints the received in the color mapped to those notes in real time. We aimed to create a fun, synesthetic new way to experience music.

We went through several stages, including ideation and then research about other projects that used sound input and/or color output. We then went through processes of concept development before building a prototype and iterating several times.

One initial sketch of how the final product might look

Our expected output. Each line of paint represents a different note of music, while the horizontal axis represents time or length of notes

Lo-fidelity prototype that worked as a proof of concept. Here we are able to take sound input and actuate a can of spray paint given a certain frequency.

Our final product consisted of 3 main components: audio dection and processing, a painting device, and a paper device.

Audio detection was done using an Arduino UNO and microphone, modifying code developed by Amanda Ghassei. We were able to detect which frequencies were recorded, and then based on the frequency, directed a color to be sprayed.

For paint, we mixed water and tempura paints and used pressurizing cannisters to spray them. These spray cans were actuated by servos controlled by the Arduino UNO. We built a frame using laser cut acrylic, metal rail, and many zip ties to hold the spray cans.

The paper was unrolled using a motor, laser cut acrylic gears, and a dowel, and controlled using an Arduino FIO. The paper would unroll underneath the paint cans, which would spray onto the paper as various sound frequencies were picked up.