Designing toolkits for prototyping funnel
Shigeru Kobayashi (IAMAS)
Ubiquitous Content Symposium 2009 (February 27th, 2009) Photo credit: ICC

Designing toolkits
• Gainer (2005~)
• Funnel (2007~)

Motivation (as an engineer)
• “SketchingDifficult to implement neweasy as
in hardware” was not so
software: ideas
in the late stages of development
• Difficult to evaluate “new” ideas using past
(old) experiences
• Lack of common language between
designers and engineers

Motivation (at IAMAS)
• Concept driven developmentnotnot so easy
is
for average students who do have
concrete ideas
• “Build to think”skills are requiredgood,
method sounds
but substantial
• Difficult to teach programming for
micro-controllers in C or assembly
(easy to get frustrated)

Encounters with Physical Computing
• Encountered in 2004 Computing”
“Physical
via the book
• The teaching methods described seemed
very good for teaching
• Then designed toolkits,booksworkshops,
held
and wrote articles and

Background of Gainer
• Started in 2005 (before Arduino era)
• Let’s develop a toolkit that we want,
by ourselves
• Keep as simple as possible, so minimized
the functions to an I/O module

What is Gainer?
• A toolkit consisting of open source
hardware and software
• Hardware: I/O module with USB I/F
• Software libraries
• ActionScript 2/3
• Processing
• Max/MSP

Gainer I/O module
Photo: Shunsuke Takawo

Workshop example
• Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media
• 2 days (2007.12.21-22)
• 19 participants
• Gainer I/O + Funnel + Processing

Lecture
Photo credit: YCAM

Practical training
Photo credit: YCAM

Idea sketches
Photo credit: YCAM

Hardware sketching
Photo credit: YCAM

Hardware sketching
Photo credit: YCAM

Presentation
Photo credit: YCAM

Presentation
Photo credit: YCAM

GAINER

GAINER: Tutorial

GAINER: Cookbook

GAINER: Works

Gainer as an O.S. Hardware
• Gainer I/O module v1.0
• Original version
• PSoC based

Gainer as an O.S. Hardware
• Gainer PSoC development board
• Designed by SparkFun Electronics
• PSoC based
• v1.3, v1.4 and v1.7

Gainer as an O.S. Hardware
• Ginger/Pepper/Sugar
• Designed by Morecat Lab
• AVR based

Gainer as an O.S. Hardware
• Gainer mini
• Designed by RT
• PIC based

Gainer as an O.S. Software
• .NET
• Perl
• Puredata
• Python
• Ruby
• Squeak
• vvvv

Recent activities at IAMAS
• Adopted of media arts to expression
tried and tested
methods interaction
design
• Will be yetinanother application for
industries addition to interactive
advertisements
• Developing a new design method for
physical interaction design: Gangu project

Processes of designing toys
• Research existing electric toys (many)
• Drawing idea sketches (many)
• Evaluate ideas andstudent
pick one for each
• Dirty prototype
• Hardware sketching
• Making prototypes
• Exhibiting
• Reflection

Toy example: Mountain Guitar
• Design: Junichi Kanebako
• A toy like musical interface - professional
guitar sound
• Gainer I/O (special model) + Max/MSP

Toy example: Jamming Gear
• Design: So Kanno and Kenichiro Saigo
• A Tangible interface for visualizing
digital music
• Sketch: Gainer I/O + Max/MSP
• Prototype: FIO + Bluetooth + Max/MSP

Motivation to Funnel
• An I/O module doesn’ttoolkitsall user needs
cover
and changing between is expensive
• For beginners, it is numerous sensorsreal-
difficult to handle
world inputs from
• Wired connection narrows ideas during
“sketching in hardware” stage

Background of Funnel
• Initially planned as “Gainer v2.0”
• Started in 2007: Arduino was commonly
available and widely used
• We usually used both Gainer and Arduino
• Don’t develop a newabout end users!
toolkit just for
differentiation: think
• How about “interconnecting” existing
toolkits?

Bill Buxton’s “design funnel”
• Sketching User Experiences (2007)
We extended to physical prototypes: “prototyping funnel”

Efforts in the classroom
Sketching Prototyping
Toolkit Gainer Gainer or Arduino
Connection wired wired, wireless or stand-alone
Programming PC only PC and/or microcontroller
Material cardboard, clay or styrofoam wood and/or 3D printing
Wiring breadboard soldering

What is Funnel?
• A toolkit to interconnect toolkits
• Covers from sketches to prototypes:
the prototyping funnel
• Intended designers/artists and engineers
to be a common language
between

Funnel features
• Translates “aprogramming language”
sensor language”
into “a GUI
• Various filters to handle inputs
• Scaler
• Divider (SetPoint)
• LPF, HPF etc.
• Oscillator
• A new I/O module based on Arduino

Interconnections via Funnel

Supported hardware
• Gainer I/O
• Arduino and compatibles (via Firmata v2)
• XBee (IEEE 802.15.4 or ZigBee)
• FIO (Funnel I/O)

Supported languages
• Processing
• ActionScript 3
• Ruby

Event detection (without Funnel)
var threshold:Number = 0.5;
var hysteresis:Number = 0.1;
var lastState:int = 0;
function loop():void {
var state:int = -1;
if (io.analogInput(0).value < (threshold - hysteresis)) {
state = 0;
} else ((io.analogInput(0).value > (threshold + hysteresis))) {
state = 1;
} else {
state = lastState;
}
if (lastState == 0 && state == 1) {
// on rising edge, do something
}
lastState = state;
}

Event detection (with Funnel)
Just add a filter
var threshold:Number = 0.5;
var hysteresis:Number = 0.1;
io.analogInput(0).filters = [new SetPoint([threshold, hysteresis])];
io.analogInput(0).addEventListener(PinEvent:RISING_EDGE, onRisingEdge);
function onRisingEdge(e:PinEvent):void {
// do something
}

Using a digital compass (with Funnel)
var fio:Fio;
var compass:HMC6352;
var clockHand:Shape;
function setup():void {
fio = new Fio([1], Fio.FIRMATA);
compass = new HMC6352(fio.ioModule(1));
...
}
Just add a sensor
function loop():void {
clockHand.rotation = compass.heading;
}

FIO as an O. S. Hardware
• FIO v1.0 (July, 2008)
• Original demo design
• 2 AAA rechargeable batteries

FIO as an O. S. Hardware
• FIO v1.3 (December, 2008)
• Designed with SparkFun Electronics
• A LiPo rechargeable battery

FIO as an O. S. Hardware
• Funnel IO remixed (January, 2009)
• Designed by Seeed Studio
• Just one month after FIO v1.3!

FIO as an O. S. Hardware
• Funnel IO remixed (January, 2009)
• Designed by Seeed Studio
• Just one month after FIO v1.3!

Future plans
• Add featureswhile keeping things simple
to handle real-world
applications,
• Optimize performance
• Support real embedded platforms
• Beagle Board
• Android
• Collaborate with additional toolkits!
• Write articles and books...

Designing toolkits for prototyping funnel
Shigeru Kobayashi (IAMAS)
Ubiquitous Content Symposium 2009 (February 27th, 2009) Photo credit: ICC