Social Object : Final Thoughts / Reflections

I have learned a lot of things from the process of generating ideas, to building the project itself. In terms of theory, I now understand more Social Object. Social objects doesn’t mean that they need to be connected to each other ort to the users in the manner of Internet of Things (IOT), but social objects can also be an object that sparks conversation, engaging and connecting people. I also learned a lot on the subject that I have explored which is about the importance of communication and autonomous weapon system until the point that I can raise questions about them, as well as finding answers for the problem.

In term practical, I have learned so much about physical computing from the workshops where we learned how to use Arduino and Processing. The Processing & Math workshop by David really opened up my eyes on the possibilities of using Processing and it really helped me with my project. I’m not that good in programming/coding because I’m more of a designer than programmer/coder. But personally, I really think that as a designer, I need to at least know the process of how programming/coding works in order to design something. This is because I can design things with the possibilities and limitations in mind to make the life of the programmer and the people that I’m going to collaborate with in the future, much more easier.

There were a lot of problems that I have encountered (and some still haven’t been solved) during this project. Firstly it was about the toy gun that I have bought for the project where I totally damaged the mechanisms of the gun until it can’t shoot in semi auto mode because of my attempt to hack it so that it can be used with Arduino. I then bought a different model toy gun and found out the mechanisms are totally different and need to improvise to make it work with Arduino. I managed to hack and hot-wire the gun to be used with Arduino but because of the gun have two triggers, one for the flywheel and another one for the trigger to shoot, I still can’t make it shoot probably because of lack of power when using it in hot-wired mode. So far, the programming for the tracking part is working well but I still need to do some adjustments so that the gun will do the tracking smoother than it is now. The gun has been programmed to pan and tilt but because I have designed the base, based on the first gun (the damaged one), the new gun doesn’t have the capability to tilt (yet).

I didn’t have enough time to fix those things after we came back from Berlin because I had to work on my other project, which I have submitted last Monday (15 June). My plan was to start working on this project after the submission of the other project but both of our technicians, Tom and David are busy helping with the BA students’ final exhibition. I really need their help because I got some problems with the electronics and programming and Tom told me that he might be able to help me on Friday, which is the submission day. So I’m going to try my best to make my Social Gun to at least track on the pan mode and shoot before the submission on Friday late afternoon. If not, I will definitely make this project fully working after the submission because this is a great project and it is going to be a waste if I can’t get it working like I have planned.