Week 7
What have we worked on this week
We have set-up the laser cutter!
This week, we divided the team into 2 groups: ones figuring out the laser cutter set-up and ones implementing the prototypes to be tested in this weekend. Meanwhile, Regis started reading books about designing for children. He is working on redesigning the application.
Prototypes
Atulit has worked on getting the set operations with basic geometric shapes (i.e. punching in/out) up and running on canvas and dragging/dropping basic shapes on canvas. Here (link to be added) is the simple application for these properties.
Akshaya has worked on modifying a shape using control points using canvas at first and then she switched to fabric.js. Here (link to be added) is the simple application for these properties.
Dilara has worked on freehand drawing on fabric.js. Here (link to be added) is this prototype where the console output is the svg data file output to be sent to the laser cutter for vector cutting.
Laser Cutter Setup
While the programmers were working on the prototypes, Sahana and Sangyun tried to set-up the laser cutter and test it. They worked on installing the laser cutter on the first floor outside room, setting up the laser cutter and purchasing materials in order to do so.
What have we learned this week
Design-wise, we learned about design goals for different ages. Regis read about other case studies in children’s design.
As fresh HTML5 developers, this week the programmers mostly learnedabout the canvas element in HTML5 and practiced JavaScript. We played with several JS libraries and decided to go with Fabric.js at least for now.
On laser cutter side,
- We learned how to setup a laser cutter.
- The laser cutter can actually engrave cardboard.
- The process of setting up the laser cutter can be rather delicate.
- As the auto-focus feature is missing in the laser cutter that we are working with, we have a lot of manual adjustments that need to be done according to the thickness of the materials.
What were the challenges we faced
Programming-wise:
- Due to lack of proper tutorials/ documentation most of the time is spent on researching the library itself. Also moving the shape after modification in Akshaya’s prototype is a challenge as if we group them it cannot be modified further. She has managed to implement a temporary fix which will not work if there are multiple instances of the same shape. ( for example if someone wanted to add 3 squares on the same canvas)
- Finding out how to implement the particular feature (set operations) by understanding the canvas element was a challenge. Fortunately, Atulit overcome these challenges.
- As the laser cutter can only cut vector graphics, we had long discussions about using HTML5’s canvas vs. some other platform. We then found fabric.js which has an SVG-parser.
Laser cutter Setup-wise:
- First was how to deal with the issue of focusing the red laser to the point when the invisible laser meets the material. This point of focus of the red laser varies depending on the thickness of the material that needs to be cut. The red laser emitter needs to be manually adjusted depending on the thickness of material we need to cut.
- Second was figuring out how to properly align the mirrors in the laser cutter which would fix the problem of uneven cutting and engraving on the material. Sahana found a video that clarifies some questions on dealing with this issue.
- Lastly minor issues in settings up the machine. (i.e. it was hard to connect the tube of the water pump to the the laser cutter because of the fact that the size of the tube was not big enough when compared to the size of the connector from the laser cutter) Sangyun found a solution for this: he brought heat-sensitive shrunk rubber tube that shrinks when it is heated. We used this rubber tube between the tube of the water pump and the connector from the laser cutter and as a result water is now circulating properly for cooling.
Play-testing time!
On Sunday, after team breakfast, we will be heading to the museum to test the applications described above.
Next Week!
- According to the play-test results and observations, we will start working on the interface design and art assets.
- We will try to elaborate the good features and implement more to test.
- We will do Fine-tuning to finalize the set up of the laser machine.