Week 6 - Creative computing, Hacking: Arduino, sensors and the human body

This is the sixth week of Digital Practices.

This Week:

• Description:

I think it’s pretty interesting what we can do with technology. The lecture showcased creative ways we can use computing, such as for face tracking or Shazam to identify birds. Creating them can have an impact on the world such as for human health. At the same time a lot of work has to be done, for example a health device might output different results depending on a person (race, background etc). We’ll be learning to do creative hacking in the lab sessions which is something I have never done before so I am excited to do it.

• Reflection:

We used arduino devices to measure the temperature. We worked in pairs which I think really helped. It involved some coding as well as manually tinkering with the arduino board by adding the LEDs and the part which measures temperature. After doing this we found out that the temperature in the room was about 20 degrees or so as some of the LEDs were blinking, we also used the on screen graphs to check. I was able to increase and decrease the temperature by pressing on the temperature monitor. I think doing this task was interesting and important especially if we needed to measure the temperature from one place to another.

• Work to be done for next week:

Nothing, this task was complete.

Overall Thoughts:

I thought it was interesting trying out the arduino. Coding is not something I am really into but once I get stuck into it then it can be really interesting. Maybe, I could do something like this again in the future.