I´m born into a house with no computer

1. Working with processing network: one client and server exchange colors. On mousePressed nodes sends a color to the other node. When a node receives a msg - color it pulses and change it's current color.

2. Messages are separated from the visual node itself. Each color is a button that when pressed sends it's color to the other node. The nodes are represented by an input and output areas. When a node receives a color message it changes it's input area/zone according with the color that is send.

An interest in studying networks and communications processes. How can a network of physical devices can be a starting point of a study in how networks are organized and in how communication between those devices can be build up and improved.

The starting point of this project was to understand how this processes evolve and how they could function when some part of the process are omit or not so clear. How can in a mess or a broken process, organization and communication can emerge? How do we react if we feel that we don't have control or any feedback given by the system?

In the context of this class, besides implementing the physical network and setting up the devices I pretend to write an application that function as a study or simulation of how the network could function.

Technology:
Using processing and the Network Library, the application simulates the physical network.

The physical network consists on multiple nodes that are able to receive and send messages - voice messages. Each device has a microphone( send - output and a speaker ( receive - input ).
The rules that defines the communication between devices is that:
- Each node can send a message at will.
- The device can only send a message to one of the devices that are active (on the network), and from that devices it excludes the device that had previously send a message to this device.

When define and build the simulation I start having some problems in relation with setting up a network under the nyu domain and in figuring out how to send sound over a computer network. To simplify, I decided that instead of sending sound I should instead send data that the nodes can send - color.

In conclusion, the simulation will consist on setting up a physical network where each computer is a node( client program) in the network that "talks" with other nodes via a server ( another program) that "observe" and visualize the activity on the network.

Each node can send ( at free will - free speech) one from five colors that are available. It can send how many messages it want but it has to follow one rule: if it receive as an input message a specific color it has to send that color back to the network.

The colors work as a metaphor for messages ( voice messages). Each color "means" a common message. When one device receive for example a blue and responds with a blue, it means that it is responding to that message, to the context of that message.
The idea is to see - having the server as the observer - how long it takes to get all nodes sending the same color over and over.

This is the first step of trying to make a working prototype but my final aim is to put this network working with sound - input from the computer microphone. After trying to solve the initial problem I found that if the computers connected via a LAN using a router they can also shared a folder where the sound files are stored and could be access by all nodes. Maybe it will not be so real-time as I wished but it's a solution.

RumblePhones consist of a pair of noise canceling -20 Db ear protecting headphones, two microphones, two vibration motors, an amplification circuit, and an Arduino Microcontroller. The microphones, mounted on the headphones themselves, will pick up sounds from the surrounding environment, and feed this data, after amplification, to the Arduino as an analog value. This value will be used to control the speed of two vibrating motors, mounted in the cups of the headphones themselves. This process translates the sounds of the surrounding environment into vibrations felt on the ear of the user.

After putting the device's headphones on, the user will be invited to walk around the area the project is displayed, experiencing the sounds of their environment as vibration. A potentiometer on the RumblePhones will allow the user to adjust their sensitivity, allowing the translation of sound to vibration to be clear even in a loud environment.

The Parabolic Hand Mics consist of two small, directional, parabolic mics, to be placed in the users hands. The output from these microphones will be run through two sensitive amplification circuits, each with an independent volume adjustment, and then fed to a pair of headphones. The mic held in the left hand will be tied to the left channel of the headphones, and the one in the right hand to the right channel. The mics will, in a sense, become the users "ears", and moving them about will alter what they hear, and the direction that they hear from. This experience should be evocative of how animals that can move their ear cups, such as cats or rabbits, perceive sound.

A set of devices designed to change the way the user perceives sonic environments.

Devices for Altering Aural Perception consist on a group of devices that are designed to change the way the user perceives sonic environments and the city. This project aims to be an exploration/research in human perception, specifically in the way that we perceive the sonic environments that surround us on a daily basis. How could that perception be augmented or translated to offer us a different experience/sense "of reality". What if we could experience the city from a (non-human) animal perspective? What do they experience? Can we experience/sense the city as they do?

keywords: senses, sound, perception, synaesthesia, physical computing, animals vs humans

Motivation: This project comes from a shared interest in the differences between human and animal perception, synaesthetic experiences, and sound. We aimed to create simple, discreet, and wearable devices capable of allowing the user to reexamine and explore everyday acoustic environments in new and interesting ways.

User Scenario: After putting on the devices, and adjusting their sensitivity, users will be encouraged to explore the sonic environment that surrounds them.