Inspiration
We were inspired by this story of the Netherlands (http://themobilecity.nl/2011/07/03/how-to-design-better-cities-with-urban-interventions-and-computer-code/) to create an art installation for a park that encourages community members to interact both with the art and with each other. Following the theme of both the city and the environment, we also want to empower park maintainers to be able to show how parks contribute to the city.
What it does
Thus the sensors that produce the art also collect data regarding temperature differences between the park and the weather station. They also collect information about daily visitors (and doggos!) to assist planning for maintenance of the facilities. The installation dynamically generates a display based on the weather, the time of day, the time of the year, local events, and visitor check-ins via instagram.
How we built it
We built the module in three parts. The first part is the arduino prototype device that gathers button presses for humans and their canine companions when entering the park. It also collects temperature data. That (ought to) write out to a text file that can be accessed via remote server.
The second part is a series of turtle-generated graphics that are the primary theme for the art installation.
The third part is a flask web app which gathers information from disparate sources (Instagram and weather apis, server time, and the arduino) and produces a visual output that is responsive.
Challenges we ran into
Getting the arduino to print to a workable area was our primary source of frustration. It was difficult to have produced so much, and struggle simply with the communication between devices. This could be solved with another day by switching to a different board or system (perhaps a raspberry pi with an sd card and wifi access), or with some rest from a challenge producing burnout.
Deploying to production was very important to us as a team to feel validation. We had some frustration with unhelpful error messages (thanks passenger!) late last night and this morning. However, we managed to push through this one!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The bulletin board was a late game idea we had when putting the pieces together. That being said, it fit right in with our priorities of encouraging community interaction.
What we learned
Take a break from the hard parts earlier in the process. This is how we deploy flask on a vps with passenger!
What's next for smart-park
Smart-park is designed to be adaptive to a larger vision. It should be a part of a sculptural artwork that fits appropriately into a park. It should be reusable without being cookie-cutter.
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