MIDTERM PROJECT: IN-PROGRESS

FINDING NEMO -- Midterm Project 318: Physical Computing

Essentially, this project is a fish tank that has two different rows of different colored fish and each row will be doing something different. I will be using four servomotors and the use of LED’s.

Here are sketches of this mock up.

The first row of fish will be moving in a wave like motion. There will be two different motors on each side of the line of fish. They will be attached my fishing line making it really flexible and bendy.

The second row of fish will be moving up and down. There will also be two different motors on each side of the line of fish, as I intend of now. They will also be attached by fishing line. Here is where I plan on using the use of a gear to move the line up and down. I also am thinking about adding an interactive portion. Using a potentiometer the viewer will move the row up and down, that way the viewer can interact with the piece. 

The use of the LED’s will be the eyes of a crab. The crab will be on the ground and the eyes will fade in and out while the fish move.

I plan on making this fish tank out of foam core. Decorating it to look like a fish tank will be a creative challenge. Mirrors and bright colors will be used to look like underwater. Of course I can’t use real water but I plan to use a lot of blue. The fish will actually be light sponges all painted different colors. Of course one of the fish will look like Nemo, hence the title of the piece.

Here is a prototype so far. 

SUPPLIES TO GET:

foam core: fish tank

light sewing line: for connecting them

sponges: fish and crab