Interactive Solar Particle

I’m really interested in interactive art and design. I am also highly interested in space, astrology, particles, energy, metaphysics, etc. So, I decided to base my project around “energy” and being able to sense it while also seeing it physically on display.

Tutorials used:

Arduino Piezo Buzzer Tutorial – The Geek Pub

Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04 and Arduino – Complete Guide (howtomechatronics.com)

Arduino LED – Complete Tutorial – The Robotics Back-End (roboticsbackend.com)

How to get the sensor data from Arduino to TouchDesigner – TD Tutorial 4 – AllTouchDesigner (alltd.org)

Initially I was going to use Processing for the interactive part, but I stumbled upon a program called TouchDesigner and fell in love with it. The first step I did was get the LED working. I used the schematic below and the Arduino LED tutorial

I then used the Piezo Buzzer tutorial and combined the LED with the piezo buzzer. I used the schematics below.

I combined the Ultrasonic sensor with everything by using the Ultrasonic sensor tutorial. My schematics and picture are shown below.

I then connected everything to TouchDesigner with the help of the TouchDesigner/Arduino tutorial above. One thing I did struggle with is the fact that once it reached a certain distance and the buzzer rang/led blinked the circle would pause in movement because the loop had to complete before moving on. So even if I moved my hand closer after the buzzer goes off, the sphere’s movement would not catch up until the song was over. I have added a video below.

 #include "pitches.h"
// ULTRASONIC SENSOR, LED, BUZZER
int TRIG = 3;
int ECHO = 2;
int DURATION;
int DISTANCE;
int LED = 4;
int BUZZER = 5;

 // notes in the melody:
int melody[] = {
  NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5,
  NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5,
  NOTE_E5, NOTE_G5, NOTE_C5, NOTE_D5,
  NOTE_E5,
  NOTE_F5, NOTE_F5, NOTE_F5, NOTE_F5,
  NOTE_F5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_E5,
  NOTE_E5, NOTE_D5, NOTE_D5, NOTE_E5,
  NOTE_D5, NOTE_G5
};

// note durations: 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, etc, also called tempo:
int noteDurations[] = {
  8, 8, 4,
  8, 8, 4,
  8, 8, 8, 8,
  2,
  8, 8, 8, 8,
  8, 8, 8, 16, 16,
  8, 8, 8, 8,
  4, 4
};
 
void setup() {  
 
  // ULTRASONIC SENSOR & LED
  pinMode(TRIG, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ECHO, INPUT);
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
 
  // SERIAL
  Serial.begin(9600);
  
}
 
 
void loop() {
  //generate 1 millisecond pulse to TRIG pin 
  digitalWrite(TRIG,HIGH);
  delay(1);
  digitalWrite(TRIG,LOW);
  
  //measure duration of pulse from ECHO pin
  DURATION = pulseIn(ECHO,HIGH);
  //calculate the distance
  DISTANCE = DURATION / 58.2;

  if(DISTANCE > 0 && DISTANCE < 50 ){
    if(DISTANCE < 10){
      digitalWrite(LED, HIGH); //turn on LED
      buzzer(); //play a song
    }
    else {
      digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
    }
  Serial.println(DISTANCE);
  delay(100);

  }
}

  void buzzer() {
  // iterate over the notes of the melody:
  int size = sizeof(noteDurations) / sizeof(int);

  for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < size; thisNote++) {
    // to calculate the note duration, take one second divided by the note type.
    //e.g. quarter note = 1000 / 4, eighth note = 1000/8, etc.
    int noteDuration = 1000 / noteDurations[thisNote];
    tone(BUZZER, melody[thisNote], noteDuration);

    // to distinguish the notes, set a minimum time between them.
    // the note's duration + 30% seems to work well:
    int pauseBetweenNotes = noteDuration * 1.30;
    delay(pauseBetweenNotes);
    // stop the tone playing:
    noTone(BUZZER);
  }
  
}

/*************************************************
 * Public Constants
 *************************************************/

#define NOTE_B0  31
#define NOTE_C1  33
#define NOTE_CS1 35
#define NOTE_D1  37
#define NOTE_DS1 39
#define NOTE_E1  41
#define NOTE_F1  44
#define NOTE_FS1 46
#define NOTE_G1  49
#define NOTE_GS1 52
#define NOTE_A1  55
#define NOTE_AS1 58
#define NOTE_B1  62
#define NOTE_C2  65
#define NOTE_CS2 69
#define NOTE_D2  73
#define NOTE_DS2 78
#define NOTE_E2  82
#define NOTE_F2  87
#define NOTE_FS2 93
#define NOTE_G2  98
#define NOTE_GS2 104
#define NOTE_A2  110
#define NOTE_AS2 117
#define NOTE_B2  123
#define NOTE_C3  131
#define NOTE_CS3 139
#define NOTE_D3  147
#define NOTE_DS3 156
#define NOTE_E3  165
#define NOTE_F3  175
#define NOTE_FS3 185
#define NOTE_G3  196
#define NOTE_GS3 208
#define NOTE_A3  220
#define NOTE_AS3 233
#define NOTE_B3  247
#define NOTE_C4  262
#define NOTE_CS4 277
#define NOTE_D4  294
#define NOTE_DS4 311
#define NOTE_E4  330
#define NOTE_F4  349
#define NOTE_FS4 370
#define NOTE_G4  392
#define NOTE_GS4 415
#define NOTE_A4  440
#define NOTE_AS4 466
#define NOTE_B4  494
#define NOTE_C5  523
#define NOTE_CS5 554
#define NOTE_D5  587
#define NOTE_DS5 622
#define NOTE_E5  659
#define NOTE_F5  698
#define NOTE_FS5 740
#define NOTE_G5  784
#define NOTE_GS5 831
#define NOTE_A5  880
#define NOTE_AS5 932
#define NOTE_B5  988
#define NOTE_C6  1047
#define NOTE_CS6 1109
#define NOTE_D6  1175
#define NOTE_DS6 1245
#define NOTE_E6  1319
#define NOTE_F6  1397
#define NOTE_FS6 1480
#define NOTE_G6  1568
#define NOTE_GS6 1661
#define NOTE_A6  1760
#define NOTE_AS6 1865
#define NOTE_B6  1976
#define NOTE_C7  2093
#define NOTE_CS7 2217
#define NOTE_D7  2349
#define NOTE_DS7 2489
#define NOTE_E7  2637
#define NOTE_F7  2794
#define NOTE_FS7 2960
#define NOTE_G7  3136
#define NOTE_GS7 3322
#define NOTE_A7  3520
#define NOTE_AS7 3729
#define NOTE_B7  3951
#define NOTE_C8  4186
#define NOTE_CS8 4435
#define NOTE_D8  4699
#define NOTE_DS8 4978