Transcribe is a speculative project that recreates plant movements in different weather conditions, spotlighting the often-overlooked phenomena of wind and sunlight. By merging nature and technology, it highlights subtle yet impactful environmental behaviors.
Year- Spring 2024
Role- Individual work
Skills- Hardware Prototyping, Blender 3d modelling, Arduino based physical computation, API configuration, p5js for screen interface, interaction design
The robot is designed to replicate the movements of a plant using a series of servo motors to act as joints or as one would say branching of plants. Each joint is controlled by a servo motor, allowing for precise movement. The leaf is replicated through the opening and closing of wings, which are also controlled by the servo motors.
User Interaction: It begins in the p5.js environment, where users click a “speak” button and request weather information for a specific city via voice. The speech is converted to text using a voice recognition API.
Geocoding: The city name is sent to the Open-Cage Geocoding API, which converts it into geographic coordinates.
Data Retrieval: These coordinates query the OpenWeather API, retrieving details like weather conditions, wind speed, and local time.
Data Processing: Algorithms process the weather data to determine robot movements that simulate plant responses, such as swaying in wind or adjusting leaves for sunlight.
Arduino Control: The processed data is sent to an Arduino microcontroller via the p5.js serial library, which controls servo motors to mimic plant-like motions.
Visualization: Real-time visualizations display the robot’s adaptive movements, allowing users to observe plant-inspired reactions to changing environmental conditions.
