Project
# | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
60 | Pin Art Image Generator |
Joshua Sanchez Justin Zhong Raymundo Vargas |
Ali Kourani | other1.pdf presentation1.pdf proposal1.pdf |
|
# RFA UPDATE 3 ## Team Members: Raymundo Vargas rvarga2 Justin Zhong czhong20 Joshua Sanchez jsanch84 ## Problem: “Pin art” style artistic pieces are a unique and interesting style of art. Many different types of art pieces require significant amounts of time and effort on the part of the artists to become familiar with some electrical and mechanical engineering concepts well out of their scope of knowledge if they want to create pieces that are not two dimensional and static. Rather than spend time considering what they want the art to represent and what style of materials they think best embodies that, artists must commit themselves to spending many hours overcoming this barrier to entry to the art style. ## Solution: We propose a general-purpose pin-art machine that uses an image-analysis unit to take any image data file, analyze the contours of that image after grayscaling it, and create a physical “pin art” representation where we move pins at a lower resolution to create an art piece of the image. This will essentially create an isometric representation of any image, which should help artists focus less on the process of creating a general contour, and instead focus on developing a material and color aesthetic for the piece. ## Solution Components: ### Subsystem 1 Power: We plan on connecting our product to a regular 120V outlet There will be a regulator to make sure the pin pusher and the pin pusher mover have sufficient power. ### Subsystem 2 Pin Art Grid We need a 2D array of pins, which will lay on its side (pins being horizontal to the floor). Each pin should be less than ¼ inches in diameter and be evenly spread apart from each other in a grid like pattern. It should be like this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHKQEzVy3Ro&t=91s&ab_channel=TheQ](url). At least 10 X 10, ideally 70 x 70 pins. We will have 1 pin pusher (pushes a square of pins) which will move in a 2D array to displace all the pins to their respective heights. To move the pin pusher it will use a threaded stepper motor like that in this video at 4:30 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSuzXK-uvY8&t=272s&ab_channel=MakersMashup](url) to move the pin pusher in the Z direction and another stepper motor attached to a belt like in this video at 6:10 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgbjTq3Q-bI&ab_channel=MakersMashup](url) to move in the Y direction. The pin pusher will be on this 2D mover using linear rails and bearings as shown in the last video at 5:00. The pin pusher will be a linear actuator with a square attached to the end which will push a square group of pins to the desired displacement which is given from subsystem 3. ### Subsystem 3 Image conversion: This subsystem should take in an image of at least one file type (PNG) and set dimensions (100 x 100), convert that image to grayscale, split up the image into smaller squares which correspond to the coordinates on the 2D array of the Pin Art Grid, come up with the average greyness from those pixels in that square, assign each square’s greyness to a displacement value (white meaning max displacement and black meaning no displacement), and send that info to the Pin Art Grid subsystem to tell the pin pusher how much to displace each group of pins at each coordinate point. ## Criteria for Success: ### High Level: Given a digital image, our generator should be able to make a physical contour display of that image using pin art push pins. ### Lower Level: Take in an image Convert that image to grayscale Split up the image into smaller squares which correspond to the coordinates on the 2D array of the Pin Art Grid Come up with the average greyness from those pixels in that square Assign each square’s greyness to a displacement value (white meaning max displacement and black meaning no displacement) Move the pin pusher in the Z and Y directions to get behind the corresponding coordinates from the picture Push the square group of pins to the assigned displacement for each coordinate to finally produce a contour of the image |