Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
32 Ferrofluid Lava Lamp
Hanyao Zhang
Ting-Wei Hsu
Zhiyuan Yao
Luke Wendt design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
other0.pdf
presentation0.pptx
proposal0.pdf
video
video
Our project consists of creating a decoration similar in concept to a typical lava lamp, but using ferrofluid and magnetism instead of wax and heat. We would also like to allow the user a good degree of interactivity with the display.

The design is as follows:
A ferrofluid will first be mixed into a liquid of similar density. This will then be placed into a glass cylinder, at the top and bottom of which will be electromagnets. This will be used to control the upwards and downwards flow of the ferrofluid.
Our design will also have electromagnets that can be made to move vertically up and down the "lamp." We propose three separate magnets situated around the central cylinder in equal increments, each in its own separate, and smaller cylinder.
These can be made to pulsate, which we expect can be used to either split the liquid apart should it turn into a single ball (turning all 3 on simultaneously and briefly) or induce circular motion of the ferrofluid.

The plan is to allow the user to specify the speed at which the main electromagnets (ones on top and bottom) move the liquid up and down, as well as the movement and on/off operation of the three vertical magnets (interestingly, the user could have the 3 magnets do completely different things... the result of which we are yet unable to visualize).

To achieve the vertical movement of the three outer magnets, motors will be incorporated into our design.

As an aside, we realize that the three outer magnets can be used to achieve upwards and downwards movement. In this way, our design is somewhat redundant. However, we also want to allow the user the option to simply have the fluid drift upwards and downwards, without any horizontal interference.

Drum Tutor Lite

Zhen Qin, Yuanheng Yan, Xun Yu

Drum Tutor Lite

Featured Project

Team: Yuanheng Yan, Zhen Qin, Xun Yu

Vision: Rhythm games such as guitar hero are much easier than playing the actual drums. We want to make a drum tutor that makes playing drums as easy as guitar hero. The player is not required to read a sheet music.

Description: We will build a drum add-on that will tutor people how to play the drums. We will make a panel for visual queue of the drum and beats in a form similar to guitar hero game. The panel can be a N*10 (N varying with the drum kit) led bar array. Each horizontal bar will be a beat and each horizontal line above the bottom line will represent the upcoming beats.

There will be sensors on each drum that will fire when the drum heads is hit. The drums will be affixed with ring of light that provides the timing and accuracy of the player according to the sensors.

Of course with a flip of a switch, the drum could be a simple light up drum: when the player hits the drum, that particular drum will light up giving cool effects.

The system will be on a microprocessor. Or for more versatile uses, it could be connected to the computer. And a app will be written for the tutor.

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