All Things Fabric: Testing, Printing, Pricing

Fabric Testing As outlined in ‘Face’ of the Quilt, I am testing fabric to see how it diffuses, affects affect, and obscures or reveals hardware. I quickly tested a broad array of swatches. Their textures included felt, mid-weight cotton, a polyester-stretch…

Following the previous two blog posts where I looked at a few topic modeling interfaces, I’ll return to the lab here and write about TOME. These are based on image documentation of the project – not actual interaction with the…

InPhO Topic Explorer

This interface works in terms of visualizing a topic modeling and understanding context. However, less effort has gone into the visual and interaction design than in the last interface discussed, which makes for a steeper learning curve. Starting Interface The…

Topics in PLMA interface

To start thinking about how we might design an interface to act with topic modeling results, it’s worth looking at existing interfaces and what they do well or don’t do well. This interface by Andrew Goldstone allows for browsing topic…

In this post: What is a topic model? UX considerations Existing techniques This will be the first post in a series of posts as we begin a new project on exploring topic modeling for the digital humanities, following the previous…

The 'Face' of the Quilt: Fabric and Light Diffusion

Per the admittedly true cliché, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. We are reimagining the original look and feel of the 1800s quilt in modern fabrics and designs. In taking this route, we need to ensure…

Neoprene Stencil v2.0

One of the aspects of this project is to cut out 900 different 1 inch x 1 inch squares out of a neoprene sheet. The centers of these squares have to be spaced apart by exactly 3.333 cm vertically and horizontally…

LED Wiring

The LED strip has three inputs: +5V, Gnd, and data input. The data input has to come from one end of the strip, indicated by the arrows. The power for the strip can come from any end. The +5V needs…

Taking Membrane Switches to Scale: First Steps

Recently my lab mate and I were fantasizing about theoryland. It’s this magical place where you go up to a whiteboard and, using your extensive domain knowledge, allow ephemeral non-toxic marker to create your dream system. But no Expo could…

Prototyping Membrane Switches

Membrane switches are very simple. Physically, there are no “fancy” materials involved. It’s easy to see why they have been on our microwaves allowing us to accidentally burn PopSecret for many years and counting. With only the following materials I was…