Force Sensing Resistors

Force Sensing Resistors use the electrical property of resistance to measure the force (or pressure) applied to a sensor. A force sensing resistor is made up of two parts. The first is a resistive material applied to a film. The second is a set of digitating contacts applied to another film. The resistive material serves to make an electrical path between the two sets of conductors on the other film. When a force is applied to this sensor, a better connection is made between the contacts, hence the conductivity is increased. Mikael Fernstrom recommended these over Piezo, due to greater sensitivity.

WebRef: http://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/learning/tutorials/sensors/node8.html

Preliminary Thesis Timetable of events

27th of July
Final Draft to Supervisor with improvements incorporated. Demo.
+ .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) copy to Course Director (MF).

24th of August Final Thesis, 2 softbound copies to Course Director (MF).

3rd - 7th September Examination, Assessment. Presentations. External Examiners on
campus. Marking.

3rd - 7th September Exhibition open to the public

28th of September Improvements, as suggested by supervisors, incorporated. Submit
final dissertation, 1 hardbound copy + 1 electronic MS Word copy.
Copy of all software and media on CD/DVD.

3rd Week November: UL Winter Exam Board.

3rd Week December: UL Winter Conferring

Meeting with Mikael - June 23rd

Back from the Siena Design Project exhibition, distractions behind me, raring to go....I touched base with Mikael Fernstrom. Not much activity in recent weeks, what I had done was develop a clearer objective(or brief) for the thesis: 'An Exploration of ways in which Interactive Media Technology can enhance the capabilities of a Traditional Musical Instrument'. One thing Siena taught me is that clearly undertanding a project's objective and scope is very important. Also spoke to Fillippo Fano (contemporary muscian) about functionality suggestions.


Meeting with Mikael began with Mikael explaining the notion of resonators on a vibraphone; to create a much stronger standing wave and amplify the fundamental frequency of the sound produced. He also mentioned the presence of a rotating disk at the top of each resonator. As the disk rotates, a vibrato or wah wah effect is created.

He also mentioned using the 5 notes per octave rather than the traditional 12, as well as possibly having an option of playing a musical instrument in reverse.


He gave me a list of research material.
Bob Moog - dvd - "Moog" a documentary film by Hans Fjellstad.
Don Buchla i.e. Marimba Lumina
Joe Paridiso
Hiroshi Ishii
Tod Machover's 'Brain Opera'
'Gravichords, Whirlies, and Pyrophones - Experimental Musical Instruments' - Bart Hopkin
'Experimental Musical Instrument Journal' - Library

We then discussed technology - piezo sensors and fsrs force sensing resistors
Mikael recommended fsrs as they're more sensitive than piezos, and also connecting many arduinos to these, depending on how many inputs.

We also discussed alternative technologies such as touchscreen(Nora's project) or a novel projected QWERTY keyboard Mikael has in his office(limited). I said I like to understand how to use sensors and arduinos coupled with PD.


Mikael then explained to me how to simply connect fsrs or piezos to an arduino board (dont forget 10K resistors for each sensor!)


Goal for this week:
Compose sounds in PD.
Connect sensors to Arduino and output sounds through PD.

Note: Mikael is away in Canada til July 2nd.