IoT workshop

A workshop for MMA (MultiMediaArt) master students at the FH Salzburg – University of Applied sciences

I think it is very importand to make designers aware of what is possible with code and electronics. In this workshop I proposed them an approch to the Internet of Things (IoT).
Especially for interaction design, hardware prototypes are a great. To be able to connect your prototype to the web is even more exciting and useful.

To get started we run the Johnny five library on a Node.js server.
The next steps are to create a express instance to deliver a html page to the client and provide the Arduino data over a socket connection. On the webpage P5.js is used to visualize the sensor data.

In the example project both ways of communication are shown. Server->Client and Client->Server
The A2 analog pin is visualized as the radius of a simple circle.
The click event on the webpage triggers the pin nr13 (onboard LED).

You can download the example project here.
To get it up and running run “npm install” and node “index.js” on your console/terminal.

Have fun changing the radius of the circle with with any analog sensor on pin A2.
You can use light-, bend-, vibration-, distance-, force- or even gas sensors. feel free to experiment.
Steer the LED on pin 13 by clicking on the webpage.

For example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

– IoT Slides
–Node.js
–Express.js
–Johnny five
–socket.io
–P5.js
–Thingspeak API

–workshop by Sayanee Basu
–Understanding Socket.IO with socket.io