What is Kinnect
Kinnect is a sculpture composed of two weights hanging from cables, with a system of gears and pulleys to move them up and down based on the number of ‘carpe’ and ‘helpme’ emails sent in real-time. The weights move up in proportion to the amount of carpe and helpme emails that are sent each day. At the end of the day, we reset our sculpture to zero, so that new accumulation can continue. (A demo video is available at the bottom of the home page.)
Kinnect aims to transform abstract data into visible and tangible kinetic sculptures. We aim to communicate campus data in a visually exciting and pleasing way to bring awareness to campus dynamic. We hope that Kinnect will serve as a versatile tool for everyone on campus to promote campus awareness on various issues and events.
Kinnect aims to transform abstract data into visible and tangible kinetic sculptures. We aim to communicate campus data in a visually exciting and pleasing way to bring awareness to campus dynamic. We hope that Kinnect will serve as a versatile tool for everyone on campus to promote campus awareness on various issues and events.
The Raspberry Pi receives data from the internet, which it then sends to Arduino. The Arduino uses the information from the Pi to control the motor, which moves for an amount in proportion to the numbers received by Arduino. The Motor drives the sculpture, which is the mechanical structure. The audience is then able to obtain information from the sculpture. The audience can also provide feedback to the team should they want to see new information displayed. The team can use the feedback to alter the code on the Pi and alter the representation of the sculpture.
Our Data
For our final iteration, we decided to use the number of all campus emails that a student would receive on a daily basis. Specifically, we chose to monitor carpe and helpme*, the two major mailing lists that Olin students subscribe to where most all campus mailing happens.
The data is reset daily and updated every (?) hour. The frequency of resetting and updating can be altered based on the data we follow.
However, we do not wish to stop here. We currently trace our data through a Gmail account at poe.kinnect@gmail.com, which is subscribed to carpe and helpme. With the Gmail API we use, we can create filters that track any mailing list and/or key words. We hope that our project can be utilized by anyone on campus, should they want to bring awareness using email data (and potentially other data as well). Please let us know with the form below in regard to what other emails you would like us to track.
*In general, a subscriber to carpe receives emails regarding official and unofficial student events and fun moments on campus. A subscriber to helpme receives emails regarding people in need of help, whether it be lost and found or borrowing items.
The data is reset daily and updated every (?) hour. The frequency of resetting and updating can be altered based on the data we follow.
However, we do not wish to stop here. We currently trace our data through a Gmail account at poe.kinnect@gmail.com, which is subscribed to carpe and helpme. With the Gmail API we use, we can create filters that track any mailing list and/or key words. We hope that our project can be utilized by anyone on campus, should they want to bring awareness using email data (and potentially other data as well). Please let us know with the form below in regard to what other emails you would like us to track.
*In general, a subscriber to carpe receives emails regarding official and unofficial student events and fun moments on campus. A subscriber to helpme receives emails regarding people in need of help, whether it be lost and found or borrowing items.
Inventory
