Hypergesture – Work In Progress Report
Hypergesture is a kinetic sculpture exploring gestures of light and sound through robotics. I have chosen a mechanism originally from surgical robotics that constrains end effector movement to along the surface of a sphere. This mechanism only has two degrees of freedom so its movement is simple to model. I am interested in how expressive I can make its movement subject to these very tight constraints.
You can see a small-scale prototype with one axis of rotation in the images below. The motor is in the wooden base and the motion is transmitted through a series of pulleys and timing belts so the end effector is light and agile.
![](https://i2.wp.com/www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_9123NEW-scaled.jpg)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_9132-2-scaled.jpg)
I have started working on the next iteration which will have two degrees of freedom and be made mainly from aluminium extrusion and CNC milled aluminium channel.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_9178-1.jpg?resize=620%2C413)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_9151NEW.jpg?resize=333%2C498)
I ultimately want to create a frame with two robot arms constrained to move end effectors equipped with halogen bulbs around a single point in space. The arms will be programmed to weave around each other in close proximity, creating a robotic ballet in light and sound.
A realtime 3d rendering in Three.JS is available HERE that you can explore on your computer or mobile device.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/arms.png?resize=620%2C343)
The sound produced will be directly connected to the path of the robot arms and represents a path through a sonic space formed of different sound qualities. The position of each end effector can be described as latitude and longitude along the surface of a sphere. I have mapped the latitude and longitude of the end effector to X and Y in a 2 dimensional space that represents the sound qualities of different instruments.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/gridClear.jpg?resize=620%2C455)
Circle opacity is the volume of the sound.
Numbers in white are distance of each instrument from the effector.
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Hypergesture is an interesting development. Looks simple, but technically complex
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