Week 9
Kate's Physical Computing Journal
Some Thoughts on the 9th week of Physical Computing....
I wonder why physical computing or physical computing like classes are not more prevalent in other schools. It is such an interesting way to do things. I feel like coming to this program has given me new questions to ask. It's nice to be unknowledgable about a subject again. I like that I have to learn whatever it is I want to do. It gives me a lot of freedom that I wouldn't have if I was already set into one way of thinking. Still it is time consuming....that's the biggest complaint.
Our Tech Presentation--my part
We have our tech presentation next week so I am just going to put that in place of my normal technology reading. Our research started with the "Objective Individual Combat Weapon". This is a weapon that the U.S. military is developing (along with many other technologically advanced weapons). Most of the information is on the website I made so I will leave the specifics to that. What I would like to write about is the role of the military in technology. With this gun they say that the point is to lower the number of causilties of American soldiers. What is really happening is that they will be able to kill a larger number of people and may or may not lower their own causilities. Have we come to the point where we believe anything is ok as long as we are able to say that we won? Instead of spending the money to develop these weapons couldn't we spend that money to improve relations. I just have a hard time reading and learning about how the military justifys their "killing machines". It is scary.
I can't figure out hyperterminal. I used the following code but could not get it to work correctly.
dim inputBuffer(1 To 13) As
Byte '4-byte output buffer.
dim outputBuffer(1 To 10) As Byte '1-byte output buffer.
dim thisByte as byte
dim inByte as byte
dim gotaByte as boolean
sub main ()
call delay(0.5) ' start program with a half-second delay
' define which pins COM3 will be:
call defineCom3(11,12,bx1000_1000)
' set aside memory for input and output:
call openQueue(inputBuffer, 13)
call openQueue(outputBuffer, 10)
' open COM3:
call openCom(3, 9600, inputBuffer, outputBuffer)
do
' read the switch, convert it to a readable ASCII value:
thisByte = getPin(13) + 48
' send it out the serial port:
call putQueue(OutputBuffer, thisByte, 1)
loop
end sub
I'm still confused as to what this is actually supposed to do. All I know is that I need to figure this out before next week when we have to work with director.
using video and director...what sensor, do what
want to start working with robotics