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Projects
Category Archives: Projects

Lichts aus, LEDs an
Gestern hat das Projekt Sentient Light einen wichtigen Meilenstein erreicht – die erste Seite der Baumsäule erstrahlt in rund 600 LEDs.
Aber der Reihe nach: Unter Federführung von Matthias hat das Elektronik Team die Stromversorgung einer Seite des Baums fertiggestellt. Um die 5m langen LED Streifen kontinuierlich mit der benötigten Spannung von 5 Volt zu versorgen, kommen auf jeder der vier Seiten der Säule zwei DC-DC-Wandler zum Einsatz. Diese wandeln die 12 Volt, welche das Netzteil bereitstellt, in 5 Volt um. Die LED Streifen besitzen jeweils vier Einspeispunkte, welche mit 5 Volt versorgt werden.
Bevor die DC-DC-Wandler an der Säule angebracht werden konnten, wurden sie in flammenhämmenden Aufputzdosen platziert und mit Kabeln für Ein- und Ausgänge versehen. Die Kabelstränge wurden anschließend an der Säule hochgeführt und in teils luftigen Höhen an die DC-DC-Wandler gelötet.
Dank der Unterstützung der Baumhaus Crew bestehend aus Simon, Max und Ule konnten wir die erste Baumseite tatsächlich kurz vor Mitternacht zum Leuchten bringen. Bevor der Baum in vollem Glanz erstrahlen kann folgen im Laufe der nächsten Woche die restlichen drei Seiten.

Sentient Light Vision
Sentient Light is a generic system which reactively controls LEDs. Using parameters from the surroundings, such as the presence and motion of people moving in the space, the system can change the color and intensity of light installations throughout the room. This makes the room is ‘intelligent’ in the sense that it can react to the behaviour of people in the space. We hope is that this technology can be used passively and actively by visitors to inspire more sentient and emergent behaviour.
The project is currently being realized in Baumhaus Berlin. Das Baumhaus is a project and event space in Berlin Wedding where people can meet, collaborate and work on social and ecological projects and other topics related to sustainable development and making the world a better place in general. Baumhaus also offers services from a sustainable solutions collective of over 100 interdisciplinary freelancers.
Project goals
The aim of the project is the conception and realization of a reactive light installation which can be used inside Das Baumhaus Berlin. This includes design, manufacturing and firmware coding.
Dataflow
The general idea is to measure environmental parameters using sensors and to transfer measured values to a central processing device. There all the values will be aggregated and transformed by a mapping engine.
Transformed values in turn will be sent to actors which will use them as input values.
Bluetooth Smart
Sensors, actors and the processing device communicate via radio signals using Bluetooth Smart and span a network of things. It features a simple protocol stack and low energy consumption and is supported by most smartphones and tablets.

Sentient Light wins VDI competition “Mensch und Technik” VDI
Like the year before the Association of German Engineers (VDI) called for participation of engineering students from Berlin an Brandenburg on challenge Mensch und Technik (people and technology). Until 30 September 2016 teams of up to three students could hand in a poster and a brief description of a project having a strong connection to both people and technology.
Mid November VDI announced that our team is invited to the award ceremony – yeah! On 25 November the award ceremony took place at Ludwig Erhard Haus near Berlin Zoologischer Garten.
At the beginning of the event the most successful graduates of technical classes in Berlin and Brandenburg were honored. Speakers of the VDI emphasized the challenges to address and solve challenges of the modern and connected city. Presindet of Technische Hochschule Brandenburg (University of Applied Sciences) – Prof. Dr. Wieneke-Toutaoui – also outlined today’s possibilities as an engineering stundent to make the world a better place. In this context she also mentioned the increased but nonetheless low amount of female students in engineering.
Other speakers appealed to the students’ entrepreneurial spirit. One quote by Reid Hoffman stayed in memory
„If you are not embarassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched to late.“
– Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn
After that the top three award-winning teams were announced. At this point we did not yet not know which place we would be.
In reverse order the teams were asked to come on stage: third place went to a team of two students who made use of an Aldebaran Nao robot in order to translate spoken language into sign language. The second price went to one student who developed a technique to reduce airplane noise by using liners.
And the winner is…
Sentient Light could convince the jury and was awarded with the first price. None of us expected this kind of success. Even more we are all happy receiving this appreciation for our work.
In a brief speech Prof. Hausburg summed up the project as the integration of a technical solution in a social environment which directly reflects people’s dynamics and interactions.
Finally all the three teams had the opportunity to present their concepts and posters in details and were able to answer questions. The increased interest in our project motivated us to present the different aspects in more detail. Part one: the project vision.
(Deutsch) Eclipse zur nRF51822-Entwicklung Setting up Eclipse to develop for the nRF51822
(Deutsch) ICprog debuggt nRF51822 ICprog debugs nRF51822

(Deutsch) In-Circuit’s ICprog JTAG-Adapter ausprobiert Testing In-Circuit's ICprog JTAG-Adapter
Wunderbar light/proximity module Hands on
Today we took a look on relayr’s Wunderbar especially on the light/proximity module. Using a simple Android app we were able to transfer detected colors to the smartphone and to display them on the screen.
(Deutsch) Wir wollen eine WunderBar!
Installation manual Fdroid
The Lymbo App is not available in the Google Play Store. It can be installed and updated using Fdroid. Fdroid is an alternative Android app platform which exclusively contains free and open source software.
Where to get Fdroid?
In order to install Fdroid on your Android phone you need to allow installation from sources other than Google Play in your phone’s security settings.
The Fdroid app get retrieved for free from https://f-droid.org. By executing the downloaded apk file you start the installation of Fdroid.
How to get Interoberlin apps?
After Fdroid is installed on your phone you have to add the Interoberlin repository to the package sources list. You can do so by navigating to the menü “Manage package sources”. Tap on the + button to add an adress of a new source.
In this case you have to type https://fdroid.interoberlin.de/release/repo. After that you need to activate the source and load the new information by clicking on the refresh button.
In Fdroid’s main screen you should now see all the apps made by Interoberlin. By clicking on the Lymbo app icon you will see details about the app. You can start the installation by clicking on the + button.