Overview
A large portion of the year was spent working at an XR production company while finishing up my degree in Arts and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas. For the first semester of my final year, I worked as an IT support specialist. In the second half of the year, I moved into a design role where I could apply my formal education.
Motion Machine
I designed and built the Motion Machine for the World of Circuits exhibit that now sits in the recently renovated Engineering Hall at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Users are able to parametrically design recursive patterns through a simple to use touch screen interface while the machine plots their pattern in real-time.
Once the Motion Machine prototype was complete and a programmer had been brought on to build out the firmware, I was re-tasked with designing a dome of light for a mobile walk-in photogrammetry booth.
Photogrammetry Lighting Dome
Additional light was needed to improve the scan and stitch quality of the booth’s software pipeline. Coworkers had previously determined the amount of lux needed to hit targeted scan quality by using stage lighting on C-Stands. With a deadline two months out, I planned to spend half that time iterating prototypes and the second half building the final design. However, the scanner’s event timeline was accelerated, leaving me with just enough time to build a single prototype with the few power tools I stored off campus in my grandfather’s garage. Thankfully, the struts, fasteners, and cabling fit in an over-sized duffel-bag. The light bulbs are placed in a separate hard-shell tote box for safe transport. The prototype has been setup and torn down a dozen times, transported around the country, and successfully lit thousands of people without any wear.
Pivoting Again (and Again)
After the prototype dome was successfully being deployed, I had to pivot back to building the final version of the Motion Machine. Several features had to be scrapped due to time lost working on the dome and vendor error, but I made sure producers were aware of this possibility when they first moved me onto the dome project. After several weeks, the Motion Machine was nearing it’s final version. If I didn’t drop everything outside of school, my Senior Capstone wouldn’t be complete in time.
BabFab 