A physical interface for a digital city
This project came to being through my vision of merging the physical with the digital and my interest in architecture and urban planning. I wondered; what if designing a city could be as easy as moving blocks around. That is what Cityscapes is. By placing labeled blocks on a grid, you can design and redesign cities within minutes.
Technical explanation
The functionality of this prototype rests on the recognization of different resistors. Every block contains a resistor that is unique to the related buildings (such as ‘School’). Below every square of the grid are two wires. When a block is placed, the loop closes and current can run through it. The Teensy measures the resistance on each square, which is then translated into the corresponding buildings. This information is used by a Processing program that loads the correct 3D modeled objects into the virtual city.
Software: Arduino IDE, Processing, Blender
Hardware: Teensy 3.2, jumper wires, resistors
Project information
Project: TU/e Industrial Design, Creative Programming
Date: 10-2019
Development time: 2 weeks
Media features: https://hackaday.com/2019/11/12/ https://www.hackster.io/news/cityscape-lets-you-quickly-build-a-virtual-metropolis-using-physical-blocks-87053e85c054