This week I focused on fixing bugs with the system interconnects, designing and running the user validation tests, and implementing a more improved MIDI system. There were some subtle synchronization issues with the serial connections that only made themselves apparent under our final integrated system, so I had to work to eliminate those. The main issue was that in some cases the incoming data from the Jetson was not being read as fast as it needed to be, and so I had to block in certain parts of the Due code to ensure that all data was consumed at a sufficient rate.
I also worked with Tomas and Kevin to flesh out our procedure for the user validation tests and helped run the tests. What was most interesting about this was hearing how fun our product was to use. I was expecting it to have more issues that prevented the experience from being fluid at this stage, but it actually worked surprisingly well and we got lots of good feedback.
Finally, we decided to implement a more thorough, expansive, and granular MIDI setup. Kevin had the idea that an actual producer might want the ability to treat each object as a separate instrument that has its own set of parameters. So for example, a jar of mayo would output three different MIDI signals for each of its rotational axes than a coffee cup would. Along these lines, we wanted to implement a way to automatically switch MIDI tracks within the Ableton software just by picking up these objects. I’ve spent most of the week implementing this system and debugging it. It largely works and I can generate the granular MIDI signals, but I’m still facing some issues with the track switching logic. I initially was using MIDI notes to trigger track switching, which caused issues if a note was played more than once on a separate MIDI controller. I think I may be able to fix this by switching to a CC signal instead, which I will test this week.
As of now I’m very on schedule. All of the baseline functionality works, and at this point all I need to do is finish working on these bonus features and prep for the demo on Friday.