Arduino + Processing
Tool | Laser Cutter, Acrylic Sheet
Team | Leanne Carroll, Chiching Tsai
Material | Pressure Sensor, Arduino UNO, resisters
Challenge - Serial Communication
Construct one example of communicating between the Arduino and Processing.
Arduino Circuit
We tried to build a circuit with three pressure sensors to and connect them to processing. If you look closely to the right image, you can see the use of sockets for the sensors on the breadboard to prevent unstable circuit connection!


How we became a true maker
Most exciting, this time, we planned to make a box to cover the circuits by ourselves! The Visual Future Lab (VFL) which is a wonderful workspace for makers, in SVA basically has everything we need. Therefore, we booked a consultation and the laser-cutting machine as the video below.
We used “Plastick Acrylic Solvent Cement” to stick the acrylic sheet together. The tricky part was using a syringe to suck cement from the bottle and ejected the clue to the acrylic surface!
The Graphic in Processing
So different sensors has their respective patterns shown on the screen, also, the pattern could be combined and displayed simultaneously. The diameter of ellipse or rect could be changed by the pressure data dent from Arduino.
Pressure Sensor 1
Combo 1

Pressure Sensor 2
Combo 2
Pressure Sensor 3

Combo 3
Code Source
As usual, I uploaded my code as below. The right side is for reading signal from Arduino to connect processing. However, the left link is the processing code which is temporary inoperable online due to the reason it’s not connected to the Arduino and sensors. By clicking the </> you can still change to programming mode to view the code. Also, the bottom video is a short demo for how it works.
It is always a interesting experience of integrating different kinds of materials and technologies as well as working with people! After this project, my understanding of processing and serial communication has expanded and I am really looking forward to the midterm project! Stay tuned :)