Physical & Pervasive Interfaces Post 8. Creating the buttons.

I finally got a one on one with my lecturer on how to create buttons. It took me a little while to figure it out but now I not only know how to make a button but I also understand it. My lecturer showed me the materials I would need and also gave me a Makey Makey board, which is a small and simple circuit board that let's you easily connect your creations to your computer for you to either see if your creation works and also let's you play games using your creation. There are many different ways and variations to go about making a button but I will go through the process of the one I've created, which also seems to be the most DIY of them all.

First of all, you start with a sponge. Cut a square piece off roughly the size of the top of your finger. Then you cut a hole within the sponge. You then place a piece of tin foil on top and then on top of that, some double sided tape. Then you attach the Cat5e Network Cable on top of the tinfoil. Finally you put a piece of cardboard on top of the wire. You do the same on the other side of the sponge. Then you connect the opposite end of the wire into whatever key in the makey makey board that you wish the button to connect to. (Such as W,A,S,D, Space, etc.)

On my first attempt making all five buttons, I encountered a few issues, such as the buttons falling apart, the computer thinking I'm constantly hitting the spacebar as well as just not knwing where the second wire goes into the makey makey board.

In my next blog I will talk about the changes I made when creating the buttons as well as the reasons for all the pieces of the buttons.