Let It Play - Nature is an orchestra, 2017

Hanami or the bloom of cherry blossoms in Japan in spring is an interesting event when the city is at its most beautiful look. Bloomy cherry trees with beautiful white and pink blossoms all over them, and many wondering in the air, and a beautiful and atmospheric walk provides special and stunning views for people. Japanese cherry blossoms were an inspiration for us to design an interactive product named " Let It Play" . The music notes are metaphors of cherry blossoms which plays in random melodies by trees and make visionary and romantic atmosphere for people to enjoy their moments alongside nature and trees. When wind blows or tree branches shake by natural factors, people can hear a melody from a random combination of notes in a particular scale (Pentatonic scale for instance). by any change in wind direction and intensity and obviously in branches’ movements orders, infinite ear-catching and pleasant melodies will play.

In the heart of “Let it Play” is an electrical board which is suggested to play the sound caused by the wind. This board consists of 5 main parts: the Microcontroller ,the Sensor,the Player,the Power Supply and a power storage. The brain of this board is the microcontroller, it gathers data from sensor, it analyses data and finally sends a command to the player module to play the expected sound. An Arduino microcontroller (AVR based) is in use. The sensor is suggested to senses the motion caused by winds, a 3-axis gyroscope sensor, being so accurate lets us sense the motion in expected threshold. One of the most challenges that “Let it play” encountered was power supply. While it was not recommended to use a wired system to supply the modules. To solve this problem, flexible solar cells, as a new technology, are the best solution which are used in this project. There is also a power storage module that reserves energy in day light and supplies enough power for nightly function.

In the prototyping stage, we redesigned and reconsidered the internal layout based on our electronics parts. Due to our limited equipment for soldering and attaching the parts for making the proper network and unsuitability of them for precise and detailed processes we had to 3d print the body in a scale of 1.3. We also provided an alternative power supply as we didn't have access to the targeted solar cell. We finally made it and could make a practical prototype of "Let it play".